Kiernan, Keino, and Virginia are at their best against the best in Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, NC -- The state of Virginia had its finest showing in recent memory at the Foot Locker South Regional Meet today at McAlpine Greenway Park in Charlotte. The state advanced two individual representatives, one on the boys' side and one of the girls' side with two Independent school state champions in Kippy Keino of Fork Union and Cara Kiernan of The Potomac School. Also quite a rarity as well as an amazing accomplishment for the Virginians was winning both boys and girls team titles in the seeded races to add to the great day for Virginia, which included a few more race winners and record breaking performances.

The Potomac School's Cara Kiernan punches her ticket to San Diego with a third place finishing time of 18:05 (Photo by Brian J. Myers/Photo Run)

Fork Union's Kippy Keino advances onto nationals by finishing 5th (15:01) in the seeded race. (Photo by Brian J. Myers/Photo Run)

No one in the South Region could have expected Cara Kiernan, a senior from Vienna at The Potomac School, to have cracked into to the top eight in the seeded race in Charlotte. In fact, nearly the same could be said about her in Virginia as only a few had started to take notice of her after her dominating wins at the Independent School State Meet and MileStat.com Invitational. However, many should have taken heed last week when she broke the Fork Union course record at the MileStat.com Invite. She made it very clear early on in the race that she was ready to run as she was in the thick of things with the front pack of runners vying for national qualifying spots from the get go. Rachael Forish of Texas had broken away from this pack and went onto win the race in 17:56, but as for Kiernan, she remained right with the chase pack behind Forish as they entered the lake for the final stretch. With less than 100 meters left, she made a hard push to the line and broke away from the pack to earn an astonishing third place finishing time of 18:05.22 to secure her spot to the Foot Locker National Meet in San Diego. The meet will be held at Balboa Park on December 14th.

Keino, another Independent School champion, unlike Kiernan had lots of billing going into the race as a pre-race favorite to qualify and even made it publicly known that was his goal. And despite the overwhelming pressure, Keino came through as predicted. None for his fast starts, the race was perfectly suited for Keino as he was with the leaders through the mile at 4:38 and the two mile at 9:38. A pack which had consisted of more than eight runners at that point, begin to string out as Kentucky's Bobby Curtis took command of the lead with North Carolina's Matt Debole giving chase. As others begin to drop back off the hard early pace, Keino stuck with the Florida duo of Ryan Deak and Steve Hassen as they pulled each other along. Then in the final 100 meters, Deak and Hassen kicked it in together for third and fourth and left Keino behind, but still Keino fought his way to the line to a sizzling time of 15:01 on a not so sizzling day with temperatures hovering around or below 50 degrees with fair gusts of wind. His time placed him fifth in the race and punched his ticket to run in San Diego where Kippy will surely be welcomed by the warmer weather he loves like back home in Kenya.

Not only did Kiernan and Keino get to relish in the great achievement of making it to nationals but also helping to lead the state of Virginia to titles in the state team battles. Kiernan led a Virginian girls assault as the state had nine runners in the top 24 all-south places. It was more like a monsoon of Virginia girls with Warren County's Emily Harrison (13th, 18:16), Hickory senior Jennifer Boyd (15th, 18:21), Robinson senior Joanna Rodgers (16th, 18:23), Ocean Lakes senior Selina Sekulic (17th, 18:26), Forest Park junior Beth Fahey (18th, 18:27), Thomas Jefferson senior Shauneen Garrahan (20th, 18:30), C.D. Hylton senior Jemissa Hess (21st, 18:32), Norfolk Academy sophomore Ginna Ellis (23rd, 18:35), and Hayfield junior Morgan Phelan (24th, 18:36). While of course not all nine scored towards the Virginia team score, the fact that Virginia accounted for nearly half of all the all-south finishers showed how dominating the group was.

As for the boys, it was an equally dominating fashion in their win as despite the fact two of the states previously top three ranked runners ran sub-par races with Rockbridge's John Crews fading back to 24th (15:34) after running in the top eight through two miles and Thomas Dale's Alex Tatu running sick and never really being a factor in the race (104th, 16:17). This gave the chance for other Virginians to set up and shinr in their place. Behind Keino's charge at fifth place and Crews taking the last all-south spot, another five other Virginian harriers finished in between them. Herndon's Rasheed Thompson (11th, 15:16) and Louisa County's Daniel Kane (13th, 15:18) both had exceptionally strong finishes as they were quickly closing on that top eight around the lake. West Springfield's Jeff Day (16th, 15:25) and Thomas Jefferson's Christo Landry (20th, 15:32), Virginia's first non-senior both gutted out a quick early pace for high finishes for Virginia. Bayside senior Mike Stoop bounced back from a poor state race with a phenomonal race in Charlotte with a 23rd finishing time of 15:34.

Will Williams of Rockbridge wins junior race in record time of 15:49 (Photo by Lee Dick)

Brandon Miles of Midlothian wins senior race in record time of 15:51 (Photo by Lee Dick)

Virginia also had strong showings outside of the seeded race divisions including two new meet records being set. In the boys' senior race, Brandon Miles of Midlothian took the lead 1.5 miles into the race and never looked back as he won by an 18 second margin and in a new race record time of 15:51. Will Williams of Rockbridge also brought Virginia home a win as well as a record in winning in the junior race in a time of 15:49 as he broke away from any challengers soon after the two mile mark. James River junior Lindsay Traudt was victorious in the junior and senior girls' race as she pulled way very early to win in a time of 18:58. Virginia could have had another race in Martinsville freshmen Anna Chase as she clocked a swift 18:33 in the freshmen and sophomore girls' race, but also in the race was the fastest time of the day with Katie Albright, a home schooled freshmen from North Carolina, winning in 17:52, which would have won the seeded race.