Zach Link

Here are the all-time best boys in the steeplechase.

Here are the top 1,000 times from Great Meadow's non-state course.

Here are the all-time best times from Sugar Hollow

Full meet summary to come, but complete results, photo gallery, and race videos are now posted below from Virginia Tech.   Virginia Tech Invitational Meet Page w/ Complete Results & Coverage   Virginia Tech Invitational Race Videos   Virginia Tech Invitational Photo Gallery by Andrew Kicinski - 3,000 photos total       Boys 4x400 - DeMatha Catholic (MD) US #3 3:19.83 Girls 4x400 - Wakefield (NC) US #3 3:51.86 Boys Invitational Mile Run - Cody Snyder (Lee-Davis VA) 4:18.29 Girls Invitational Mile Run - Megan Moye (Cosby VA) 5:00.31 Boys 1600 Meter Run - Zach Link (Blacksburg VA) 4:25.41 Girls 1600 Meter Run - Sarah Rapp (Cardinal Gibbons NC) 5:05.83 Boys 500 Meter Dash - Kenneth Williams (Woodrow Wilson VA) US #5 1:05.02 Girls 500 Meter Dash - Shannon Morton (Indian River VA) US #10 1:16.73 Boys 55 Meter Dash - Ronald Darby (Potomac MD) 6.31 (current US leader at 6.28) Girls 55 Meter Dash - Olicia Sharp (Wakefield NC) 7.11 Boys 55 Hurdles - Daniel McFadden (Heritage) 7.39 (current US leader at 7.37) Girls 55 Hurdles - Dannielle Davis (Southeast Raleigh NC) 7.98 (ran US #2 7.95 in prelims) Boys 300 - Sean Sutton (Good Counsel MD) US #1 34.35 Girls 300 - Ariah Graham (Wakefield NC) US #2 38.88 Boys 1000 - Ahmed Bile (Annandale VA) US #13 2:32.99 Girls 1000 - Annie LeHardy (Hidden Valley VA) US #7 2:56.79 Girls 4x200 - Wakefield (NC) US #3 1:40.72 Boys 4x200 - Suitland (MD) US #2 1:29.58 (already US #1 at 1:27.79)

The Midlothian boys won the Nike Cross Southeast Regionals, while the Hidden Valley girls will be sending a pair of individuals in Annie LeHardy and Haley Cutright to nationals with second and fourth place finishes respectively. Two Virginia schools finished among the top four in the championship girls' team standings, but outside of the top two automatic places with Hidden Valley taking third and Midlothian placing fourth. Western Albemarle's Derek Armstrong just missed becoming one of the five individual qualifiers as the seventh place finisher overall. Read Full Meet Summary...     NXN Southeast Regional Meet Page w/ Complete Results, Photos, & Videos Photo Gallery by Frank Locascio - 815 photos total. Photo Gallery by Brandon Miles - More photos to be added later on Sunday. Race Videos: Championships Boys - Championship Girls - Open Boys - Open Girls Video Interviews: Midlothian Boys - Annie LeHardy/Haley Cutright - Derek Armstrong

A half dozen boys' teams and half dozen girls' teams from the state of Virginia will travel to Cary, North Carolina this weekend to compete against the best high school cross country teams in the entire Southeast Region at the Nike Cross Nationals qualifier held at WakeMed Soccer Complex. The Midlothian program, coached by Stan Morgan, leads the group of Virginia squads after sweeping the state team titles in the Group AAA races at Great Meadow two weekends ago. The last time which Midlothian swept both team titles back in 2006, both teams also advanced and were selected by committee to compete at the Nike Cross Nationals. The qualifying system is much different in 2010 as both teams will need to finish in the top two at the regional qualifier race on Saturday for an automatic berth, while a third or fourth place finish will make them eligible for at-large consideration.

MileStat.com's final individual rankings (top 25 deep) for Group AAA, Group AA, and Group A as well as Cream of the Crop (All-Class) before this Saturday's VHSL State Championships at Great Meadow.

