MileStat.com Elite Track Gala 2008

With so many big invitationals and championships this past weekend, we wrap-up the weekend and move forward with our eyes focused forward towards Columbus, Ohio (USATF Junior Nationals) and Greensboro, North Carolina (Nike Outdoor Nationals). In this week's edition of News & Notes we touch upon a few meets, how Price and Roesler are dominating forces and what the week ahead brings. (Pictured left: Chanelle Price in the Pre Classic 800m, photo by Victah Sailer of PhotoRun.net)

Jon Clark...your steeplechase fall from the 2007 Gala has now been replaced Complete results are now posted from the the third annual MileStat.com Elite Track Gala. Thanks to all the athletes, coaches, parents, spectators, and most importantly officials and volunteers who braved the hot weather to show their support to MileStat.com! MileStat.com Elite Track Gala Complete Results Gala Photo Galleries: Herzog Photo Gallery (1,345 photos) - Fleenor Gallery (351 photos) - Herzog Photos For Sale - Fleenor Photos For Sale Now its time for a break! Or at least until Nike Outdoor Nationals... Another smoking boys 800 at the Gala! 1:54.33 does not place in 2008 Gala in the boys 800! 1 Hendrix, Anthony New Bern, NC 1:51.55 2 Collins, Logan Orange, VA 1:52.63 3 Dorrell, Peter Blacksburg, VA 1:53.10 4 Zahorodny, Wil Damascus, MD 1:53.83 5 Keels, Allante Alexandria, VA 1:53.87 6 Hagen, Ryan Sterling, VA 1:54.28 7 Dinkins, Russell Wilbraham, MA 1:54.33 8 Hendrix, Andrew New Bern, NC 1:55.19 9 Hencke, Brian Blacksburg, VA 1:55.34 10 Degfae, Tihut Alexandria, VA 1:56.12 The conditions were anything but ideal for the 5K runners at the Gala despite being run in the later portion of the meet at night with the sun down as the heat index stayed in the 90s throughout the meet after cresting well over 100 degrees earlier. However, Tallwood's Octavia Rinehardt showed little signs of being affected in the girls 5K with a meet record time of 18:18.96 as she won by a wide margin with 46 second difference. In breaking a meet record which was one of the most unlikely races to have a record broken, Rinehardt was named Elitest of the Elite award winner in the girls' running events. (Photo by John Herzog) The Gala attracted some talented freshmen which we hope to draw back for future meets. Dominique Weatherly from Charlotte, NC won both the girls 100 and 200 meter dashes including a meet record time of 24.33 in the 200. Brayden Burleigh of Midlothian took the final awards place in the boys 1500 meter run with a sixth place showing, but also ran the equivalent of a sub 4:20 for 1600 meters with a 4:01.44 performance in the 1500. (Photo by John Herzog) Another freshmen excelled in the field events as Nefertiti Smith of Norfolk Collegiate earned Elitest of the Elite honors with winning marks in the long jump (18'10.25"), triple jump (38'7.25)", and tying for second place in the high jump (5'6". Smith also placed second in the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 14.68. (Photo by John Herzog) The track temperature was definitely well over 100 degrees when they stepped on the track and probably went up a few more degrees after the sizzling 1500 meter performance by Max Kaulbach of Germantown Friends (Philadelphia, PA) as he set a new meet record and US #3 time of 3:54.48. Kaulbach was able to pull away from Western Albemarle's Tyler Stutzman and Turner Ashby's Alex Ott for a decisive win as well as a time which converts to a 4:11 for 1600 meters. Kaulbach, a member of Germantown Friends' Penn Relays champion DMR, also had two teammates nearly place in the top 6 and run times equivalent to 4:20 or faster for 1600. (Photo by John Herzog). Track Eastern is one of the track clubs in North Carolina as it gathers many of the state's very best high school athletes to compete in national caliber meets in the post-season and summer. The quality in the sprints was definitely bolstered by the Track Eastern athletes including Fuquawn Green, who placed second in the 400 meter dash (49.35) and came back to win the 200 meter dash (21.46). (Photo by John Herzog) Midlothian's Jason Witt blazed a 3:03 opening 1200 leg to help put the Central Region All-Stars out in for good in the All-Star DMR as they set a new meet record in 10:09.81. The expected battle between the All-Stars from the Central Region and defending champions from Group AA was never able to materialize as earlier hard races by AA legs Peter Dorrell and Tyler Stutzman took too much out of them to put a team on the track. (Photo by John Herzog) New Meet Records: Girls High Jump: 5'6" - Christina Fenske (Stuarts Draft VA), Christen Rhodes (Charlottesville VA), and Nefertiti Smith - Tie Old Record Boys High Jump: 6'8" - Justin Jackson (Charlottesville, VA), Tony Brown (Brunswick Senior VA) Boys 1500: 3:54.48 - Max Kaulbach (Germantown Friends PA) Girls 400: 55.30 - Elain Hilaire (Eleanor Roosevelt MD) Girls 5K: 18:18.96 - Octavia Rinehardt (Tallwood VA) Girls 200: 24.33 - Dominique Weathers (Vance) Boys DMR: 10:09.81 - Central Region All-Stars (Jason Witt, Robert Reynolds, Michael Hammond, Ben Dejarnette)  

