Kiara Porter

Check out how our Virginia high school alumni did this week in the collegiate ranks.

  The daughter of two former high school track stars, Tabb junior Micah Hanks had a naturally good gene pool to pull from to eventually become a track star herself. Hanks has a lot of momentum heading into next weekend's VHSL Group AA State Indoor Championships after throwing down an impressive triple at the Region I Championships in winning all three sprint races in personal best times of 7.25 (prelims) in the 55 meter dash, 40.28 in the 300 meter dash, and 1:17.36 in the 500 meter dash. 

    Indian River rising senior Shannon Morton (pictured by Ryan Kelly) chopped 5 seconds off her 1500 meter best to win the AAU age group national title in the young women's division with a performance of 4:39.47. Morton had a late start to her track season due to a stress fracture in cross country, but has finished her junior year off strong as an AAU national champion. Morton also posted a 800 meter PR in June at the AAA State Championships with a 6th place time of 2:13.21. Morton may be featured in the mile more in her senior year after her AAU performance, which converts to a 1600 meter time of 4:59. Read more highlights...

  Day 4 highlights of Virginians at the 2011 AAU Junior Olympic Games in New Orleans. Advancing onto the finals of the intermediate girls' 100 meter hurdles will be two of Virginia's best young talents in the hurdles between Hampton rising sophomore Chantel Ray and Landstown rising junior Leah Lott. Read more AAU JO day 4 highlights...

  Photo by Frank Locascio   Kiara Porter was tired of finishing second. The Tabb High star was runner up in the quarter mile her sophomore and junior year, but got serious her senior season. She started training back in October and November and  hasn't stopped yet. That dedication has propelled Porter to a new level, state champion.  

The Bethel girls ran one of the fastest flat track 4x400 meter relay times in the nation with their 3:51.96 victory at the state meet. The New Balance Nationals this upcoming weekend will be their first opportunity to run faster on a banked track (at the New York Armory), which has the Bethel quartet thinking of breaking their own school record (3:48.91 at 2009 Virginia Tech Invite) and potentially the Virginia high school indoor state record of 3:46.91 by the 2006 Landstown squad at the indoor nationals. (Photo by Ryan Kelly).    A list of all Virginian girls (links to athlete profiles) entered currently in this upcoming weekend's New Balance Indoor Nationals at the New York Armory. MileStat.com will be on-site with coverage from the Armory.

  A list of the top 10 Group AA girls performers in each event (links to full rankings included) through January 12th. Tabb senior Kiara Porter (pictured above by Ryan Kelly) has gotten off to a fast start in the 2010-2011 indoor season as she has been posting fast times on a weekly basis against top Group AAA Eastern Region competition in the sprints. At the Group AA State Meet, Porter will not have to face as much speed and talent as she does regularly at the Boo Williams Sportsplex as she is established herself early as a double state title favorite in the 55 meter dash (7.17) and 300 meter dash (40.16) with her recent personal best wins at the CNU Showcase. Porter has a teammate in Julia Aymonin who is the Group AA 500 meter leader at 1:17.91 and when paired up with Porter have helped make the Tabb girls the swiftest 4x200 (1:49) and 4x400 (4:10) in Group AA this season.

  Photo by Matt Shatkus   MileStat.com will start ranking on a weekly basis the top 10 performances from the previous week. The first edition will include performances from the last week of winter break with the results from the Boo Williams Winter Break Invite, F.I.T. Invitational, and CVTF Clinic Invitational. The Western Branch girls showed themselves to be head and shoulders better than the rest in the state currently in the 4x200 winning by four seconds at Boo Williams against a speedy Phoebus squad with a US #2 performance of 1:40.73 and capable of challenging the state record of 1:39.52 (Bethel - 2004) this season, but was it good enough to be the #1 performance of the week? Find out!

Photo by Ryan Kelly The Jamestown boys and Lafayette girls won Region I indoor track titles on Wednesday at Boo Williams while being lead to titles through distance doubles from their top runners Colin Mearns and Heidi Peterson. Mearns had the top performance of the meet as he outdueled Grafton's David Gunnerson (2:33) for a US #11 2:30.76 victory in the 1000 meter run.   Region I Championships Complete Results