Andy Eddleton

Here are the top 1,000 boys times ever records at Oatlands.

Here are the all-time best times from Sugar Hollow

MileStat.com will be doing a weekly feature to recognize the many great and often underappreciated high school coaches in the state of Virginia. MileStat.com's newest staff member Stacey Nobles is a familar name to most and will be starting this new feature to the website.. Nobles won state titles in cross country and 3200 meters outdoors last year at Ocean Lakes High School in Virginia Beach. She currently runs for James Madison University and will be doing weekly stories on coaches throughout the state of Virginia.   Photo by David Bradshaw Shane Guynn, the track coach at Christiansburg High School, feels that if a coach is doing their job right they have a second full time job on their plate. He started at only 19 years of age and, although he is much more efficient with preparations now, he states one thing hasn’t changed: “the amount of time and energy I put into these kids.” His family would be quick to agree, noting the many sacrifices Shane has had to make because of his devotion to creating a successful program. This, however, does not hinder their endless support both now and throughout Shane’s childhood. He credits much of his competitive, aggressive qualities and passion for the sport to the heavy involvement of his father when he was younger. Read more...

Photo by Frank Locascio   The Christiansburg boys claimed the 2010 Group AA state indoor title by a one point margin over their River Ridge District rival Blacksburg with a team score of 54 points. Blacksburg needed a second place finish in the 4x400 to move ahead into first for the final team standings, but Harrisonburg nipped them for second in the event to give Christiansburg the title.   Travis Hudson led Christiansburg in winning the high jump (6'9"), while also scoring points in the hurdles, long jump, and triple jump. Teammates Chris Robbins was a state runner-up in the 55 meter hurdles and Andy Eddleton also garnered a second place finish in the 1600 meter run, while completing a solid double with a third place showing in the 3200.   The Blacksburg girls won as expected with a team score of 81 points as the next closest team was Western Albemarle with 59 points. Joanna Stevens broke Catherine White's two state meet records in the 1600 and 3200 with her times of 4:50.07 and 10:29.70. Twin sister Kathleen was a close runner-up in the 1600 (4:50.11), while coming back to take the state title in the 1000 (2:57.47).   Amber Church was the lone athlete to win more than 2 individual state titles on Saturday at Liberty University as the Pulaski County star in her three victories clocked a time of 8.42 in the 55 meter hurdles, cleared 5'4" in the high jump, and leaped to a mark of 17'11" in the long jump. She also was a state runner-up in the 55 meter dash (7.40) and placed 7th in the triple jump. Pulaski County placed fourth in the final team standings thanks to the individual efforts of Church.   Double champions included Ashontae Jackson of Orange County in the 55 (7.30) and 300 (41.12), Terrance Morse of Amherst County in the boys 500 (1:06.57) and (35.68), Colin Mearns of Jamestown in the 1600 (4:18.33) and 3200 (9:29.36).   VHSL Group AA State Championships Coverage - Complete results posted, Photos, videos, summaries, and interviews to come throughout this week!

Only two days removed from strong races at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games, the Stevens twins (pictured above by Frank Locascio) of Blacksburg knocked half dozen seconds off their US #1 and #2 10:26 3200 meter performances earlier in the season at Monday's River Ridge Championships. After being usurped from the top of the national leaderboard in the 3200 meter run two weeks ago by Foot Locker Nationals champion Megan Goethals of Michigan with her 10:25 performance, the Stevens twins got an opportunity to run a fresh 3200. On the banked Virginia Tech indoor track, Kathleen Stevens won in a US #1 time of 10:19.85 and followed in by twin sister Joanna Stevens in a US #2 time of 10:20.64.

Jamestown's Colin Mearns will look to become Jamestown’s second individual state champion in a row and follow in the footsteps of last year’s Group AA champion Andrew Colley, who set a new course record. Mearns appears to be taking his running to another level at season’s end similar to last fall when he had a great stretch of races extending into December for the Nike Cross Nationals.  Mearns is the top returnee from last year’s state race with his 15:28 fourth place finish among a collection of stars in the outstanding class of 2009 runners.

The 2009 Oatlands Invitational should prove to be one of the biggest and most competitive meets in the state of Virginia this year with another great field of teams assembled by meet directors Derek Farrey and Matt Oblas. The meet will feature team of all classifications and different regions throughout the state of Virginia as well as schools from the states of Maryland and West Virginia. At last count, close to 90 schools in all will be represented on the Oatlands Plantation 5K course in Leesburg on Saturday, September 26th.

The Hidden Valley girls, ranked #19 in the nation according to MileSplit US recent national team rankings, began their 2009 season with a victory in their home invitational in the second annual Clash with the Titans. The Hidden Valley girls were competing without three of their top five runners, but still were able to hold off Christiansburg by 10 points for a first place team finish with 47 points. Mary Catherine Sowder (pictured by John Tyree), a runner-up in last year's Clash with the Titans, won easily without her other teammates in the race with a time of 20:56. Coming from the flat land of Tidewater Virginia, Greenbrier Christian Academy's Michael Bailey sure had no problem tackling the hills on Hidden Valley High School's home course. Bailey pulled away for 17:10 win with Christiansburg's Andy Eddleton 12 seconds back at 17:22.

At the Clash With The Titans, VA #1 ranked Hidden Valley girls will open their season in their home invitational against teams in the Roanoke Valley area. Hidden Valley should win big if all five of their top 5 returnees are racing led by 2008 Group AA state runner-up Annie LeHardy. LeHardy won last year's inaugural Clash With The Titans with a one second victory over teammate Mary Catherine Sowder in 20:45.   The top three boys teams coming into the meet feature a strong #1 runner each who will be battling for first individually on Saturday in Group AA #5 ranked Andy Eddleton of Christiansburg, Group A #3 ranked Jared Miller of Radford, and Group AA #14 ranked Cody Seymour of Cave Spring.

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

While most will be looking forward to seeing the outcome of the Blacksburg-Hidden Valley girls, the River Ridge District boys should also be an intriguing race to watch with the Blacksburg boys looking to redeem themselves after a poor showing at Great American earlier this month. Arguably the district's most talented two boys individuals in George Carter and Andy Eddleton battled earlier this season on the district course at Green Hill Park with Eddleton coming out on top. Eddleton has had the better and much more consistent season than Carter, but is coming off a race in which he finished behind a Blacksburg runner who has not ran in their top 7 this season. The slate is wiped clean for both Carter and and Eddleton today with championship season beginning for the River Ridge District athletes.