The latest weather reports call for a very hot and humid day. The heat index will be over 100 at times and the temperatures will not drop into the 80s till the end of the meet. The meet management will try its best to keep the athletes as safe and cool as possible. We will be providing water, wet sponge & towel buckets, and trainer & volunteer assistance to athletes following events. However, it is always good for the athletes themselves to take the precautions themselves to prevent any incidents such as coming with plenty of water and gatorade to drink, shade cover from the sun (umbrellas, tents, hats, sunblock, etc). This meet will move along as planned with the high jump starting at 2 PM, the rest of the field events at 3 PM, and the running events at 5PM. We estimate that the running events with over 450 athletes in the meet will take anywhere from 5 hours to 5 1/2 hours to be run off with the All-Star boys DMR finishing the meet at 10:15 PM.   Other things to remember: USATF Sanctioned Meet & USATF Rules - The Gala is a USATF sanctioned meet, so be aware that some of the rules are different than the rules we work under in the regular season for high school. For example in USATF sanctioned event, a first false start is charged to the field and second false started is charged to the athlete who committed the false start and is then disqualified. Read up on the USATF rules here: http://www.usatf.org/about/rules/2008/ Parking - $3 parking fee. There is a Richmond Braves game on Saturday and they control the parking lots next to Sports Backers Stadium. They will have attendanants out at noon time, so even though the game is at 7PM, arriving early will not keep you from avoiding the parking fee. None of this money is collected by meet management as even officials will have to pay to get in, but please be courteous to the parking attendants and plan accordingly to pay the $3 parking fee. Throws Weigh-Ins - Certification of shot and discus will start at 2 PM in the track shed beyond the finish line area. Athlete Check-In - All athletes will be required to check upon arriving to the stadium at the athletes & coaches only gate near the clerking and concession stand area (behind the start of the 100). Athletes will be given a wrist band to be worn at all times especially when leaving the facility for warmup and re-entering back through the athlete gate. Entry Fees - Coaches and athletes who have yet to pay their entry fee can do so at the athlete gate near the clerking and concession stand area (behind the start of the 100). You don't pay your entry fee, you don't compete! Tee Shirts - Tee shirts will be sold at the meet with a vender printing shirts on-shirt. MileStat.com Subscriptions & Donations Table - There will be a table in which attendees can purchase discounted subscriptions to MileStat.com of $20 ($5 off) as well as make any donations if they wish to helping support this website. DMR Relay Batons - Relay batons will be furnished for the All-Star DMR teams, but school teams will need to furnish their own. Field Events Flights - The long jump and triple jump for both boys and girls will have two flights going from worst to best. Each athlete will get three attempts in their flight. Top 8 athletes from preliminary flights will advance onto the finals where they will get three more attempts. In the throwing events, there will be one single flight where athletes will get three attempts to qualify for a finals of 8 athletes with the best marks after three attempts where they will get an additional three more throws in the finals.  

