BLACKSBURG, VA -- A windfall of state bests and national leading times swept through the two day Microtel Invitational held at the fastest indoor track in the state of Virginia at Virginia Tech\'s Rector Fieldhouse. With a meet combining the best Virginia has to offer with some great out of state competition, great performances were bound to happen.
Lakeland\'s Everett Richardson won out in a group of three in the high jump as two other competitors also cleared 6-4, but it was Richardson who was the winner at the same height.
Daniel Rademacher from Hermitage of Pennsylvania, pole vaulted to a height of 15-9 to win the event with the nation\'s fifth best mark. In the event, the two top Virginians were Great Bridge\'s Brian Webb and Dinwiddie\'s Wayne Odom as both cleared 14 feet with Webb taking fourth place and Odom finishing seventh.
Thomas Dale sophomore Dennis Boone had a strong showing in the long jump as he took runner-up honors to North Rowan\'s Andre Tillman (22-10.50) with his mark of 22-7.50. The jump ranks him third in the state currently.
William Fleming\'s Ryan McCoy made sure he got the crowd going before all his jumps as he got the audience clapping in a momentous rhythm as he sprinted down the runway to a superb national leading jump of 49-7 in the triple jump.
Another Virginian posting a national leading mark in a field event was Steve Huntzinger of James Robinson, who already had the national lead in the shot put, but simply bettered that mark with his winning toss of 63-7.
With Deep Creek not in attendance, Virginia\'s representation in the sprint relays was severly lacking without their top formidable foursome against stiff out of state competition as the New Horizon track club out of Georgia took wins in both the 4x200 (1:28.09) and 4x400 (3:18.18) meter relays. However, Atlee (7th, 1:31.62) in the 4x200 meter relay and Heritage of Lynchburg (7th, 3:24.98) in the 4x400 meter relay made admirable showings. Heritage\'s performance in the 4x400 was especially noteworthy considering they are only a AA school and ran the state\'s second fastest time of the year behind Deep Creek\'s leading state best.
Friday Night\'s 4x800 meter relay was an exciting one as it pitted two of now the nation\'s top two relays against one another. North Forsyth of North Carolina took the event with a national leading time of 7:49.50 thanks to a 1:54 anchor leg from Foot Locker All-American Bobby Mack, but were given a strong push from Virginia\'s own from Midlothian as the Trojans took second with the nation\'s second fastest time at 7:53.77.
The boys\' individual sprinting events were all wins by non-Virginians, but nonetheless, many Virginians came away with high placings and some of the state\'s fastest times of the season.
While the 55 meter dash went to Robert Woodard of The Bullis School (MD), Bayside\'s Isaac Madison posted the state\'s second fastest time in the prelims with a clocking of 6.38.
Reggie Witherspoon from Georgia ranaway with the 300 meter dash as he clocked the nation\'s leading time and the third fastest all-time with his amazing time of 33.31, but in the event Raymond Williams of Varina was the top Virginian as he finished fourth overall coming out of the seventh heat with a time of 35.34 (third fastest in the state).
North Carolina\'s North Forsyth racked up a few victories at Tech including Clay Ragan\'s 1:05.28 win in the 500 meter run. However, two Central Region runners might have fared even better if they were in the top heat with Ragan as both Patrick Henry senior Eric Joyce (3rd, 1:06.15) and Atlee senior Anthony Easter (4th, 1:06.17) were both heat winners with impressive runs.
After calming cruising a 1:58 leg on the 4x800 the night before. Thomas Dale senior Alex Tatu almost hit that same pace as in a similar collectively calm manner breezed through the competition in a fiercely contested 1000 meter run with a better of his national leading time in a 2:30.09 clocking. The race featured the likes of elite national miler Matt Debole of North Carolina (5th, 2:33.65) and Denbigh sophomore Derrick Robbins (7th, 2:34.83), but his main competition turned out to be in the next heat as second heat winner Daniel Kane of Louisa (2nd, 2:31.49) and the Midlothian pair of Andrew Baker (3rd, 2:33.12) and Taylor Matthews (2:33.43) rounded out an impressive top four.
