Fork Union senior Szymon Rola had a splashing debut in the 2000 meter steeplechase in Friday night's portion of the Volunteer Track Classic at the University of Tennessee. Rola won the race in six seconds with a final time of 6:19.99. Rola's time is only five seconds off the national qualifying time in the event for Nike Outdoor Nationals, but the qualifying time is insignificant to Rola as both Fork Union teammate Axel Mostrag and Rola will be headed back home to Poland at the end of the May and jump into the track championship meet series there. Mostrag competes in the 3200 meter run later this evening with current state leader Peter Dorrell of Blacksburg (9:10 best), while Fork Union will be loading up their outstanding 4x800 meter relay on Saturday in Knoxville.
Meanwhile, the Fork Union boys did it again as they showed just as they did at Arcadia that they are more than just Axel Mostrag with a sub 10:20 DMR run without their 800 meter national champion runner. Not only were they competing in the distance medley relay without Mostrag, who was competing in the 3200 meter run later, but earlier 2K steeple and 4:20 miler Szymon Rola. Fork Union put up an impressive time regardless of whether if it was loaded or not in 10:36.09 to win by 18 seconds with the teammate of Jamie Reichlen, Jared Johnson, David Johnson, and Jeremy Haney. Colonial Forge was the second place team to allow Virginia to take the top two places as they went under 11 minutes at 10:53.75 and were anchored by Blake Arnold.
The Blacksburg girls put up a strong fight in the distance medley relay in a great race with the Mountain Brook girls from Alabama, but fell just short as a mere 19 hundredths of a second separated the two teams with Mountain Brook clocked at 12:33.32 for first and Blacksburg in a close second at 12:33.51. The relay team from Blacksburg consisted of Joanna Stevens, Avery Mattingly, Kathleen Stevens, and Cate Berenato. Their time is the second fastest recorded so far this season in Virginia behind Group AA cross country rival Brentsville at 12:32.11.
Virginia had two winners in Friday’s events with Atlee sophomore Emma Dejarnette in the girls’ pole vault and Fork Union senior Dominic Gregory in the boys’ triple jump. For Gregory, he matched his personal best in the triple jump with a mark of 45’0” to best the field at the University of Tennessee. Meanwhile, Dejarnette has continued with her great spring in the pole vault as she cleared a personal best height for the second consecutive invitational. Dejarnette had cleared 11’2” at the Colonial Relays to set a new meet record and went up four more inches on Friday night to clear 11’6”, which is a state best performance so far this outdoor season. Atlee also had the third place finisher in the boys’ pole vault with AAA state indoor runner-up Cameron Sovick clearing a height of 14 feet.
Three of the top five finishers in the girls’ 3200 meter run were from Virginia with Colonial Forge junior Kaylan Comer, Blacksburg junior Laurel MacMillan, and Blacksburg sophomore Allison Homer. Comer finished four seconds off of the race winner Haley Moody (11:05.97) from NTN regionally ranked Morristown West girls’ squad with a second place run of 11:09.27. Meanwhile, there were nearly three other Virginians under 11:20 in the race with MacMillan (3rd, 11:15.07), Homer (5th, 11:16.77), and J.J. Kelly senior Brittany Killough (8th, 11:20.82).
Footlocker South champion Ryan Hill of Hickory (NC) stopped any hopes for a Virginian to pick up a victory in the 3200 meter run as Hill as a decisive winner by eight seconds over Blacksburg junior Peter Dorrell in a meet record time of 9:10.73. Dorrell was just ahead of Tennessee’s top distance runner in Sean Keveren (3rd, 9:19.18) for runner-up honors in 9:18.29. Meanwhile, Axel Mostrag was mixing it up in the longer distances and placed fourth in the race with a time of 9:34.94.
The Fork Union boys dominated the 4x110 meter shuttle hurdle relay as they had three seconds on the competition with a final time of 1:04.99 as the team comprised of Neal Dodson, Brian Zitterkopf, Tienne Jefferson, and Andy Tembon.