Below is a time schedule for the running events Saturday's MileStat.com Elite Track Gala to give athletes, coaches, parents, and spectators a better idea of when events will occur. We will be making announcements at the meet anyways but if you catch this before you leave for Sports Backers Stadium on Saturday, we stress that athletes check in for their events no later than 30 minutes prior to the scheduled start of their race as we will seed heats at that time. We encourage athletes to check in early for their events. Athletes can continue on their warmups and we will make calls for athletes to return to the clerking area around 15 minutes prior to the start of their event. We will attempt to fill all 8 lanes for the fast sections of laned races, but will not have less than 3 athletes in the slowest sections. We will try to stick close to equal numbers in splitting up for sections in the distance races as there are very few natural breaks in many of our events.   5:00 PM Girls 100 Meter Hurdles Boys 110 Meter Hurdles 5:20 PM Girls 100 Meter Dash Boys 100 Meter Dash 5:40 PM Girls 2000 Meter Steeplechase Boys 2000 Meter Steeplechase 6:10 PM Girls 500 Meter Dash Boys 500 Meter Dash 6:15 PM Girls 1500 Meter Run Boys 1500 Meter Run 6:35 PM Girls 400 Meter Dash Boys 400 Meter Dash 7:00 PM Girls 400 Meter Hurdles Boys 400 Meter Hurdles 7:30 PM Girls 800 Meter Run Boys 800 Meter Run 8:00 PM Girls 300 Meter Dash Boys 300 Meter Dash 8:10 PM Girls 5000 Meter Run Boys 5000 Meter Run 9:15 PM Girls 200 Meter Dash Boys 200 Meter Dash 9:30 PM Girls DMR Boys DMR

Remember what you are racing for... ^ First Place Trophy Performance list for this Saturday's MileStat.com Elite Track Gala at Sports Backers Stadium in Richmond, Virginia. Great as well as deep fields have been assembled with athletes coming from Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Over 500 athletes are entered in the meet. Please notify meet management of any scratches (NOT THROUGH ARTICLE COMMENT OR FORUM POSTS!) prior to Saturday's meet by contacting directly through either phone or through email, so we can properly seed races and fill all lanes as best as possible. Total entrants per event: Girls High Jump - 10 Boys High Jump - 9 Girls Pole Vault - 17 Boys Pole Vault - 15 Girls Shot Put - 13 Boys Shot Put - 12 Girls Discus - 10 Boys Discus - 14 Girls Long Jump - 24 Boys Long Jump - 19 Girls Triple Jump - 16 Boys Triple Jump - 21 Girls 100H - 23 Boys 110H - 24 Girls 100 - 25 Boys 100 - 30 Girls 2K Steeple - 16 Boys 2K Steeple - 25 Girls 500 - 6 Boys 500 - 6 Girls 1500 - 16 Boys 1500 - 28 Girls 400 - 26 Boys 400 - 27 Girls 400H - 20 Boys 400H - 24 Girls 800 - 25 Boys 800 - 45 Girls 300 - 14 Boys 300 - 11 Girls 5K - 12 Boys 5K - 31 Girls 200 - 26 Boys 200 - 32  

Chanelle Price runs the 2nd best PA 800 ever in 2:01.61 at Prefontaine. #2 also happens to be US#2 behind Kim Gallagher's 2:00.07 - and Price has a few more chances... We are not in Shippensburg any more – Chanelle Price at Pre Ryann Krais is gaining fans and confidence as she chases records in her prep farewell... VIDEO: 12 "Run Like A Champion Videos" from the June 6 PA Distance Festival at West Chester Henderson HS US#2 all time for Ryann Krais of 5522 in the heptathlon - photo by Alan Versaw, Colarado Runner, a MileSplit.US affiliate Photo gallery from the 3rd Pennsylvania Distance Festival @ West Chester Henderson At the Great Southwest Classic, a day after her near record in the Heptathlon, Ryann Krais won the 300 hurdles in a PR of 41.20, and was named the Female Athlete of the Meet. On Thursday, Ryann Krais started her hep competition 79 points ahead of US-record-setting pace following four of the seven heptathlon events. But after the final three events, Krais came up a mere 11 points short of passing the national record of 5533. Krais' 5522 was a PR by 150 points. Her day two including an 18-10.50 long jump, a javelin of 104-11 and a 2:17.71 in the 800. At the 3rd Henderson Distance Festival, LaSalle senior Dan Lowry ran a 4:13.49 mile (60-2:03-3:07), the #1 PA (pure) time at that distance. The mark is a school record, eclipsing a 1974 mile run by John Burns. Cedar Crest's Tom Troxell went 1:52.87, which is just short of his PA#2 ranking from Districts. On Saturday at the Golden South Classic in Orlando, FL, frosh Taylor Ellis-Watson of the Springside School near Philadelphia, PRed in the 400, running a 55.65 to advance to the finals. Her 56.24 in the finals captured third place. In the 200, she ran 25.35 in the prelims and did not advance. At the MileStat.com Elite Track Gala @ Richmond, VA, Max Kaulbach, Germantown Friends, won the 1500 in a meet record and US#3 3:54.48, coming through the 800 in 2:04. At the Golden West Invitatonal in California, Jason Flangan, Father Judge, threw the javelin 168-05, for 2nd. MORE>>>

