MileStat.com's 1st On-Site Meet Coverage...
2001 Fork Union Invitational!
2001 Meet Story & Photos - 2007 Meet Preview - 2007 Teams List
It is hard to believe that this year will be the tenth annual Fork Union Invitational. It seems like it was not too long ago that Fork Union coach Winston Brown was out making what would become the Hardy National 3 mile course at Fork Union after destroying several lawnmowers to clear way for a venue which would play host to some epic team and individual cross country battles. The Fork Union Invite has certainly played host to some of Virginia's finest during the past ten years. In 2001 and 2002, there was the thrilling duels of Kippy Keino and Alex Tatu with Keino picking up the big win over his rival in front of the home crowd. The 2005 Fork Union Invite assembled one of the most loaded girls fields in a regular season race with the likes of Aurora Scott, Catherine White, and Rachel Rose destroying the course record together. With 37 schools expected to be represented on Saturday, another early September weekend contest at FUMA expects to cap off ten years of memories and usher in another ten. The event is also a special one for MileStat.com to cover personally because it was the first meet that MileStat.com ever provided "on-site coverage" for back in 2001.
Some might wonder why I am not covering the Great Meadow Invitational this weekend with four Nike Team National Southeast ranked boys squads testing themselves early, the US #2 ranked Midlothian girls opening their invitational season, and plenty of the state's top individual runners competing. There is no doubt that Great Meadow appears to be the meet of the weekend and will certainly be well run by VHSL State Meet director Coach Davis. I will be at Great Meadow on October 6th for the Octoberfest Invite, but my loyalty on this weekend will always be reserved to Fork Union coach Winston Brown's meet in the heart of Central Virginia.
There are many reasons why I am loyal to covering this meet, but the biggest reason of all is because Coach Brown was the first to support me and this website that we all now rely on and visit frequently in MileStat.com. Before even my own high school coaches did, Coach Brown at Fork Union was the first coach to take my website seriously and the first to understand its importance and potential for the Virginia high school cross country and track community. It is tough for a grown adult to give that kind of faith and respect to a mere teenager as I was then, but Coach Brown obviously saw something in me and the website that overlooked my actual age (17 then). I honestly think he saw MileStat.com becoming as big as it has become well before even I did.
He gave me a place to stay to come up for the meet in his apartment, bought me dinner, and gave me free access to his fridge full of Coca-Cola's (for those that do not know...MileStat.com is virtually powered by Coca-Cola since I do not drink coffee to be able to work these crazy hours). His support of the website has never faltered since then and has only grown over the years from helping me host the first ever MileStat.com Cross Country Invitational at Hardy National back in 2001 to his continued vocal support of the website on his weekly radio show Track Talk. He encourages his listeners by supporting and subscribing to this website that they are also supporting this great sport we are passionate about. Taking care of each other who give to the sport seems to be his motto and I am very willing to return that support he has given me over years by covering another great Saturday in Fork Union.
Taking you back with 2001 Fork Union Invitational meet story and photos...
By MileStat.com Staff
Saturday, September 8, 2001
FORK UNION, VA -- Runners like North Stafford senior Kristyn Shiring and Fork Union junior Andrew "Kippy" Keino make cross country such a great spectator sport. They sure made all the spectators at the Fork Union Invitational mezmorized and enertained as they both ran magnificent races en route to jaw dropping, record breaking times.
Shiring has been on a roll as of late, after breaking 11 in the 3200 twice during the outdoor season, she has only improved as runner this cross country season. She started off her season in style as she improved her time by 50 seconds from last year's Chancellor Invitational to win this year's invitational last weekend in 19:46. She came into this weekend's Fork Union Invitational with high expectations having run a 19:21 on this same course last year. Well her expectations couldn't have possibly been as high as the outcome of her race.
Shiring setting the course record (then) in 18:10
Improving her time by 1 minute and 11 seconds from last year's race, Shiring crushed the course record by 24 seconds (set by Jeannie Addison of Thomas Jefferson/Governor's School last year) as she won the race in a time of 18:10! "I've never broken 19 before, so I was really happy about my race today," said the excited Shiring just gleaming with joy. She certaintly made sure she broke 19 as she ended up almost breaking 18 as well. It makes you wonder how well she is going to run once she gets someone to run with in a race this season. She took the lead 400 meters into the race and never looked back. She had opened up a huge lead by the mile mark as she hit that mark by 5:36. Going out fast didn't bother Shiring, she was focused and wanting to win. "I don't really concern myself with time and splits, I just concern myself with positioning."