Cooler temperatures after this week's rain certainly boded well for runners and teams to take advantage to run fast times on Saturday with many getting an opportunity to compete on fairly quick 5K courses for the first time this season. Meet summaries below from this weekend's meets. Links to meet pages with results below. MileStat.com was on-site at the Octoberfest Invite, so expect many photos and race videos to be uploaded soon.     Octoberfest Invitational  - The varsity A boys race at Octoberfest saw a great individual battle between two potential state champions in the next meet held at Great Meadow between Douglas Freeman senior Silas Frantz and Skyline sophomore Thomas Madden. Frantz and Madden had company on the first loop with DC prep runners John McGowan of Sidwell Friends and Great Meadow Invite champ Collin Leibold of Gonzaga, but Frantz and Madden broke away from the chase pack on the second loop to race for the win. Frantz opened up a lead on Madden after the two mile mark, but Madden nearly closed up that distance in the final stretch with the Freeman senior Frantz holding off the Skyline underclassmen Madden (2nd, 15:31) for 1 second win in a PR time of 15:30. The race featured two of the state's top young distance runners with Madden and Chantilly sophomore Sean McGorty looking like a serious contender for the Northern Region title finishing fourth with a 15:45 5K personal best performance at Octoberfest.   The Stafford boys are legit. There will be no more written about how this team has continued to overarchieve at invitationals this season including a surprise win at the Oatlands Invite last Saturday. Coach Pete Augrom's squad will be a serious player in the competitive Northwest Region as well as at the state meet. Stafford boys finished second to the Gonzaga (DC) in the team scoring with 153 points, but well ahead of some quality programs including Commonwealth District and Northwest Region rival Riverbend (5th, 239 pts) and Group AA state meet podium caliber teams Skyline (3rd, 205 pts) and Potomac Falls (4th, 231 pts). Stafford's top four finishers came across the finish line in a 31 second span with Tyler Oliver (10th, 16:10), Greg Bohmke (19th, 16:31), Ian Macleod (24th, 16:38), and Joey Abbatiello (26th, 16:41).     To add onto a great day for the Stafford program was Hannah Lowery getting back into the winner's circle following a bump in the road last week at Oatlands taking second to Cosby's Megan Moye. While the sophomore Lowery no longer can have an undefeated season, she has been having pretty close to a perfect season as her race at Great Meadow on Saturday was the best yet as Lowery clocked a personal best time of 18:11 to win decisively against a field with included more than a handful of VA top 25 ranked individuals. While Lowery has won four invitationals this season, Millbrook's Crystal Nelson has won none but her races have been consistently impressive with second and third places to make her one of the top Group AA performers so far this cross country season including a runner-up 18:23 PR behind Lowery on Saturday. Two of the state's fastest freshmen girls raced head-to-head at Octoberfest with Hanover's Molly Breidenbaugh (3rd, 18:31) and Robert E. Lee's Bailey Kolonich (7th, 18:56).   The Thomas Jefferson girls raced a 5K for only the second time this season, but on a faster course and better weather than last week at Oatlands to not only remain undefeated this season in invitational competition but to run fast times while doing it. For a second straight meet, one of their top runners Lisa Junta was held out healing from injury, but the TJ girls still put all of their top 7 seven under 21 minutes to average 19:57 as a team and a top 5 spread of 54 seconds. It was not as much of a blowout win as Oatlands though with Ocean Lakes girls showing themselves as not only the top team from the Eastern Region, but a squad which can return to Great Meadow in November to mix it up with the top Group AAA teams at the state meet finishing only 16 points behind Group AAA #1 ranked Thomas Jefferson (133 pts) with a team score of 149 points. Ocean Lakes was actually ahead of Thomas Jefferson by five points through four runners, but Rachel Kuprenas (41st, 20:20) came through for TJ in the all important fifth runner spot to secure the team title.   Great American Festival - Read meet summary article.   VMI Invitational - Math and odds say 7 against 1 is not a fair fight, which is what Group AAA top ranked Andrew Catanese was up against at the VMI Invitational with his only competition being the VA #1 ranked Blacksburg boys' top 7. Catanese was not doubled teamed by Blacksburg, but septupled by them as he finished with a time of 16:05 third behind personal best 5K runs from George Carter (15:44) and Zach Link (15:55). Outside of Catanese, Blacksburg team trialed the meet taking the next four places with Frank Locascio (4th, 16:07), Anthony Noegel (5th, 16:31), Matthew Paiser (6th, 16:41), and Caman Skelton (7th, 16:45). Albemarle freshmen Ryan Thomas was not racing with the Albemarle top 7 at Great American, but may joining the varsity lineup at some point this season especially after his 8th place finish at VMI with time of 16:49 to slip inside Blacksburg's top 7 and ahead of Blacksburg seventh runner Nick Link (9th, 16:50).   Hannah Brown was held out from racing for the Blacksburg, but her team still won easily without her tallying a team score of 35 points led by individual race champion Sarah Dorrell who posted a time of 19:07 on the VA Horse Center 5K course in Lexington. The Christiansburg girls were a respectable second place with 77 points and three runners among the top 15 under 21 minutes. Jefferson Forest's Leigha Schimmoeller appears to have returned to her top form from last cross country with her second straight strong race with a runner-up 19:29 showing at VMI.   