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LEXINGTON, VA -- The Keydet Invitational went away from its traditional meet format of years past with more individual events and teams than in years past. The result of the changes were a higher quality meet with strong depth in many events. Many new events set records that may survive the test of time, while other traditional events at the VMI were also broken as well.
Kicking off the meet untraditionally in the running events was the first ever running of the 3200 meter run. The boys and girls\' race featured two of the state\'s best distance runners in Northside junior Catherine White and West Springfield junior Mike Spooner.
After winning the 1600 and 3200 meter races at last weekend\'s Montgomery Invitational in Maryland, White raced this weekend at VMI and came up with best performance yet this season as she clocked a personal best indoor time of 10:48.63 in the 3200 meter run. White won convincingly by 42 seconds as Millbrook\'s Jillian Pollack (11:30.85) beat out Brentsville\'s Becky Stewart (11;34.56) for runner-up honors.
Spooner likewise had a strong solo effort as he blasted a 4:37 first 1600 meters and came back with a 4:50 second 1600 meters to win with a state leading time of 9:27.91. A personal best for Spooner, the state\'s current state leader at both 1600 and 3200 meters won by 18 seconds over Jason Driscoll of Battlefield (9:46.59). Spooner and Driscoll were two of four runners to dip under 10 minutes in the event with Nick Gehlsen of Brentsville (9:52.24) and Patrick Quinn of North Stafford (9:52.69) also posting solid times.
Huguenot\'s Wynetta Kirby earned her spot on the state leaderboard in winning the high jump with a personal best clearance of 5-7. Kirby also picked up her second victory of the meet with a first place finish in the 55 meter hurdles with her 8.69 clocking. Both of her performances broke old meet records.
In an exciting competition in the girls\' pole vault, Monticello\'s Emma Pelton took the win over Franklin County\'s Erin Patterson as both athletes cleared a height of ten feet and went over the previous meet record of nine feet and nine inches.
All of the girls\' field events saw new meet records being set.
In a battle between two of Group AA\'s top throwers, Christiansburg\'s Hope Creasy (41-0) easily got the best of Bruton\'s Ashley Williams (36-0) as Creasy has to be considered a heavy favorite going into the March state meet.
Charlottesville\'s Rashawnda James eclipsed the old meet record set by Angela Jenkins of Buffalo Gap by just over a foot with her winning mark of 17-4.25 in the long jump. Meanwhile, the William Fleming duo of Jasmine Bethel (36-3.75) and Omni Ashford (36-0.25) swept the top two places in the triple jump as Bethel set a new meet record.
Blackburg\'s Ariel Burbey continued her dominating indoor season as she not only won a close mile race over Cave Spring\'s Rachel Travitz (5:22.98) in the girls\' mile with a time of 5:21.83, but also helped her team to strong relay finishes with a first place in the 4x800 meter relay (10:09.81) and a second place in the 4x400 meter relay (4:20.12) behind Osbourn Park. Osbourn Park\'s time of 4:13.96 set a new meet record.
The Osbourn Park girls nearly had two record breaking relay wins, but the James Robinson girls spoiled those plans in the 4x200 meter relay with their 1:50.57 clocking over Osbourn Park\'s time of 1:51.32.
Marie Fields of James Monroe had one of the top performances of the day as she swept all three sprinting events in the 55 (7.36), 300 (43.07), and 500 (1:22.68) meter dashes. Her times in the 55 and 300 meter dashes set new meet records as she was the only athlete in the meet to win more than two events.
The Huguenot boys had a very successful meet as shown with bringing home first place hardware as a team with their total of 46 points. In the sprint relays, the Huguenot boys broke both the meet and facility high school records in the 4x200 (1:35.35) and 4x400 (3:33.29) meter relays.
In the 300 meter dash, Huguenot had the fastest two runners on the day with Brian Lee (37.30) and Donnie Seward (37.77) finishing 1-2 in the event, while also both dipping under the meet and facility high school records.
The private schools were well represented with three event winners in Angelo Fuller of Roanoke Catholic in the 55 meter dash a 6.70, Trevor Bray of Greenbrier Christian Academy in the shot put (52-8.50), and Axel Mostrag of Fork Union in the mile run.
Unable to compete in next weekend\'s Virginia Tech Invitational due to sanction rules against certain private schools, Mostrag had fellow Polish patriot and Fork Union teammate Szymon Rolla pace him through a good portion of the race to try and post a fast time to be given consideration for the Milrose Mile. Unfortunately, Rolla posted too hot of a pace for Mostrag as they went through the quarter mile in 60 seconds and the half mile in 2:05. Mostrag slowed considerably in the last portion of the race to finish still in a meet and facilit record time of 4:26.50.
Current state and national leader in the high jump, Anthony Bryant of Albemarle won the high jump competition with a clearance of 6-6 as he outdid Marlon Woods of Booker T. Washington at 6-4 to set a new meet record.
However, Woods did not leave Lexington empty handed as he had first place finishes in the long jump (22-4) and 55 meter hurdles (7.75) as both performances set meet records. Woods nearly made it three wins for the day, but Brandon Caleb of Fork Union leaped to a mark three inches more than Woods (45-5.50) in the triple jump at 45-8.50.
In a battle between two of the Valley District and Group AA\'s top vaulters, Harrisonburg\'s Tim Beierle (13-6) bested Spotswood\'s Eric Slowinski (13-3) in a matchup that will be revisited many times this season.
While Fort Defiance had headaches all cross country season with four solid runners and lacking a fifth man, the 4x800 meter relay does not necessitate a strong fifth man as the Fort Defiance boys broke the meet and facility record in the event in an exciting battle with West Springfield (8:24.98) with a time of 8:20.28.
Patrick Henry\'s Tim Glenn ran a time of 1:08.83 as he topped Tommy Barrineau of James Robinson (1:09.32) to win the 500 meter dash.