Tatu came back later on the day to challenge another North Carolina harrier in Bobby Mack as a fresh Mack led the field from the get go with a 60 second first 400 meters. Tatu laid back behind Mack with Rockbridge\'s John Crews as the two kept within striking distance of Mack. However, Mack never relinquished the lead as he finished with a national best time of 4:12.23 as Tatu closed well for second to run the nation\'s third fastest time at 4:14.17 to complete an amazing 1000/1600 double for the day. Crews took third with an impressive time of 4:17.08 after a hard 3200 meter run the night before.
On Friday Night in the 3200 meter run, a colossal battle was to be waged between Crews and Fork Union senior Kippy Keino. Keino, usually a hard pace pusher from the gun, took an unusual tactic of letting Crews lead instead. This strategy turned out to backfire for Keino as it only played into the hands of the hard closing Crews broke away from Keino in the second mile and Keino was unable to follow as Crews won in a time of 9:14.99. Keino took a respectable second place finishing time of 9:21.53 with Green Run junior Steven Walters rounding out a fast top three with his time of 9:25.04.
Petersburg's Terry Thornton ended up finishing in the middle of an out of state sandwich as he took second in the 55 meter hurdles with a state best time of 7.49 as Marquise Harris of West Charlotte, North Carolina (7.48) took the narrow win with Deyon Williams of Suitland, Maryland (7.49) finishing just behind Thornton for third.
Menchville's Yvette Lewis had an amazing day in the field events. Lewis, the current state leader in both horizontal jumping events, was dominant at her specialty as she won the long jump (18-10.50) and triple jump (40-6.75), while also taking second in the high jump (5-5).
While Sara Young of South Carolina was clearly the top female pole vaulter on the day as she won the event with the nation's ninth best mark at 12-00.00, two Virginians were battling it out for second in a closely contested match between the state's best. Current state leader Rhian Jenks of Prince George was able to hold off number two ranked Jessica Clendenning of Hickory as Jenks took second in a jump off at 11-0.
With Prince William County schools not able to come due to traveling safety issues, the absence of state leading shot put thrower Tiffany Evans of Gar-Field was clearly noticed. Nonetheless, this gave the window of opportunity for other state throwers to shine and one that rose to the occassion was Highland Spring's Whitney Gordon as she took the event with a toss of 40-7.
The Bethel girls stood their ground against some of the nation's top sprint relays as Lady Bruins finished second in the 4x200 (1:41.48) and third in the 4x400 (3:57.50) meter relays as both times now rank Bethel top in the state.
The Kellam girls proved they are one of the top 4x800 meter relays in the nation as they won the event on Friday night with a smoking time of 9:30.39 as the time currently puts them third in the nation.
While no Virginian could match or beat such caliber athletes as two national leaders in Courtney Champion of Georgia (6.92) in the 55 meter dash and Tiandra Ponteen of Maryland (37.85) in the 300 meter dash, two Bethel Bruins made respectable showings as Francena McCrorory finished runner-up (7.22) in the 55 to Champion and Britni Spruill took third (40.14) in the 300 to Ponteen.
Tallwood junior Faraign Giles staked her claim as the top 500 meter runner in the state as well as one of the best in the nation at the distance as she ran the nation's third fastest time with her 1:14.61 win.
Everyone in Virginia knows how talented and incredible Fauquier sophomore Sarah Bowman really is. The rest of the nation is beginning to take notice now after her incredible double win at Tech. To start off her racing Friday, Bowman blitzed the field en route to breaking Kelley Otstott's (formerly of Thomas Jefferson) meet record time by over four seconds with her national leading time of 2:53.19. Bowman then came back later on Saturday afternoon to run the nation's fifth fastest time in the 1600 as well as run a personal best for herself in winning the event in a time of 4:54.68. The 1600 featured two other talented runners in Heather Iatauro of New York (2nd, 4:57.36) and Hickory's Jennifer Boyd (4:57.53).
Boyd's finish and time in the 1600 meter run was more impressive when you consider the amazing effort she gave the night before in winning the 3200 meter run with the nation's third fastest time in a runaway victory time of 10:52.22.
Adding to her success in the field events, Yvette Lewis of Menchville took runner-up honors (8.31) in the 55 meter hurdles as she was just outleaned by Tiffany Nesfield from Maryland for first.