Hagan Stone XC Classic  - The Lee-Davis boys and West Springfield girls won team titles in the championship division at Hagan Stone as while the VA #15 West Springfield girls claimed their first place trophy comfortably by 32 points, the Lee-Davis boys squeaked out a win on a sixth runner tiebreaker against Cardinal Gibbons (NC) with 140 points. Cody Snyder led the charge for the Lee-Davis boys as he tackled the course and competitive field with four others under 16 minutes by kicking to a 15:43 individual victory. West Springfield's Colin Taylor finished among the top 10 with a season best time of 16:10, while Snyder's teammate Robbie Longest ran a big PR of 16:32 for 12th place.   The West Springfield girls may not currently have the front runner like the Lee-Davis girls did in Bonny Turnage as the sophomore finished second against one of Tennessee's top runners in Molly Foster of Science Hill (18:27) with a season best 5K time of 18:37, but the Northern Region squad is well packed and exhibits depth. A 56 second spread and only 14 places separated West Springfield's top runner Maddie Wittich (8th, 19:18) and their fifth and final scorer Marlena Allen (22nd, 20:14) for a winning team score of 73 points. The Lee-Davis girls were champions at Hagan Stone one year ago and despite losing two of their top three runners returned a formidable squad to finish only three points off second place with 118 points.   Wendy's Invitational - The VA #5 ranked Bishop O'Connell girls decided to take it easy on the public schools in Virginia that they have been beating up on this season and instead unleash on the top teams in North Carolina and South Carolina which gather annually at the Wendy's Invitational in Charlotte. The O'Connell girls won the invitational team title with 139 points and team average of 19:04 as much of the team success could be attributed to stellar races from their front three all running under 18:45 on the fast McAlpine Greenway 5K course (Foot Locker South course). O'Connell senior Sarah McCarthy continues to race like the best private school runner in Virginia as she challenged the race leaders on Saturday before settling for a big PR time of 18:18 for third place. Also clocking significant drops in their previous bests were teammates Devin Nihill (8th, 18:42) and Emily Blagg (9th, 18:43). Rounding out their team scoring were Nicole Carty (58th, 19:47) and Ashley Stumvoll (61st, 19:51).   The Oakton girls finished 9th in the invite division with a 51 second spread with their top five all nearly under 20 minutes, while the Oakton boys were 10th with Michael NcNamee posting the team's fastest time of 16:14 for a 30th place individual finish. Abingdon had a much better team showing in the 3A boys race as a very small gap of only 26 separated their top five finishers between Tanner Cook (14th, 16:36) and Colby Hincher (37th, 17:02). With their third place team effort at McAlpine, Abingdon looks to be running well enough to become a potential Region IV runner-up behind VA #1 ranked Blacksburg.   Panther Invitational - After competing in several high pressure meets against top competition already this season, the West Potomac boys and girls got a chance to compete in a more low key meet and focus on running fast 5K times in the first annual Panther Invitational hosted by Bruton High at New Quarter Park in Williamsburg. The West Potomac boys tallied a low team score of 18 points with seven of the top nine finishers as Brady Corum had his best race of the season to win the individual title in 16:31 followed by five other teammates under 17 minutes in Mark Hanak (2nd, 16:40), Khoki Bernier (3rd, 16:45), Ben Aleixo (5th, 16:52), and Marc Lotterie (7th, 16:59). Only Patrick Henry's Julian Menk (4th, 16:50) and Stone Bridge's Brady Guertin (6th, 16:55) were able to break up West Po's top seven.   The top three for the West Potomac girls ran away from the field to make it a sweep for Sarah Jane Underwood (1st, 19:22), Dale Lescher (2nd, 19:23), and Sophia Passacantado (3rd, 19:33). Their team score of 22 points was more than half the score of the team runners-up from Stone Bridge (48 pts).   North County Classic - Patrick Woodford of Patrick Henry and Erin Wheeler of Northside both won individually at Northside High School's home 5K course while also helping their teams to titles as well. Wheeler put 1 minute and 16 seconds on her nearest competition in her 19:58 clocking, while Woodford dominated his race as well by 42 seconds as he crossed the line first in 17:12.   Golden Eagle Invitational - Stuart Robertson pleased the home crowd by winning his school Staunton River's home invitational as the junior clocked in at 16:45 to take the individual title by 35 seconds. Group A school Altavista won the boys' team title against several Group AA schools, while Lindsey Siska and Salem girls spoiled a team sweep for Altavista as Siska won big with her time of 20:27.   Frank Keyser Invitational - The Woodgrove girls won their first invitational team title in the school's history albeit the school has only been open for a month at the Frank Keyser Invite in Maryland. Woodgrove placed five girls in the top 20 as all five runners ran 20:30 or faster on the three mile course at Boonsboro High School. Their top three ran very well with Lyda Cromwell (6th, 19:07), Audrey Houghton (8th, 19:10), and Alex Juzbasich (7th, 19:16) finishing in a short span from each other inside the top 10.

