Highlands District Meet 2001

BRISTOL, VA --
While seniors Fleet Hower of Marion and Natalie Creech of Lee live in the far reaches of the
state in Southwestern Virginia, where little is known of the area of and their runners, these
two runners continue to produce times week in and week out that have been turning some heads.
At the Highlands District Meet, the two seniors made Southwest Virginia proud as they both
had their finest races of the year.

On the Sugar Hollow Park 3 mile course in Bristol, Hower blistered a 14:45 3 mile to win the boys
race. That time is the fastest 3 mile clocked this season by any Virginian as he surpassed
Bryce Ruiz of Jamestown's 14:47 at the William Tennent Invitational. Hower has been very
consistent all season, breaking course records wherever he runs. He turn a few more heads at
the Group AA State Meet on November 10th.

Creech has been even more so surprising this year as she has never had any success on the
state scene. That should definitely change this year though, especially after running a 18:42
3 mile in the girls' race at the Highlands District Meet. Creech and Hower have definitely
sent a message to the other runners in the state, "We are for real!"

Both the Marion boys and girls squads took home team titles. The Marion boys led by Hower, nearly
had a perfect sweep if it wasn't for Abingdon's Tommy Antenucci breaking it up with his second
place finishing time of 16:11. Rounding out the Marion top five was Jeff Freeman (3rd, 16:20),
Brian Freeman (4th, 16:40), Levi Thompson (5th, 16:44), and Beattie Sturgill (6th, 16:45) for
a team score of 19 points. The Marion girls were led by Dena Spickard, who finished runner-up
to Creech with a time of 20:22. The squad finished with a total score of 29 points.