Saturday Updates for VA @ NIN: Titles for W. Branch girls 4x2 & boys SMR, Blacksburg boys 4xMile

Nike Indoor Nationals Links of Interest

MileSplit Meet Page w/ Results & Coverage

Photo Gallery by Matt Shaukus of https://nj.milesplit.com

Video Interviews by Derek Veilleux of https://me.milesplit.com

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Saturday's Winners Gallery

Saturday Updates

Joanna Stevens of Blacksburg and Chris Foley of Chantilly wrapped up Saturday's events for Virginians at Nike Indoor Nationals posting some sizzling and historically impressive two mile times at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston with their All-American performances. Stevens finished fourth in the girls field with a time of 10:12.21 and right behind three of the nation's best runners in Foot Locker Nationals champion Megan Goethals (1st, 10:10), Emily Sisson (2nd, 10:10), and Aisling Cuffe (3rd, 10:11.65) in a breakaway group of top four finishers. Her race at Nike Indoor Nationals is the third fastest indoor performance all-time at the 2 miles or 3200 meter distance in Virginia high school history behind only a 9:57 and 10:07 races from all-time great Erin Keogh.

Meanwhile, the UVA recruit Foley held his own against as well as beating many national caliber distance runners and Foot Locker/NXN finalists from this past fall in his race tonight with a significant personal best run of 9:09.75 for a fourth place All-American honor. Foley's time converts to a 3200 time just over 9:06 and now ranks him just outside of the top 10 all-time in Virginia high school indoor history.

Girls Triple Jump - Desmone Gray becomes the first individual All-American for the Western Branch girls in the meet after her teammates produced a national champion 4x200 and All-American SMR earlier in the day. The US leader Gray leaped to a mark of 37'9.50"on her final attempt in the finals to place her fifth overall. Thomas Dale's Siobhan Ford-Holland finished 9th with a mark of 36'7.50".

Boys 4x800 - Grafton boys fall just short once again in getting All-American honors in a distance relay as their 7:59.75 performance earned them an 8th place finish and two seconds off of sixth place.

Girls 4x800 Meter Relay - West Springfield girls finished 10th with a time of 9:34.00

Boys Pentathlon - Scott Campbell from Salem High School in Roanoke became a Nike All-American with his total score of 3398 points and fifth place finsh in the boys pentathlon. Campbell didn't excel greatly at one event, but was solid and consistent in all five events to carry him into a top 6 All-American finish.

Boys 400 Prelims - Taylor Sykes of Great Bridge will be attempting to add another Nike All-American honor to his credentials in tomorrow's finals as the returning Nike indoor and outdoor All-American at 400 meters clocked a time of 49.66 to win his heat and move onto the two section final with the seventh fastest time overall among all 8 qualifiers.

Girls 400 Prelims - 300 meter state champ Shakeela Saunders of Great Bridge and 500 meter state champ Monica Williams of Green Run both are advancing onto the two section finals of the girls 400 meter dash tomorrow. Saunders and Williams battled for state titles two weeks ago at Boo Williams and tomorrow will be competing against each other again from the slow section of the two finals and looking to better the times of the competitors from the fast section. Both Saunders and Williams qualified on time in finishing second in their heats with Saunders as the sixth fastest at 56.43 and Williams as the seventh fastest at 56.53.

Boys 1600 SMR - Western Branch boys are keeping up with their female counterparts in the All-American and now national titles count as the boys 1600 SMR relay of Jeff Lewis (200), Tevis Snellings (200), Cameron Cipcic (400), and Blake Theroux (800) won at Nike Indoor Nationals in a time of 3:30.71. The state of Virginia was well represented in the event with four of the top 8 teams including three All-American squads in Western Branch, Fork Union (3rd, 3:32.65), and Bethel (4th, 3:32.74). Anthony Kostelac anchored Albemarle to an 8th place finish. Splits forthcoming. (Watch Video Interview w/ Western Branch boys SMR)

Boys Triple Jump - Western Branch almost had a pair of All-Americans in the boys triple jump with senor Kendrick Smith (400 leg on last night's All-American DMR) leaping to a fifth place mark of 48'3.25", while junior teammate Marcus Dean was on the outside looking in of the All-American top six in seventh place with a top mark of 46'6.25".

Girls 1600 SMR - The Western Branch girls earned their second All-American honors in a relay on Saturday as sophomore Taranisha Taylor ran on both the 4x200 and SMR to enjoy the All-American podium twice today as the opening leg for the sixth place finishing Western Branch 1600 meter sprint medley relay. From section five of six, the Western Branch girls clocked a time of 4:08.09 as they were anchored by the lone senior on the relay in Blake Andrews as the 800 meter leg.

Girls Pentathlon - Montasia Golden of Lee-Davis and Amber Church of Pulaski County are currently in 3rd and 4th place respectively in the girls pentathlon after the 60H and high jump. Next is the shot put, which is the weakest event for both. Both will need to come through with big marks in the long jump after the shot put to build a cushion for the 800 at the end.

Girls 4x200 - The Western Branch girls (pictured left by Matt Shaukus) claimed the national title in the 4x200 meter relay and despite not getting the sub 1:40 performance they were looking for on a banked track for the first time, a national championship is a national championship with their time of 1:41.27. Western Branch jumped out to the lead on their opening leg with Shakia Williams and stayed out in first for good with a strong second leg from Keilah Tyson. With no seniors on their relay, Western Branch will be back and stronger in 2011 with an opportunity to become the greatest girls 4x200 all-time in state history and break the state record.   (Watch Video Interview w/ Western Branch girls 4x200)

Girls 4xMile - Virginia's other strong favorite to win a national title in a girls' relay on Saturday in the Blacksburg 4xmile had serious aspirations entering this weekend of breaking the national record and a sub 20 goal time with 3 sub 1600 meter runners including two sub 4:50 legs in Kathleen Stevens and Joanna Stevens. However, Blacksburg was not on their "A" game without their "A" team as Kathleen Stevens was unable to run due to sickness today. Not at full strength, they finished with a time well off their goal at 20:24.07 and were defeated by the school who had the national record they were chasing in Saratoga Springs with the Toga girls as champions at 20:15.06. Still a solid national runner-up performance for the young ladies from Blacksburg without Kathleen Stevens.

Boys 4xMile -  With all the talk about the Blacksburg girls trying to break the national record which they ended up taking second to Saratoga Springs, many forgot to talk about the Blacksburg boys, who became the Nike Indoor  Nationals champions in the 4xmile relay a time of 17:45.63. Their total time averages out to just over 4:26 per mile leg and sub 4:25 for 1600 meters. The relay team (pictured above by Matt Shautkus) consisted of George Carter, Matt Howard, Quinn Hull, and Zack Link. Despite the event being a 32 lap race, the top two teams had little separation for the final finish with Blacksburg winning by a thrilling 12 hundredths of a second over Shenendehowa (17:45.65) of New York. (Watch Video Interview w/ Blacksburg Boys 4xMile)

More to come from Saturday's action at the Reggie Lewis Center for the 2010 Nike Indoor Nationals.

Saturday Schedule

Saturday, March 13, 2010