Hannah Brown (pictured above by Frank Locascio) sure picked a difficult course to set a new 5K personal best and break a meet record on. The Blacksburg junior who ran under 5 minutes for 1600 meters and won the Group AA 800 outdoor state title with a 2:12 personal best in the event showed herself to be just as capable of excelling at the 5K distance in her first race of the cross country season by winning the Blue Demon Invitational in a new meet record time of 18:59. Following individual race champion Brown, the Blacksburg put three more runners under 21 minutes on the Christiansburg High School's hilly and challenging home 5K course layout while placing six among the top 15 places for a low team score of 27 points.   The Jefferson Forest girls (64 pts) finished as a respectably solid second place in the team standings with distance and points to spare on the third place and host school Christiansburg girls (110 pts). For the second straight weekend, Cave Spring freshmen Katie Fortner ran strong up front in the field to take runner-up honors and join a short list in the course's history under 20 minutes at 19:40.   The Blacksburg boys put on an even more dominant team display than their female counterparts by flirting with a near perfect score of 15 with only Group AA All-State caliber runner Cody Seymour of Cave Spring able to break up their top five in fourth place with a time of 16:45. Battling it out for first place individually were Blacksburg teammates Frank Locascio and George Carter with Locascio pulling out a slight margin of victory at the end in a time of 16:21 over Carter in second at 16:22. Despite not running one of their top five runners in Anthony Noegel, Blacksburg followed Locascio and Carter pushing the pace up front with Caman Skelton (3rd, 16:36), Zach Link (5th, 16:59), and Matthew Paiser (6th, 17:10) for a 49 second spread and team average of 16:41. A 5K performance under 17 minutes at Christiansburg usually is a good sign for an eventual Group AA All-State finisher, so Blacksburg might have a handful of guys on the podium at Great Meadow come November.   The Abingdon boys certainly stamped themselves as the next best team in Southwest Virginia and Region II following Blacksburg with their runner-up finish and team score of 69 points putting them well ahead of the other teams competing at the Blue Demon Invitational. Abingdon had a great 17 second swarm of finishers for their top four runners finishing between places 8 and 14 as well as times between 17:33 to 17:50.   Blue Demon Invite Results: Varsity Boys - Varsity Girls - JV Boys - JV Girls Race Videos by Tayloe Skelton: Varsity Boys - Varsity Girls - JV Boys - JV Girls Photo Gallery by Frank Locascio Photo Gallery by Tayloe Skelton

