Day 1 Highlights:
- Defending Central Region indoor triple jump champion Christian Rogers debuted at Boo Williams Sportsplex with a national leading mark in the triple jump of 48'4". The US #1 mark was a personal best for the Manchester senior by nearly a full foot from his previous best performance of 47'4.75" in a third place finish in last June's VHSL Group AAA State Outdoor Championships.
- Hampton junior Chantel Ray did not wait long to run under 8 seconds again in the 55 meter hurdles. After joining a short list of past Virginians to have run under 8 seconds in the indoor hurdles event last year as a sophomore at 7.99, Ray bested that time in her first hurdles race of the season with a US #1 clocking of 7.97 in the hurdles finals on Friday night. The performance moves her up to #10 all-time in Virginia high school history to be tied with Western Branch's Tiffany Ellick from her 7.97 performance last year.
- Phoebus sophomore Carolyn Brown is already a VA top 5 all-time performer in the 55 meter dash from a sizzling 6.96 clocking last year as a freshmen in the state meet and finds herself before New Year's Day already running under 7 seconds to set herself up for faster times in 2013. The Brown won the 55 meter dash running away from the finals field in a 6.99 clocking, which is your national leader by over a tenth of a second.
- Western Branch's Aaron Simpson had a breakthrough victory in the 55 meter hurdles as he was able to defeat freshmen phenom Grant Holloway of Grassfield in the finals with state leading time of 7.42. A huge improvement for Simpson from last indoor track season when he had a season best of 7.69 in the 55 meter hurdles and finished 9th in state meet finals.
- Victories continued for the Western Branch boys in the 55 meter dash finals with junior Mondryl Glover becoming only the second Virginian sprinter to dip under 6.50 indoors in the 55 meter dash this winter with a 6.48 performance at Boo Williams, which ranks Western Branch's Glover as the fourth fastest in the nation currently
- Without much competition to push them, the Western Branch boys rolled to a state auto qualifier in the 4x800 meter relay in 8:08.47 in winning the event by a margin of 24 seconds. Their time is the state's fastest on the season by four seconds as well
- Nansemond River freshmen Brandee Johnson won the high school 400 meter dash in a sub 60 second performance with her 59.94 clocking after also running a 7.33 PR in the 55 meter dash finals, but Johnson did not have the fastest girls 400 time on the day as the middle school 400 race contested was won by 8th grader for Bethel in Mariah Burrell with an impressive run for the class of 2017 athlete in 59.66.
Day 2 Highlights:
- Tallwood's Steven Dunbar matched his state leading height of 6'7" in the high jump with his second clearance on the season at the heigh, which ranks him #2 in the United Staes. Dunbar's consistency could reward him later in the season with his first state title.
- Western Branch sophomore Milan Parks won the long jump competition early on Saturday morning with a mark of 18'4", which ties her with another Virginian in Group AA star athlete Javanique Burruss of Louisa County as not only the state leader, but the national leader in the event. She was a runner-up in Friday's 55 meter dash finals to Brown with a 7.28 clocking and able to improve an inch and a half from her impressive freshmen year best of 18'2.50" in the long jump on Saturday.
- Western Branch swept the shuttle hurdle relay races in the morning with the Western Branch boys featuring new 55 meter hurdles state leader Aaron Simpson winning in a meet record time of 31.75, which could stand as a US #1 for some time in the rarely contested relay event.
- Kellam senior Abby Motley won her second straight 1600 meter race at major invitational. After a sub 5:20 run last weekend to take first at CNU, Motley was able to run away from the Maggie Walker duo of Rachel Galton (2nd, 5:23) and Daisy Banta (3rd, 5:28), two USATF Junior Olympic All-Americans in cross country earlier this month, with Motley just missing a meet record performance in a 5:19.25 victory.
- York junior Dawson Connell won the boys 1600 in a Group AA state qualifying time of 4:26.30 with a 7 second victory on his closest competition in the race.
- After sweeping the shuttle hurdle relays earlier in the meet, the Western Branch track team was able to achieve the same feat with both boys and girls' relays winning the 4x200's as well. The Western Branch girls found themselves in a tight race with Elizabeth Seton (2nd, 1:46.86) of Maryland before coming out on top in VA #2 time of 1:46.52. The Tabb girls ran a very swift time for a Group AA school in third place in the fast section at 1:47.44. Meanwhile, the Western Branch boys ran one of the fastest flat track times in the nation in the 4x200 with their US #4 clocking of 1:31.99 to finish ahead of a Oscar Smith squad (2nd, 1:32.49) featuring 2012 Group AAA 500 and 300 dash state champ Michael Cherry.
- Kellam runners took both 800 meter races with junior Rachel Lewis winning the girls' race decisively by four seconds in a time of 2:24.90 (outdoor best of 2:20), while teammate and Eastern Region cross country champion Billy Boros romped the boys' field by four seconds in a 1:59.66 victory.
- Carolyn Brown moved to the top of the national leaderboard in a second event with a 25.17 clocking in the 200 meter dash to break the facility record. The Phoebus sophomore has run much faster outdoors in the 200 at 24.58, but a swift time nonetheless indoors, which puts her well ahead of the second fastest in the nation currently.
- Defending New Balance Outdoor Nationals 400 meter dash champion Michael Cherry of Oscar Smith made his indoor season debut this weekend at Boo Williams and in his first individual race, Cherry became the new national leader in the 200 meter dash with a facility record breaking 22.31 performance. Cherry will be a favorite to repeat as the Group AAA state 500 and 300 meter champion.
- After settling for second in the triple jump yesterday to Manchester's Christian Rogers, Tallwood's Rafael Moore was able to get first on Saturday in the long jump with a leap of 22'1" to edge out Manchester's Micah Todd by three inches for the best mark in the field.
- Margaret Aydlett, a 9th grader at Tallwood, won the girls 3200 easily by 37 seconds as she was able to dip just under 12 minutes in a time of 11:59.66.
- Tabb sophomore Baron Kieffer was an All-State cross country finisher in Group AA this past fall and based off his 9:54.51 3200 meter performance on Saturday at Boo Williams, appears ready to become an All-State runner during this indoor track season as well.
- The Western Branch and Tabb girls battled down to the wire in the 4x400 meter relay with both teams flirting at running times near 4 minutes flat, but the Western Branch girls came out as the winners by five hundredths of a second in a US #5 time of 4:02.57, while Tabb girls will be tough to beat in the Group AA state meet following a US #7 4:02.62 runner-up performance at the winter break meet.
- The fast section of the boys 4x400 meter relay matched the girls with a great duel between two schools in Oscar Smith (US #4 3:27.30) and Hampton (US #7 3:27.89) producing the state's fastest two times in the relay event. Hampton held strong against a Oscar Smith featuring one of the nation's best quarter milers in Michael Cherry, who earlier ran a US #1 time in the 200 meter dash.
Boo Williams Winter Break Invitational: