The top two seeds in the boys 3200 meter run at this weekend's Group AAA State Championships are very familar with each other in Centreville's Yazid Zouaimia (pictured above by Ted Plunkett) and Chantilly's Chris Foley. Both Concorde District distance runners had aspirations of state championship glory or a Foot Locker Nationals berth in this past fall's cross country sesaon. Neither was able to claim victory at Great Meadow and both ended up shutting down their seasons before Foot Locker South. Zouaimia like Foley will be seeking a nice consolation prize and justification for not attempting to race at Foot Locker South by winning the AAA indoor 3200 state title. Zouaimia ran a personal best of 9:16 earlier in the season in a solo effort at Liberty University, but the Virginia Tech recruit will have plenty of company in the state meet showdown with Foley and his future UVA teammate Drew Paisley. Read more for interview with Yazid Zouaimia...
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Lake Braddock freshmen Sophie Chase (pictured left by Ted Plunkett) appears to be ready to make her presence felt at another state championship. After leading Lake Braddock to the state cross country title in the fall, Chase helped lead the Bruins to the Northern Region indoor track title on Saturday at George Mason University by winning two regional titles in the 1600 (5:04) and 3200 (11:09) meter races. Lake Braddock with a team score of 76 points won the 2010 regional crown by the narrowest of margins by 1 point over defending champions James Robinson, who were led by 500 and 300 meter dash champion Genamarie McCant. The South Lakes boys repeated as Northern Region team champions behind the efforts of Adrian Vaughan in the sprints and Sean Price in the jumps. Price leaped to marks of 22'0.25" and 44'7.50" in long and triple jump victories, while Vaughan ran a key leg on the first place 4x400 (3:28) along with individually winning a title in the 300 (35.15) and finishing as a close runner-up in the 500. More to come from the Northern Region Championships including full meet summary and photo gallery.