Joanna Stevens of Blacksburg and Chris Foley of Chantilly wrapped up Saturday's events for Virginians at Nike Indoor Nationals posting some sizzling and historically impressive two mile times at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston with their All-American performances. Stevens finished fourth in the girls field with a time of 10:12.21 and right behind three of the nation's best runners in Foot Locker Nationals champion Megan Goethals (1st, 10:10), Emily Sisson (2nd, 10:10), and Aisling Cuffe (3rd, 10:11.65) in a breakaway group of top four finishers. Her race at Nike Indoor Nationals is the third fastest indoor performance all-time at the 2 miles or 3200 meter distance in Virginia high school history behind only a 9:57 and 10:07 races from all-time great Erin Keogh.   Meanwhile, the UVA recruit Foley held his own against as well as beating many national caliber distance runners and Foot Locker/NXN finalists from this past fall in his race tonight with a significant personal best run of 9:09.75 for a fourth place All-American honor. Foley's time converts to a 3200 time just over 9:06 and now ranks him just outside of the top 10 all-time in Virginia high school indoor history.   Click for more updates: The Western Branch girls (pictured left by Matt Shaukus) claimed the national title in the 4x200 meter relay and despite not getting the sub 1:40 performance they were looking for on a banked track for the first time, a national championship is a national championship with their time of 1:41.27. Western Branch jumped out to the lead on their opening leg with Shakia Williams and stayed out in first for good with a strong second leg from Keilah Tyson. With no seniors on their relay, Western Branch will be back and stronger in 2011 with an opportunity to become the greatest girls 4x200 all-time in state history and break the state record. (Watch Video Interview w/ Western Branch girls 4x200)   Virginia's other strong favorite to win a national title in a girls' relay on Saturday in the Blacksburg 4xmile had serious aspirations entering this weekend of breaking the national record and a sub 20 goal time with 3 sub 1600 meter runners including two sub 4:50 legs in Kathleen Stevens and Joanna Stevens. However, Blacksburg was not on their "A" game without their "A" team as Kathleen Stevens was unable to run due to sickness today. Not at full strength, they finished with a time well off their goal at 20:24.07 and were defeated by the school who had the national record they were chasing in Saratoga Springs with the Toga girls as champions at 20:15.06. Still a solid national runner-up performance for the young ladies from Blacksburg without Kathleen Stevens.     With all the talk about the Blacksburg girls trying to break the national record which they ended up taking second to Saratoga Springs, many forgot to talk about the Blacksburg boys, who became the Nike Indoor  Nationals champions in the 4xmile relay a time of 17:45.63. Their total time averages out to just over 4:26 per mile leg and sub 4:25 for 1600 meters. The relay team (pictured above by Matt Shautkus) consisted of George Carter, Matt Howard, Quinn Hull, and Zack Link. Despite the event being a 32 lap race, the top two teams had little separation for the final finish with Blacksburg winning by a thrilling 12 hundredths of a second over Shenendehowa (17:45.65) of New York. (Watch Video Interview w/ Blacksburg Boys 4xMile)     Western Branch boys are keeping up with their female counterparts in the All-American and now national titles count as the boys 1600 SMR relay of Jeff Lewis (200), Tevis Snellings (200), Cameron Cipcic (400), and Blake Theroux (800) won at Nike Indoor Nationals in a time of 3:30.71. The state of Virginia was well represented in the event with four of the top 8 teams including three All-American squads in Western Branch, Fork Union (3rd, 3:32.65), and Bethel (4th, 3:32.74). In vain with too much ground to make up, Anthony Kostelac of Albemarle split a 1:51.7 800 meter anchor leg to give his team an 8th place overall finish! (Watch Video Interview w/ Western Branch boys SMR)   More to come from Saturday's action at the Reggie Lewis Center for the 2010 Nike Indoor Nationals.

The Stevens twins of Blacksburg rolled on the notoriously fast road downhill mile race, the Draper Mile in Blacksburg on Friday, clocking the second and third fastest performances all-time in the race's history with Joanna Stevens as the winner at 4:41.5 and twin Kathleen Steven as the runner-up at 4:42.7. The Stevens sisters were second and third in last year's Draper Mile with times of 5:02 (Joanna) and 5:05 (Kathleen) respectively, so both rising seniors were over 20 seconds faster from a year ago.   Winning the men's race was another Blacksburg High runner in rising junior George Carter taking first over two late 20 something's runners in 4:11.3. Carter was fifth in last year's race with a time of 4:26.   Draper Mile - Complete Results