RICHMOND, VA -- Alex Tatu, it seems, prefers challenges to championships.
The Thomas Dale junior, one of the top prep milers in the country and the state champion indoors at 1,600 meters, has decided to skip his specialty in the Central Region outdoor meet today and tomorrow at Sports Backers Stadium. Instead, Tatu will run two races - the 800 and 3,200 - in which he\'s not even the favorite.
No athlete in the 34-year history of the region boys championship has won the two races in the same meet. Very few have even tried.
\"If anyone can pull it off, Tatu\'s the man,\" meet director Jim Holdren said.
Why bother, when Tatu could easily win the 1,600, where\'s he\'s ranked first on the area performance list this spring by five seconds at 4:12.68? Why not run the 1,600 and 800, both of which he won last year?
\"I think he\'s crazy,\" Thomas Dale coach Doug Sable said. \"But he\'s set on doing it.\"
\"He\'s shown what he can do in the 1,600, and Alex is at a stage where he\'s kind of earned the right to do what he wants. That\'s going to be a heck of a double, but he wouldn\'t try it if he didn\'t think he could do well.\"
The 800 figures to be a showdown between Tatu and Mills Godwin senior Matt Wolak. Both dipped under 1:54 at the Southern Track Classic, but Wolak, region runner-up to Tatu last year after also running the 1,600, has run faster this spring and seems better suited to the distance. Still, Wolak has one individual region title to his credit; Tatu has seven.
In the 3,200, about an hour later, Tatu draws top seed John Piersol of Maggie Walker (9:05.82) - and nine others who have run faster than Tatu\'s spring-best of 9:55.94. Again, though, Sable noted, Tatu hasn\'t run hard at that kind of distance since the state cross country meet last fall, which he won.
Tatu will chase after big titles in next weekend\'s Group AAA meet at Sports Backers Stadium, where he\'s leaning towards a 1,600-3,200 double. This weekend, it\'s about chasing his favorite rivals.
\"I think he just really likes to run against Piersol and Wolak,\" Sable said. \"And they\'re both seniors.\"
Atlee, which swept the region team titles indoors, has won only once outdoors in program history (the girls crown in 1999). That figures to change this weekend.
Multi-event standout Nick Robinson, a favorite in both hurdles events, leads a balanced Raiders boys team that should win easily. Patrick Henry sprinter Sherrod Lewis, who will try and repeat the daunting 100-400-200 triple-win performance he pulled off in the Colonial District meet last week, gives the Patriots a good shot at second.
The Atlee girls, region winners indoors by just four points, will have their hands full again. Distance-runner Tiffany Cross, the top seed in the 1,600 and 3,200, and pole vaulter Kira Barcus must win for the Raiders to hold off a big group of title contenders.
Hermitage, led by thrower Alexander Street and freshmen Tanique Carter and Jasmine Major, Manchester, with Briana Smith and Kwadena Caple, and Armstrong, which will ride Malaika and Shoshana Pettes, all could win. Prince George, led by multi-event standout Nicole Pitts, and Douglas Freeman, with defending region high jump champ Emily Tretiak and distance runner Julia Siegel to lean on, also could finish on top.