Online registration closes at midnight on Tuesday, June 3rd for the 2008 MileStat.com Elite Track Gala. The meet already has close to 450 athletes entered. Do not miss out on participating in this year's event, which expects to be a very competitive post-season high school meet for in-state and out-of-state athletes, yet contested in a fun and laid back atmosphere. Online Registration Meet Website

National record holder in the 60 meter hurdles and 2007 World Youth 110 meter hurdles champion Wayne Davis of Southeast Raleigh (NC) will be competing at the 2008 MileStat.com Elite Track held on Saturday, June 7th at Sports Backers Stadium in Richmond, Virginia. The state of Virginia will try to throw its best at him with three of the top four ranked hurdlers already entered in Jeffrey Artis (13.99), Michael Quash (14.03), and VIncent Brown (14.10) as well as Nike Indoor Nationals 60 meter hurdles All-American and 3A 55 meter hurdles state champion Kevin Newsome. Davis has ran well ahead of those times including his World Youth record breaking 13.18 performance last summer in Ostrava, Czech Republic . Davis adds to a growing list of star athletes both from within the state of Virginia and out-of-state. The Eleanor Roosevelt girls dazzled the crowd at last year's Gala by beating a Virginia All-Star DMR team of Paige Johnston, Rachel Butler, Tasia Potasinski, and Catherine White. Arguably the nation's best girls track program in the nation over the past several years will be back for this year's event in preparation for the Nike Outdoor Nationals two weeks later. The school currently holds the nation's fastest times in both the 4x400 (3:37.16) and 4x800 (8:43.12) as their 4x800 time at Penn Relays set a new national record by an incredible seven seconds. The the regular entry deadline is still open through midnight on Thursday, May 27th, while a late entry deadline period begins thereafter with a $10 late fee assessed until Tuesday, June 3rd when entries are closed finally. Meet Website - Online Registration

Elitest of the Elite Award Winners Arguably no high school meet in Virginia will have better awards than this year's 2008 MileStat.com Elite Track Gala as over $900 worth in awards will be distributed out to the top six finishers in all 34 individual events and members of the top three finishing relays in the All-Star DMR. Just take a look at just another reason why you should sign up for the Gala today so you can be awarded one of these coveted plaques, trophies, or medals! Event Winners (First Place) Second Place Finishers Third Place Finishers Fourth thru Sixth Place Finishers

Some athletes may think that there season is over if they failed to qualify out of their district or region this week, but not so fast! There is a good probability that you may have ran a qualifying time this season to allow you to compete in the third annual MileStat.com Elite Track Gala on Saturday, June 7th at Sports Backers Stadium in Richmond. Check out the meet qualifying standards and also find instructions on how to enter in the meet.

Online entry registration is now open for the 2008 MileStat.com Elite Track Gala to be held Saturday, June 7th at Sports Backers Stadium. We will be doing our entries online through a beta stage of our new developing entry system with the MileSplit Network. One neat feature with the entry system is that seed times can be verified through performances in our exisiting database. Remember that if you enter for the Gala before the end of the month of April, you get the early bird special with entry fee of $10 per individual versus $15 per individual after the end of the month. Enter Online for the 2008 Gala