Bulldog Invitational Highlights

 

Photo by Ryan Kelly

 

Highlights:

• Big mark in the triple jump from Charlottesville senior David Johnson, who improved upon his state leading mark with a US #3 leap of 48'1". The defending Group AA state champion has a personal best of 48'7.25" in the event from outdoor, but his performance at the Bulldog Invite is an indoor best.
   
• Monacan senior Kaila Blackburn and Cave Spring sophomore Katie Fortner dueled it out in the 1600 and 1000 meter races to come away with a pair of sensational times for both runners. Blackburn won the 1600 over Fortner (5:01.55) with a seven second PR and state leading time (and US #7) of 4:58.56, while Fortner was able to just edge out Blackburn (US #9 2:58.00) with a US #8 performance of 2:57.89.
   
• Blacksburg junior Nick Link continues to roll out swift 3200 meter times at Liberty this winter. Link ran his third 3200 meter time this season in the 9:30s range this season with his most recent race on Saturday being a VA #8 9:32.48 PR. Runner-up David Cedillo of Brookville had dipped just under 10 minutes last spring, but made a huge drop in his first 3200 of the indoor season with a time of 9:37 from his previous PR of 9:58.
   
• Defending Group AA state champion Rochelle Evans threw for over 40 feet the first time this season (Evans has a personal best of 45'9") with a VA #2 mark of 40'3.50".
   
• Returning Group A state outdoor high jump champion Thomas Napper of Nelson County picked up where he left off last June with a VA #4 clearance of 6'5" at the Bulldog Invite. Napper was only an inch below his winning height at the VHSL Group A State Outdoor Championships.
   
• 2011 VISAA state indoor 500 meter champion William Miller of Liberty Christian pulled away from the Christiansburg pair of Nicholas Restrepo (1:08.90) and De'Quan Green-Gause (1:09.13) with a VA #3 1:07.02 victory. Restrepo and Green-Gause came back later to run on the Christiansburg 4x400 meter relay which ran a Group AA best and VA #8 time of 3:32.48.
   
• Kate Buss of Blacksburg has ran three 3200's at Liberty University this season already and has progressively dropped her time in each race going from to 11:30 at the Liberty Christmas Invite to 11:18 at the Liberty Elite Invite to a VA #8 11:08.25 PR at Saturday's Bulldog Invite.
   
• Hayfield's Sheyda Khodaei who last indoor season starred on South County's swift relays, leaped to a VA #7 mark of 36'6.75" which is just off the automatic state qualifying mark in Group AAA.

• Close finish between the Blacksburg boys (8:17.00) and Forest Park boys (8:17.08) in the 4x800 meter relay, while the same schools were the top 2 in the girls' 4x800 as well but the Forest Park girls were runaway winners in a time of 9:47.

 

Bulldog Invitational Complete Results

 

Below are the performances entered for the meet that met the national silver standard.

25 National Elites.