Athletes of the Week: Ruiz and Ellis

Athletes of the week for the week ending on March 30, 2002, are Bryce Ruiz of Jamestown and Ginna Ellis of Norfolk Academy. Each athlete had outstanding opening performances for their outdoor track season at the Conn Madden Relays in Newport News.

There was only a limited number of meets in the second weekend of the outdoor track season as there was the Raleigh Relays on Thursday afternoon in Raleigh, North Carolina and the Conn Madden Relays in Newport News on Friday and Saturday. However, that didn\'t stop Jamestown\'s Bryce Ruiz from going the distance and competing in both meets. Ruiz truly had a remarkable three days of racing. On Thursday, he ran a personal best 800 time with a 1:57 split in the 4x800 at the Raleigh Relays as he came up short in holding off Mount Tabor\'s (NC) Matt Debole, who split a 1:55 leg. Then after traveling back to Virginia Thursday night with little sleep, ran a personal best 1600 time with a 4:17 split in Jamestown\'s 4x1600 win at Conn Madden Relays (18:28.7, new meet record). Completing his sensational three days of racing, Ruiz on Saturday, gave his team two great opening legs with split a 3:08 1200 leg on the DMR (10:59.4) and a 2:00 split on the 4x800 (8:20).

Norfolk Academy freshmen Ginna Ellis was very helpful to her squad in winning three relays at Conn Madden (4x1600, DMR, and 4x800). As only a freshmen, Ellis emerged as one of the state\'s top distance runners in cross country as she ran 18:42 at Foot Locker South. She continued that with a solid indoor campaign (3:18 1000, 5:22 1600, 11:52 3200) and after her strong legs Saturday, she looks to further drop her times in the outdoor track season.