Aurora Scott, Freshmen, Western Branch High School
Webster's dictionary describes an Aurora as the Roman goddess of the dawn and/or a radiant emission from the upper atmosphere. In Virginia we call her National Champion, a freshman phenom, and just plain fast. This track goddess emitted plenty of radiant glows as she streaked through the Bells Mill 5K Course in Chesapeake with the speed of a meteor in a time of 18:53 to win the Chesapeake Invitational this past Saturday. Whoever thought when Aurora was winning all those youth national titles in AAU and USATF that she would burn out before high school, have found out there is plenty of Aurora left.
Nick Gehlsen, Junior, Brentsville High School
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This week's male AOW is an unexpected one. 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.