John Vial

Here is quite the list of current and former Virginia greats. This list is the top performances ever at Great American.

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

Start of the girls race at Thursday's St. Joseph's Villa. Photo by John Herzog.The 2007 St. Joseph's Villa 5K had a record number of entries and the larger field certainly brought greater competition  as both course records also went down in the women's and men's race. Photos & videos from the Villa to be posted on Friday!  RESULTS: MEN - WOMEN Select Pix by John Herzog - Top 5 finishers and start pics. More to come from Herzog and Brandon Miles Complete Photo Gallery by Brandon Miles - 501 photos total 

This weekend\'s Asics Invitational will be hosted at Liberty University\'s Tolsma Track Center in Lynchburg and will be hosted over two days on Friday and Saturday. The meet will feature four individual state leaders including the likes of Bethel\'s Shakia Forbes and Harrisonburg\'s Tim Beierle as well as the state\'s fastest 4x400 meter relay in the Osbourn Park girls. Events will start at 4:30 PM on Friday and resume again on Saturday at 9:00 AM.

The meet was off to a flying start on Friday in the first day of events at the Christopher Newport University High School Showcase in Newport News. There were three US top five performances recorded during the event and several state leading performances also posted.

The All-MileStat.com Boys Cross Country Team has been selected for the 2006 season. Awards were given out to runner of the year, coach of the year, freshmen of the year, most improved runner of the year, and comeback story of the year. Also being named were first, second, and third teams consisting of seven members for each team. Performances throughout the season were looked at with championship and post-season races being given stronger, but not ultimate consideration. The very unpredictable and inconsistent nature of the sport on a week to week basis makes any selections tough to break down into a science, but our hope is the main goal of trying to give as much as recognition as possible to individuals in the sport is noted and appreciated.

Several tuneup races this weekend for cross country runners looking to continue their seasons onto Foot Locker South next Saturday in Charlotte, North Carolina. Returning Foot Locker All-American in homeschooled junior Aurora Scott appears to be in amazing shape and ready to challenge pre-race favorite Kathy Kroeger of Tennessee as Foot Locker South champion after running a reported 16:35 road race 5K today in Williamsburg, Virginia. Meanwhile, W.T. Woodson senior Sarrah Hadiji bounced back from having to drop out of the state race with a turned ankle as she won the Charger Elite 3200 Meter Run at Chantilly High School in a reported time of 11:09. Meanwhile, Herndon\'s Ermin Mujezinovic wins the boys with a time of 9:32. With stronger representation and recruitment of their top runners, Maryland boys and girls both won the first ever Battle of the Potomac as Hermitage\'s John Vial (3rd, 16:41) and West Potomac\'s Elizabeth Heath (2nd, 19:20) lead Team Virginia.

The Hermitage boys pulled a miracle turnaround in one week at the Disney Classic in Orlando, Florida as they upset NTN SE #2 Brentsville by a mere one point with both teams record low team scores of 31 and 32 points respectively. The Panthers had dropped out of the Nike Team Nationals Southeast Region rankings for the second time this season after a humbling eighth place finish at last weekend\'s Maymont Festival to only come back in one week to take down one of the top teams in the state and Southeast region in Brentsville.

The modified Pole Green Park will be debuted on Saturday at the Lee-Davis Invite with 23 teams in attendance. The top team coming into the meet will be the Hermitage boys as last year\'s Central Region champions return to the venue of their 2005 regional championship. Meanwhile, the Maggie Walker girls will be aiming to win their second consecutive invitational of the season as their opened their cross country season with a win at last weekend\'s Fork Union Invitational.

The state\'s top ranked boys and girls teams from Midlothian both survived scares at the Great Meadows Invitational in their opening races. The Nike Team Nationals Southeast #1 ranked squad in Midlothian ran well as shown by their low team total of 55 points in the competitive meet, but the NTN SE #6 ranked and two-time defending AA state champions Brentsville proved to be just as good as they finished two points shy of them in second place with 57 points. Midlothian junior Jason Witt took the individual title in a time of 16:03.15. Meanwhile, the Midlothian girls had two of their seven runners drop out of the race including top returnee and 4:53 miler M.C. Miller yet their amazing depth and talent was showcased still in dominating the #2 ranked team in the state and #5 ranked team in the NTN Southeast region in Brentsville by a 65 point margin of victory. The Lady Trojans were led by the Lautzenheiser twins, Kathleen (1st, 19:20.92) and Leia (3rd, 19:46.59), as the freshmen pair finished first and third respectively. More to come from Great Meadows...

Last fall\'s AAA boys team and individual state cross country champions were determined on the final straightaway at Great Meadows. Chantilly\'s Brad Siragusa outkicked West Springfield\'s Mike Spooner for the individual state crown, while the Oakton boys secured the state title despite close challenges from runner-up Thomas Jefferson and third place finisher Midlothian. Spooner and the Thomas Jefferson and Midlothian squads return with hopes to reverse their fortune and come out on top in November. However, another tight finish is to be expected with the caliber of individuals and teams that return to challenge any pre-season favorites.

Christopher Newport University will host its second high school invitational of the season this weekend with the CNU Showcase. The two day meet held Friday and Saturday, January 7th and 8th at the Freeman Center\'s Vince Brown Track will be the start of several competitive meets after winter break with the state\'s best athletes going head to head. This weekend\'s meet will feature three of the state\'s biggest stars in Michael Morrison, Francena McCorory, and Angela Jenkins.

Athletes gathered over winter break in between the Christmas and New Year\'s Holidays to compete in the annual track and field clinic invitational held at the Arthur Ashe Center in Richmond. Several solid performances were turned in throughout the meet.

The Liberty Christmas Invitational turned out to be the meet of the weekend as seven state best performances were found at the first annual meet. The Blacksburg girls (90 pts) and Hermitage boys (55 pts) won team titles as the Blackburg girls blew out the field with their dominance in the distance events and relays, while the Hermitage boys barely squeaked out the win over three other teams in the hunt.

Iron is the key for John Vial. . . . No, not pumpin\' iron, but swallowing it. No runner has cut more time than the Hermitage High junior. His quality of life, on and off the running trails, turned around when it was discovered that Vial had a serious iron deficiency. \"I was tired all the time,\" he said. \"All I wanted to do was sleep.\" Once the iron supplement was prescribed for severe anemia, Vial transformed from a runner who practically needed goggles to keep others\' dust and mud out of his eyes, to who bolted near the front of the pack.