Fast times were produced on a cool and rainy evening at NC State for the high school 3200 meter races held in the midst of the Raleigh Relays college meet on Friday night. Leading the Virginian participants were Jamestown senior Colin Mearns and Landstown senior Stephanie Frenchik placing third each in arguably the greatest 3200 meter fields ever assembled for a high school meet in the state of North Carolina.
Mearns, only two weeks removed from his national title in the mile at the National Scholastic Indoor Championships, finished five seconds off the surprise winner Isaac Presson of Asheville (9:00.87) with an 8 second PR of 9:05.03 and just behind Foot Locker finalist Blake Williams of Northern Durham for second place. With his early season performance, Mearns can realistically start thinking about a sub 9 minute time this season which would add him to a very short list of past Virginians to have ran under the time.
Frenchik (pictured right by Ryan Kelly), a recruit for Indiana University, took an even bigger chunk off her previous best by 22 seconds with her time on Friday of 10:37.01. An All-American and state runner-up this past indoor season, Frenchik's opening performance to the 2010 outdoor season is the fastest 3200 meter time ever recorded by a girls' distance runner from the Eastern Region with Hickory's Jennifer Boyd as the previous fastest all-time at 10:46.
Also running well in the same race with Frenchik and competing on her future home track at NC State was Mountain View senior Kaitlyn Davis, who dropped her all-time best to 10:44.32 with her 5th place effort. Davis, a state champion as a junior indoors in the 3200 meter run and state champion in cross country this past fall, had been stuck in the 10:50's for two years of track before her breakthrough run in front of her future college coachces and teammates this weekend.