.JPG)
Hannah Varnell (pictured left by John Herzog), a rising junior at Gloucester High School, claimed the national title in the intermediate girls' division of the 1500 meter run at the AAU National Junior Olympic Games in Tennessee. Varnell, who clocked a personal best for 800 meters by four seconds in a time of 2:14.94 in Tuesday's preliminaries, came back to continue her great week in Knoxville on Thursday with a national championship in a 1500 meter time of 4:45.16, which would convert to a 12 second improvement on her actual 1600 meter best of 5:18. Varnell had finished seventh in the 800 meter finals on Wednesday.
MileSplit Network's Results Page
AAA state indoor and outdoor high jump champion Chris Copeland of Lakeland had the second highest finisher so far among Virginia preps at the AAU Nationals in Wednesday's high jump competition for the young men division as he cleared 6'8" for runner-up place.
King's Fork will be returning an outstanding sprinter in Keith Ricks, who has put up some swift times this summer after his junior year including a 21.70 personal best clocking in the 200 meter dash in the semifinals of the young men, but his time was not enough to crack into the finals of the event.
Meanwhile, Dejor Simmons of Deep Creek, has moved onto the finals in both the 100 and 200 meter dash in the intermediate boys' division with times of 10.81 in the 100 and 21.91 in the 200 meter dashes respectively.
Marlena Wesh was just as impressive in her preliminary and semifinal rounds of the 100 and 200 meter dash as she clocked in at 24.29 to win her 200 semins, while she was just off her 11.91 personal best in the 100 meter dash semis at 11.93 to advance onto the finals. Wesh should be a contender in the finals of both events.
Isiah Gyasi, who will be headed off to work under the great sprint coach in Bill Carson at East Carolina next year, was able to just sneak into the finals of the young men's 100 meter dash with his 10.63 clocking in the semis as the final and eighth qualifier.
Kelvin Griffin, who had struggled at times this past spring for Western Branch including at the state championships in the jumps, finished off his summer on the right foot to transition into his junior year by leaping to a new personal best of 48'2" in the triple jump to take third place overall in the young men division. Griffin's mark is over a foot better than his previous best this outdoor season.