St. Christopher's Indoor Meet #4 - Exceptional performances in a meet of only five schools at St. Christopher's on Saturday. Marques Atkinson of Atlee had one of the leading performance with a US #1 1:04.83 500. Atkinson had been on top of the national leader board after his win at CNU earlier this month before a 1:05.03 time from the winner at the Prince George County Championships in Maryland mid-week had moved him to #2 in the country.
After running a state auto qualifier in the 1600 meter run with a VA #4 time of 5:07.32, Maggie Walker senior Anna Spiers came back on short rest to face returning private school outdoor 1600 and 800 champion Taylor Clevinger of St. Catherine's in the 1000 meter run. The former Hanover High School runner and Central Region competitor against Spiers, Clevinger used her fresh legs to her advantage to pull away for a significant PR victory by dropping 6 seconds with a final time of 3:01.82.
The meet marked the return of Maggie Walker coach Jim Holdren back to coaching after spending the last few weeks recovering and rehabbing from a mild stroke suffered before the New Year. Also making a return in terms of racing was Foot Locker finalist Silas Frantz of Douglas Freeman, who competed in the 1600 and 1000 meter run at St. Christopher's. Frantz displayed a new set of wheels not seen last year when known as primarily a two miler by running two personal bests with a 4:21.98 1600 and 2:36.40 1000. Frantz won the 1600 meter run rather easily, but was actually beaten in the 1000 meter runner by an up and coming St. Christopher's middle distance runner in Ben Constable. Constable's win over Frantz and 2:34.60 performance could not have been projected coming into the season despite ending his 2010 outdoor season on a high note with an All-State third place 2:00.65 800 meter finish at the private school state outdoor meet.
A nice tune-up double for Frantz, who will be debuting in his best event of the 3200 meter in two weekends at Virginia Tech. Frantz's teammate Clark Thornhill has similar aspirations of becoming a state champion this indoor season, especially after claiming the #1 ranking in the state for the high jump after successfully clearing 6'8" on Saturday. Prior to this past weekend, a handful of other jumpers had cleared over 6'6" but no higher than that height.
The Atlee state leading pole vault duo of Chris Pillow and Cameron Overstreet were competing at their best this weekend in the smaller setting at St. Christopher's. Both have been very consistent performers with heights over 15 feet for Pillow and over 12 for Overstreet becoming the expected standard. Now 16 feet and 13 feet are quickly becoming the new benchmarks for the two vaulters.
Photo by Willie Riefner
Overstreet set a new state indoor record in the pole vault with her clearance of 12'9". Previous state record holder Ashley Early of Western Albemarle cleared 12'7" in an indoor meet and actually cleared 12'9" in an outdoor meet which contested its pole vault indoors due to inclement weather to leave that clearance debatable to place it on the indoor or outdoor all-time list. There is no debate on which season to place Overstreet's recent performance under as she becomes the new Virginia high school state indoor record holder.
Photo by Willie Riefner
Pillow's 16 foot clearance ranks him #3 all-time in state indoor history behind only Great Bridge greats Mike Morrison (2006 - 17'00.25) and Great Bridge's Lawrence Johnson (1992 - 16'1") and ties him with Fork Union's Braxton Davenport (1991 - 16'0"). Quite a historic meet for the Atlee pole vaulters and their vault coach Kyle Bishop.