For someone that is running so well and so fast as Shiring, you would expect her to have high hopes of winning a state title, but she just has one basic goal. "I just want to PR every time I race." At the rate she is improving, her goal of just finishing in the top 5 at the state meet is not only likely, but too easy of a goal. Why not want it all? Shiring certainly has the tools to win it all.
With all of the excitement centered around Shiring in the varsity girls race, Claire Whitenack of Albemarle's great race to finish second could be easily overlooked, but it will not be. Like Shiring did with the rest of the field, Whitenack separated herself from the rest of the lead pack early in the race and set her own pace throughout the race to run a sensational time of 18:50. For the second consecutive year, Whitenack earned runnerup honors, but ended up bettering her time by 15 seconds from last year's race.
The Paul VI girls dominated the meet and were impressive up front with Mary Hogan leading the way with her fourth place finishing time of 19:31. The team proceeded to place 2 more runners in the top 15 (Eleanor Boyce, 5th, 19:35 and Megan Fogarty, 13th, 20:30) for a team score of 103.
An eventual star in the making. Amanda Patterson, who went onto win several state titles in track at Midlothian, won the JV race at Fork Union as a freshmen at Clover Hill in 20:12.
A shocker out of the Central Region was the James River girls who beat some state ranked teams such as #3 ranked Douglas Freeman and #8 Brooke Point to finish second with a score of 133 points. A 26 second difference between the Lady Rapids #1 and #5 runners was a major factor in the team's success at the meet.
The heavily hyped up duel between juniors Alex Tatu of Thomas Dale and Kippy Keino in the varsity boys race looked to living up to its billing at the beginning stages of the race. The two runners shot out like a rocket from the start and it appeared to be a foot race. Tatu led for the first 800 meters. "I wanted to run a competitive race and at the 800 mark, I felt Tatu slowing down, so I took the lead," Keino explained. By that mark, the two were far ahead of the chase pack as they battled it out. Keino then took the lead and picked up the pace even more from an already quick pace as the two went through the mile mark at a blazing 4:30 first mile. By the time they had reached the crest of the course's only major hill called Jackson's Bluff, Keino had opened up a 10-15 second lead on Tatu. "I started to open up a lead on him in the woods and then built a bigger lead at the hill." Keino maintained this lead through the remainder of the race and gutted it up the last portion of the race to run a course record breaking time of 15:25 as Tatu followed in 15:37. "It was hard," said an exhausted Keino, "At the end, I was hurting."
Keino bringing home his first of two Fork Union XC Invite titles
By far, this was Keino's best race ever so far as a high schooler. He credits his improvement to his extensive base training over the summer in his native land of Kenya. "I'm feeling real strong. I got a strong base over the summer in Kenya. Much better than last year where I only ran 1 month during the summer. We'd run at least 10K a day over there. It was difficult when I came back from Kenya where I had gotten use to running at elevation and in the mornings to come here and run in the heat of the day, but I'm starting to get used to it."
Keino has some high aspirations for this season and this race just might be the breakthrough race "Kippy" needed. "I don't like to make guarantees, but I want to run well at the Foot Locker South Regional Meet and run sub 4:10 in the mile this year." Keino seems to be headed in the right direction as he continues to represent the Keino family name well.
The boys team race shaped up to be a battle with the top teams in the Central Region. With Maggie Walker, Hermitage, Clover Hill, Mills Godwin, and Douglas Freeman all present at the meet, it was figured to be a close team battle. However, with Godwin missing two of their runners due to sickness (including #2 runner Scott Kalafatis being stricken with mono) and Maggie Walker just being too deep for any squad, it continued to not be as close.
Winning by 18 points was the Maggie Walker squad who happen to be ranked #7 in the state of Virginia. The team was able to put 3 guys in the top 15 with senior John Piersol (4th, 15:58), sophomore Andrew Stegmaier (9th, 16:15), and junior Jonathan Charlesworth (13th, 16:25). The squad only looks to get better as the season progresses as will John Piersol who takes a lighter emphasis on the summer running and early season meets, but then always seems to put it together at the end when it counts.
