No snow fell during the entire duration on Friday's portion of the St. Christopher's Invitational and many teams returned home without encountering any precipation either. In a normal big weekend for track & field in Virginia which has been ruined due to an incoming winter storm, at least some athletes and teams were able to make the trip to Richmond and turn in some quality times and marks at St. Christopher's School's state of the art indoor track & field facility.
Thomas Dale senior Quintin Fulgham leaped to a personal best and US #11 mark of 23'1.50" in the boys' long jump. The mark was a significant improvement for Fulgham from his previous season best, which was also recorded at St. Christopher's School on January 13th with a mark of 21'10". Now ranked second in the state behind Justin Hunter of Ocean Lakes, Fulgham will look to stay consistent with marks over or close to 23 feet in the championship season.
Photo by John Herzog
Potomac junior and track newcomer Anthony Williams has been a pleasant surprise for Coach Petrosky in his first season on the team. Williams followed up his third place finish at the compeitite Montgomery Invitational in the 55 meter hurdles earlier this month with a US #14 clocking of 7.56 on Friday night. Williams defeated a strong field featuring Group AA state title contender Dante Davis of Louisa and private school state title contender Jamel Turner of Fork Union.
Stafford freshmen Hannah Lowery stormed out to a ridiculously fast early pace en route to a 1600 meter split just over 5:21 and held onto a solid pace for the second half of the race to join five others under 11 minutes this season in Virginia with a US #12 win of 10:54.01 in the 3200 meter run. After Lowery, the next four finishers all ran under the automatic qualifier with times of 11:20 or faster.
The boys' 3200 had a similar breakaway winner in Fork Union's Josh Morris as the private school state cross country champion clocked a personal best time of 9:26 in his 16 second victory.
Photo by John Herzog
The Northwest Region swept the 4x800 meter relays with the Stafford boys running the state's fastest time in their US top 20 performance of 8:03.83 and the Osbourn Park girls just dipping under the state automatic qualifier thanks to a 2:17 anchor leg split from Ariel Karabinus. Few could have forseen Stafford's rise to the top of the 4x800 meter relay, but certainly have stepped up in the huge #1 ranking void left by last year's national record Albemarle 4x800. The Osbourn Park girls expect to see a good chunk taken off their time when inserting 2:12 open 800 runner Kayla Tyrell into their relay as she did not race at St. Christopher's.
The runner-ups in both 4x800 events came from the slower sections as "A" team line-ups were inserted into the original "B" relay teams with athletes who were originally going to Virginia Tech not only able to run on a relay race at St. Chris. The Atkinson twins of Atlee made an impact on their school's 4x800 meter relay as they ran a state auto time of 8:10, while the Deep Run girls made up a lot of ground and time with their final two legs Madalyn Nuckols and Courtney Dobbs to dip just under 10 minutes for second place overall.
Great Bridge sophomore Shakeela Saunders appears to be preparing for a potential big state meet for herself in which she will able to be competitive and score considerable in six different events. She competed in her arguably "weakest" event if that is possible to call it in clearing a personal best height of 5'4" in the high jump to take first in the event. The multi-versatile Saunders is the state leader in the 300 meter dash and triple jump, while ranks highly in the 55 meter dash, 500 meter dash, long jump, and triple jump.
Photo by John Herzog
Hampton's Renay Ransaw was the lone double event winner on Friday as she nearly won a third event of the evening if not for teammate Ashley Sessoms (25.93) topping her with the fastest time in the rarely contested indoor event of the 200 meter dash. Ransaw earlier was consistent in the prelims and finals of the 55 meter hurdles with virtually matching times in a 6.63 prelim clocking and following with a 6.62 finals victory. The Hampton senior leaped over 18 feet for the third major meet this season in the long jump with a mark of 18'1.50".
Patrick Henry sophomore Shyra Moulton looked ready to add a Central Region 55 meter title to her 100 meter title last spring in her finals race at the St. Christopher's Invite in her swift 7.24 showing. Moulton is also hoping to be more competitive at the indoor state meet against the top Eastern Region sprinters after failing to make the 100 meter dash finals last spring.
Photo by John Herzog
The pole vault featured two of the state's top performers in the 2009-2010 indoor season with Henrico's Stephanie Oleson and Stafford's Matt Hazelgren staying late into the competition with Oleson clearing a US #12 height of 11'7", while Hazelgren remained undefeated this season just under his season best height of 14'8" with a best clearance on Friday of 14'6".
Meet Coverage
Photo Gallery by John Herzog - 650 photos total posted.
Race Videos by Brandon Miles - More videos being added throughout Saturday.
Photo Gallery by Nicoll Knudsen - Photos to be posted later this weekend
Photo Gallery by Brandon Miles - Photos to be posted Saturday.
Saturday's events have been postponed to Saturday, February 6th
Below are the performances entered for the meet that met the national silver standard.
113 National Elites
No snow fell during the entire duration on Friday's portion of the St. Christopher's Invitational and many teams returned home without encountering any precipation either. In a normal big weekend for track & field in Virginia which has been ruined due to an incoming winter storm, at least some athletes and teams were able to make the trip to Richmond and turn in some quality times and marks at St. Christopher's School's state of the art indoor track & field facility.