The hyped up duel between Atlee's Brian Ford and Petersburg's Jerome Mathis lived up to his billing. Mathis coming off a currently #1 state best 6.36 55 meter dash, in winning that event earlier in day, finished just behind Ford by .25 (35.70-35.95). Those times put them #1 and #2 in the state currently in the 300 meter dash.
Atlee pole vaulter, Val Osipenko won his 5th major meet of the young indoor season with a height of 14'0".
Louisa County sophomore Daniel Kane ran away with the 3200 meter race with a time of 9:55.97 beating a tough field that included all-state runners such as Thomas Jefferson's John Piersol and Caroline's Christopher Gutridge. Kane's time puts him #1 on the state leader list in the 3200 meter run.
Bethel's Ara Townes, last year's outdoor 100 meter champ, made her first appearance in a major meet this season a good one and just simply destroyed the 55 meter field with a time of 7.19.
Petersburg's Nicole Cook dominated the 300 meter (42.47) and 500 meter (1:22.78) field with wins in both.
Tallwood sophomore Alex Clayton, coming off of a stellar cross country season posted wins in both the 1600 (4:38.14) and 1000 meter (2:38.71) races. When Clayton was asked about how he felt about his performance at the East Coast Invitational, this what he had to say, "Well I was happy with my times and I'm looking forward to Virginia Tech."
There was a surprising winner in the girls' shot put, Latoya Jones of Manchester HS (40'02.50") beat Ayanna Jones of Thomas Jefferson HS (39'10") who had previously thrown for 43 feet at the Vikings All Comers Meet in early December.
Thomas Jefferson's star girls distance runner, Jeannie Addison continues to put up fast times, yet still not being challenged at all so far this season as she easily won the girls 1600 meter race in a time of 5:21.27.
Deep Creek senior Quentin Mathews stayed consistent with what he's been doing all year long...nothing special...just his usual 6'10" high jump as he won that event with ease.
With the large number of fast times and incredible record-breaking perfomances, one athlete's performance at the East Coast Invitational was superior to the rest and that athlete was Dinwiddie long jumper and triple jumper, Joe Ellis. Ellis competed in Richmond Metro Invitational portion of the long jump and triple jump, instead of competing in the more talent-rich Virginia Invitational section. But still he managed to have the best marks of the day in the long jump and the triple jump with marks of 21'10" and 46'07.50". His long jump mark was a meet record. His triple jump at the East Coast Invitational would rank him #1 in the nation and his long jump would put him 5th or 6th depending on which jump he is credited with. His third jump in the prelims was 21-11.5, which got overlooked when the record was posted. All in all this was definitely a breakthrough meet for Joe Ellis and expect big things for him in the future.
This year's East Coast Invitational was exciting with 8 meet records shattered.