Like the James River girls were in the girls race, the Hermitage boys surprised a few as their squad put forth a great team effort to finish second with 106 points. Leading the squad was senior Matt Kirkland who placed 10th with a time of 16:18. The team possesses a great amount of depth as their #7 runner finished with a time of 17:35. With that luxury of depth, the Hermitage boys have a few guys that could step up if another runner has an off day.
The cannon start has been just one of several traditions at Fork Union, which has made the XC invite unique.
Having a strong race even with his squad having a few runners missing in action was Mills Godwin senior Matt Wolak who closed strong to pass Piersol on the final stretch and close on Tatu with a fast time of 15:44.
2007 FORK UNION INVITATIONAL MEET PREVIEW
Brentsville boys only to make things more interesting with the 3 local powerhouse squads
While the top four ranked teams in the state may be at Great Meadow this weekend, the Fork Union Invitational will have close to an equal share of its top ten ranked teams in the state with four teams compared to Great Meadow's five. Leading the bunch on Saturday will be the #5 ranked Western Albemarle boys, who opened their season up this past Tuesday at the Ragged Mountain Cup with two of the other three ranked squads who will be competing at FUMA in #8 Fork Union and #10 Louisa County. Joining them in a likely fierce team battle up front are the #7 ranked Brentsville boys as it may be the first appearance at the Fork Union Invite for the defending AA state champions.
The big three for Western: Satterwhite, Stutzman, Howard-Smith
Two of the four squads have lesser expectations than the other two with Fork Union and Louisa County as the "underdogs". Meanwhile, questions needed to be answered by the "favored" squads in Western Albemarle and Brentsville. Western Albemarle clearly has one of the state's most impressive running up front with their top three studs in Kyle Satterwhite, Tyler Stutzman, and James Howard-Smith. The question is if they will have the fourth and fifth runner step up among their handful of potential candidates to not null or weaken the efforts and effect of having such low scoring scares from their first three runners in.
Meanwhile, Brentsville has tradition and experience on their side with five of their top seven runners from last year's AA state champion crew, but the loss of their top two in 2006 and other top AA squads in Jamestown and Western Albemarle returning stronger squads than last year has them appearing more vulnerable than in year's past in AA. However, it would be a mistake for anyone in AA to overlook Coach Dulin's boys as Western Albemarle still has to respect Brentsville as a state champion caliber squad.
Seven can win it with Haney looking to take it for the home crowd
There will be more than a handful of individuals with a shot at taking home first among the boys. Fork Union senior Jeremy Haney has the momentum and home course advantage after clocking a 10:06 split on his 2 mile opening leg at Tuesday evening's Cup, but it was Western Albemarle's Tyler Stutzman with the fastest split of the meet at 10:02. Stutzman and teammate Kyle Satterwhite, the 2007 AA state indoor 3200 meter champion, are both capable of winning on Saturday as well as putting up a 1-2 finish for Coach Lindy Bain. Satterwhite is the top returnee from the 2006 Fork Union Invite as he was seventh a year ago in 15:51 on the three mile course. Another local contender is Louisa junior Thomas Baker, who has the fastest 5K best out of all the individuals in meet with his 15:36 5K on the track at Nike Outdoor Nationals.
Can Haney follow in the foosteps of Keino and Mostrag by keeping the title with the host school FUMA? (Photo by John Herzog)
The Central Region will have two strong individual racers at Fork Union with Ben Dejarnette of Atlee and Mark Merritt of Cosby. Dejarnette finished 11th at Fork Union in 2006 and is looking to continue his stellar sophomore year of outdoor track including a 4:15 1600 meter best with parallel success this fall in cross country. Meanwhile, Merritt is getting a new start for his senior year with a new team at Cosby after transferring over to Midlothian where he was an All-State cross country performer in AAA last November. Kellam's Bobby Peavey is another talented junior coming off a big sophomore track season (4:25 1600/9:35 3200) and looks to be in the mix at Fork Union.
Brentsville girls are class of field, while Monticello looks to gauge themselves
While the Brentsville boys will get a tough test to see if this year's group can carry on its recent history of dominance of its AA rivals with Western Albemarle and Louisa County both posing off strong challengers at Fork Union, the Brentsville girls look to have an easier road to the team title on Saturday as the #4 ranked team in Virginia. With five of their top seven back from their 2006 AA state runner-up team, Brentsville has to be considered a strong favorite at Fork Union.
