East Coast Invite: Varina's Finney & Midlo's Johnston turn in solid doubles

 

MileStat.com was on-site for a portion of the 2010 East Coast Invitational held Saturday, January 2nd at the Arthur Ashe Center in Richmond. Some of the top performers included Varina's Anthony Finney (300 winner) and Midlothian's Marie Johnston (3200 winner). Complete results posted with race videos and photo gallery uploaded.

 

Varina's Jazmine Brown has been jumping well in the Ashe Center this season including a winning leap of 35'9.25", while taking second to Maggie Walker junior Jessica Wheeler in the long jump who posted an indoor best with her mark of 17'1".

 

Atlee's Marques Atkinson notched two individual wins with a 5'10" clearance in the high jump and 8.40 clocking in the 55 meter hurdles. His twin brother Michael Atkinson took the 500 meter dash from Varina's Anthony Finney passing him on the final lap for a 1:12 win. Finney evened the score with Atkinson later in the 300 meter dash posting a solid Ashe Center time of 38.26.

 

Midlothian swept the 4x800 meter relays with the girls dominating their race with their 30 second win at 10:17 as two relay members came back later in the meet to post swift times in the Ashe Center including freshmen Marie Johnston in the 3200 meter run (11:44) and senior Amy Witt breaking 3:10 in the 100 meter run.

 

1600 meter winner Anna Spiers (5:27.05) was able to hold off Witt and the Midlothian girls for a Maggie Walker victory in the 4x400 meter relay.

 

The present and future of the Midlothian boys distance runners went 1-2 in the boys 1000 meter run with Brayden Burleigh picking up the win in 2:46 and followed in by freshmen teammate Sean Willard for second place.

 

Atlee and Maggie Walker boys had their top distance runners face off in the 1600 and 3200 meter races with Atlee's Andrew Catanese (4:42) edging out Maggie Walker's Marc Breidenbaugh (4:43) in the 1600, while Maggie Walker's Cody Talmadge (10:15) was able to build a 23 second cushion mostly in the second mile on Atlee's Andy Hesse (10:38) in the 3200.

 

The field events featured some of the state's top tier athletes including Quintaze Jackson of Dinwiddie in the boys' triple jump and Cameron Overstreet of Atlee in the girls' pole vault. Neither came close toe eclipsing or matching their best performances, but picked up wins nonetheless as Jackson leaped to mark of 42'9.50" and Overstreet cleared 10'6".

 

 

Complete Results

 

Race Videos - All race videos from 4x200 meter relay to conclusion of meet.

 

Photo Gallery - Over 1,400 photos total.

 

Below are the performances entered for the meet that met the national silver standard.

7 National Elites.