CHARLOTTE, NC - The Wendy\'s Invitational held at McAlpine Greenway Park marked the return of 2003 AA 3200 outdoor state runner-up Pat Eggleston to the Brentsville boys\' lineup. His first race back seemingly gave his entire squad an energy boost, especially junior Nick Gehlsen. Gehlsen stole the thunder from AA #2 ranked teammate Eggleston as he posted AA\'s first sub 16 clocking of the season with his fifth place clocking of 15:56 and helped Brentsville return from Charlotte with the first place team trophy against some of North Carolina\'s best teams.
Gehlsen has made a remarkable jump in a year\'s time. At last year\'s Foot Locker South Regional Meet, Gehlsen ran one of his best times with a 16:49 clocking. Now with Gehlsen nearly running a full minute faster than last year, Brentsville possesses one of the best 1-2 punches in the entire state with Eggleston\'s return. Eggleston surely wasted no time in shaking off the race rust as he clocked a personal best time of 16:10 to place 10th overall.
The Tigers strength did not stop after those two as four other teammates stepped it up in a big way in Charlotte. Senior Jacob Watts (21st, 16:33) and sophomore Henry Melius (23rd, 16:34) finished nearly right together, while sophomore Adam Henken rounded out a Brentsville top five well under 17 minutes with his 29th place finishing performance of 16:42. Adding further depth to the Tigers\' squad was Eric Truschel (41st) finishing right at 17 minutes flat.
With such a tremendous all-around team effort, the Brentsville boys were able to cream some of the top teams in the state of North Carolina en route to their 53 point margin of victory with a 88 point team total.
Their performance at McAlpine should put the Brentsville boys in the AA state title driver seat for now and might propel them into the NTN Southeast Rankings as they clearly look like a much stronger team from a few weeks ago.
The Brentsville girls did not look too bad themselves as they finished third in a strong field with 132 points. Brentsville sophomore Becky Stewart led the Lady Tigers by dipping under 19 minutes for the first time with a 18:49 clocking as she nabbed third place honors individually. With the way she has been running early this season, Stewart might be an outside threat in the AA individual state title hunt to favorites Sarah Bowman of Fauquier and Tasming Fanning of Western Albemarle.
The Lady Tigers have another rising start in freshmen Alex Kulifay as the youngster dipped under 20 minutes with a 22nd place finishing time of 19:57. The remaining top five runners for Brentsville were not too far behind Kulifay with Julia Mitchell (32nd, 20:10), Wendy Stober (37th, 20:15), and Rachel Hamilton (38th, 20:15). The Brentsville girls\' team were AA state runners-up to Western Albemarle in 2003 and will look to at least duplicate that performance if they continue to run the way they did in Charlotte.
Notable performances in other races at Wendy\'s included Battlefield junior Jason Driscoll finishing fourth in 16:17. With Battlefield High School being in their first year of existence, Driscoll seems like the school\'s best hope at a state qualifier this year, which is quite a feat for any first year school.
CHARLOTTE, NC - The Wendy\'s Invitational held at McAlpine Greenway Park marked the return of 2003 AA 3200 outdoor state runner-up Pat Eggleston to the Brentsville boys\' lineup. His first race back seemingly gave his entire squad an energy boost, especially junior Nick Gehlsen. Gehlsen stole the thunder from AA #2 ranked teammate Eggleston as he posted AA\'s first sub 16 clocking of the season with his fifth place clocking of 15:56 and helped Brentsville return from Charlotte with the first place team trophy against some of North Carolina\'s best teams.
Gehlsen has made a remarkable jump in a year\'s time. At last year\'s Foot Locker South Regional Meet, Gehlsen ran one of his best times with a 16:49 clocking. Now with Gehlsen nearly running a full minute faster than last year, Brentsville possesses one of the best 1-2 punches in the entire state with Eggleston\'s return. Eggleston surely wasted no time in shaking off the race rust as he clocked a personal best time of 16:10 to place 10th overall.
The Tigers strength did not stop after those two as four other teammates stepped it up in a big way in Charlotte. Senior Jacob Watts (21st, 16:33) and sophomore Henry Melius (23rd, 16:34) finished nearly right together, while sophomore Adam Henken rounded out a Brentsville top five well under 17 minutes with his 29th place finishing performance of 16:42. Adding further depth to the Tigers\' squad was Eric Truschel (41st) finishing right at 17 minutes flat.
With such a tremendous all-around team effort, the Brentsville boys were able to cream some of the top teams in the state of North Carolina en route to their 53 point margin of victory with a 88 point team total.
Their performance at McAlpine should put the Brentsville boys in the AA state title driver seat for now and might propel them into the NTN Southeast Rankings as they clearly look like a much stronger team from a few weeks ago.