Monticello girls are looking to improve upon their 3rd place showing in 2006 at FUMA (Photo by John Herzog).
The Monticello girls will be anxious to see how they stack up against Region's II best in Brentsville as the Ragged Mountain Cup champs from Monticello will get an early gauge to see if they can serious make a top 3 podium run this year in AA.
Barclay may be comfortable out in front again
Two of the top three individual finishers are back from the 2006 Colonial division girls race with Albemarle's Liz Barclay and Cosby's Jenna Moye. The juniors both shook off the race rust mid-week with Barclay clocking the fastest 2 mile split at Tuesday's Ragged Mountain Cup in 12:25 as Albemarle's anchor leg. Meanwhile, Moye finished second in a sweltering hot Wednesday affair with over ten schools hosted by Collegiate School with a 20:51 5K. Barclay is currently ranked #3 in Virginia and #2 in AAA and finished in second last year in 18:35 for three miles with comfortable distance on third place finisher Moye (19:08) by 33 seconds. Barclay might be racing the ghost of recently graduated teammate and two-time AAA state cross country champion Rachel Rose, who went 17:43 in her Fork Union Invite win a year ago.
Cosby's Jenna Moye is the second returnee from the 2006 race behind favorite Elizabeth Barclay of Albemarle (Photo by John Herzog)
Louisa's Hannah Best is the next returnee from last year's race as a sixth place finisher as a freshmen in 19:29. Best had a strong opener at the Ragged Mountain Cup on Tuesday by breaking 13 minutes on opening leg in the two mile loop at Panorama Farms.
Make sure before you leave Fork Union on Saturday after the meet's final races to find Coach Brown and thank him for everything he does and support of the sport because I know I will. Our sport desperately needs more Coach Brown's.
2007 Fork Union Invitational Time Schedule
8:00 AM CHECK IN
9:00 AM MIDDLE SCHOOL 2.5K
9:30 AM COLONIAL BOYS (A VARSITY)
10:00 AM COLONIAL GIRLS (A VARSITY)
10:30 AM PATRIOT BOYS (B VARSITY)
11:00 AM PATRIOT GIRLS (B VARSITY)
11:30 AM SABRE BOYS (JV)
12:00 PM SABRE GIRLS (JV)
12:30 PM AWARDS
10th annual FORK UNION XC INVITATIONAL TEAMS LIST
ALBEMARLE
AMELIA
ATLEE
BAILEY BRIDGE MIDDLE
BENEDICTINE
BRENTSVILLE
CLOVER HILL
COLLEGIATE
COSBY
FLUVANNA
FORK UNION
GREAT BRIDGE
HERMITAGE
KELLAM
L.C. BIRD
LANDSTOWN
LIBERTY CHRISTIAN
LOUISA
MANCHESTER
MILLS GODWIN
MONTICELLO
NELSON
NOTTOWAY
POWHATAN
RICHMOND CHRISTIAN
STAB
SAINT CATHERINE’S
SAINT CHRISTOPHER’S
SAINT GERTRUDE’S
SPOTSWOOD
STUART’S DRAFT
SWIFT CREEK MIDDLE
STEWARD
THOMAS DALE
VARINA
VIRGINIA EPISCOPAL
WESTERN ALBEMARLE
MileStat.com's 1st On-Site Meet Coverage...
2001 Fork Union Invitational!
2001 Meet Story & Photos - 2007 Meet Preview - 2007 Teams List
It is hard to believe that this year will be the tenth annual Fork Union Invitational. It seems like it was not too long ago that Fork Union coach Winston Brown was out making what would become the Hardy National 3 mile course at Fork Union after destroying several lawnmowers to clear way for a venue which would play host to some epic team and individual cross country battles. The Fork Union Invite has certainly played host to some of Virginia's finest during the past ten years. In 2001 and 2002, there was the thrilling duels of Kippy Keino and Alex Tatu with Keino picking up the big win over his rival in front of the home crowd. The 2005 Fork Union Invite assembled one of the most loaded girls fields in a regular season race with the likes of Aurora Scott, Catherine White, and Rachel Rose destroying the course record together. With 37 schools expected to be represented on Saturday, another early September weekend contest at FUMA expects to cap off ten years of memories and usher in another ten. The event is also a special one for MileStat.com to cover personally because it was the first meet that MileStat.com ever provided "on-site coverage" for back in 2001.