Mountain View senior Kimberley Ficenec stands alone as the only athlete or relay from this past weekend's Group AAA State Indoor Track & Field Championships at the Boo Williams Sportsplex in Hampton to have set a new meet record. Ficenec's winning time of 2:51.46 (also US #7 in 2011-2012 season) took down a 12 year existing meet record held by Kecoughtan's Elizabeth Bayne from the 2000 State Championships at 2:53.90. After doubling back from a sub 5 minute runner-up 1600 meter performance to Megan Moye, Ficenec had plenty of competition to press her to the record time as the race turned out to be the fastest ever in meet history. A total of five runners in the fast section broke into the top 15 all-time performances in meet history with Ficenec, Indian River's Shannon Morton (#2 at 2:52.67), Midlothian's Skylar Evans (#5 at 2:54.58) and Marie Johnston (#9 at 2:55.17), and West Potomac's Sarah Jane Underwood (#15 at 2:56.49).
Speaking of Megan Moye, the Cosby senior had one of the best distance triples ever in meet history starting on Friday with a 2:07.41 F.A.T. anchor leg split to give her 4x800 meter relay team the victory in a #5 all-time meet performance of 9:16.65. She followed on Saturday with a pair of individual wins in the 1600 and 3200 meter races producing remarkable times of 4:53 and 10:25 respectively. Both races ranked her #2 all-time in meet history behind the great Erin Keogh of Langley, who was a former two mile national record holder and Foot Locker/Kinney Nationals cross country champion in the 1980s. Lake Braddock's Sophie Chase made Moye work hard for her third win of the meet and her efforts resulted in Chase moving to #4 all-time in meet history with her second place time of 10:29.66.
No meet records were found in the boys' results for this year's meet, but some athletes and relays positioned well inside the top 10 on many all-time lists. Annandale senior Ahmed Bile's virtually time trialed run in the 1000 puts him only behind American mile record holder (both professional & high school) Alan Webb with his sizzling time of 2:26.44. Bile has two of the top three times in meet history at 1000 meters when including his win last year in the event.
Prior to this year, only four girls had gone under 8 seconds in the 55 meter hurdles at the AAA State Meet. After Saturday's finals, that number almost doubled. Western Branch had a pair making names for themselves in meet history with a 1-2 finish from Taranisha Taylor (#5 at 7.95) and Tiffany Ellick (#6 at 7.97), while Hampton sophomore inserted herself into the top 10 list with her 7.99 clocking for third place.
The high jump state champions from the Central Region tied with several other past great jumpers in their winning clearances this weekend. J.R. Tucker's Nick Simmons is now tied with 7 others at the #3 spot with his victorious height of 6'10", while Matoaca sophomore Brianna Hayes will be inserted on the all-time list with 10 others at 5'8" for the 4th best performance in meet history.
Oscar Smith junior Michael Cherry was the lone sprinter for boys to make a major dent into the all-time meet list. In his extremely difficult and impressive double of winning both the 500 and 300 meter dash state title, Cherry is now ranked 13th in the 500 at 1:04.30 and 8th in the 300 with a 34.08 clocking. Read more athletes and relays performances making their way into the Group AAA State Indoor Championships all-time list below.