the fans, athletes,
family, and coaches on the sidelines
by Donna Dye
The Virginia Tech High School Invitational is an annual event held
on the grounds of Virginia Tech in the Rector Fieldhouse. Decorating
the walls of the fieldhouse are pictures of the "cobbler"
and the popular cheer which has become identified with Virginia Tech,
the "Hokies." So what is a Hokie? According to the Virginia
Tech web site, the term Hokie has nothing to do with a turkey. Rather,
the term was made up by Virginia Tech student in 1899 as a spirit yell
he wrote for a competition. The term Hokie actually goes back into the
early 1800's when it was used to express felling, approval, excitement,
surprise. So let's get on with the meet and hokie.
Parents
and fans make up the backbone of the meet. Who could enjoy track
without the smiles, cheers whooping and yelling? |
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You find the best people at track meets.
Here are three track parents from Highland Springs High
School in the Richmond, Virginia area that attend every
meet. They come with the biggest of smiles and hugs bringing their
own chairs so as to have the best seats in the place. (from left)
Cathy Wilson, Nancy Brown and Judith Liddelow. |
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Warming Up!
Sprints
Tiandra
Ponteen-MD Winner of the
300 and
US#3 all time |
Reggie
Witherspoon-GA winner of
the 300 and
US #3 |
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Portia Baker-NC
Ran in the 300. Portia is
a DyeStat Elite for the 300. |
Faraign Giles-Virginia
Beach VA (left) won the
500 with Latosha Wallace-Western MD |
Clay Ragan
winner of the 500. |
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The Ragan's: Mom, Ann; Clay
and Dad, Joel |
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Portia Butler-NC with Dad, Gus |
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Distance
1000 runners:
(left) Luke Stewart-MD; Robert Gielow-VA; Ryan Witt-VA, Matt Debole
and Alex Tatu-VA |
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Sarah Bowman with parents: Mom,
Gail and Dad, Gary |
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Relays
1st Place 4x400
Eleanor Roosevelt-MD: (from left) Crystal Anyanwu, Kafi Pollard,
Coach Larry Colbert, Nathandra John and Tiandra Ponteen |
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1st Place 4x400 New Horizon-GA
(from left) David Dickens,
Aries Merritt, Reggie Witherspoon, Cameron Butler
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New Horizon
Track Club-GA Winner of the 4x200 (from left) Melissa
Cohen, Courtney Champion, Coach Chris Malcolm,
Natalie Knight and Cara Butler |
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Largo-MD 4x400
team: (from left) Sirdonea Davis,
Michaylin Golladay, Natalie McKenzie and Vanessa Sessa |
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C.H. Flowers-MD
4x400: (from left) Coach Keitha Howerton, Tiffany Nesfield, Ambria
Alexander, Shannon Wave and
Tatiana Roper |
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Jefferson Forest
VA-4x400 Team: (from left) Hunter Rolfe, Cate Jackson, Emily Brewer,
Jasmine Rosser. Their performance in the 4x400 qualified
them for state competition They were happy! |
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Archbishop Carroll-DC 4x400:
(from left) Michael Taylor,
Randy Lee, Derrick Brinkley, James Washington
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DeMatha-MD 4x200 Relay Team:
(from left) Anthony Wiseman, Antoine Washington, Coach Anthony Bryant,
Joshua Wilson and Dominic Berger. DeMatha came in first but was
disqualified when one of the runners went out of his lane. |
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Motor City Track
Club 4x400: (from left) Jerrell O'Neal,
Dekoven Lynch, Isaiah Marshell, Emanuel Kilbrew |
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Fairfax, VA
4x2 team: (from left) Tiana Boykin, Jen Dias,
Rachel Winters, Jessica Dailey |
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Jumps
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Andrew Rademacher-SR
Hermitage PA
Won the pole vault with a personal best of 15'9.
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Andrew Rademacher
with Dad, John (left) and Tom Hale.
Tom was a state champion in pole vault in high school who held the
school record until Andrew recently broke it. Now he takes pleasure
along with John in coaching Andrew. |
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Pole Vaulters:
(From left) Phillip Childers-SouthPoint NC; Nick Loper-Weddington
NC, Kyle Lingafelt-Mt. Pleasant NC and
Victoria Shobe-Weddington NC |
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High Jumpers from Paint Branch-MD:
(from left) Latoya Morton and Winner of the High Jump, Toni Aluko
with a jump of 5'6. |
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Potpourri
Cox-VA
(from top)Sarah Dickens, Kathleen Brasington and
(bottom) Kellee Jones |
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The gang from
Woodrow Wilson, D.C. |
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Vance-NC Studying in the
midst of the meet were (from left) Lanaire Lindo and Monica Carter. |
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Archbishop Carroll-DC
Team Members |
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Motor City Track
Club-MI (from left top) Andrew Hllie, DeKoven Lynch,
Kevin Jackson, Tyjuan Sims, Blake Figgins, Jimmie Jones (Bottom
left) Ivan Gilliard, Emanuel Killebrew, Isaiah Marshall. Out of
uniform is Jimmie Jones out with an injury. |
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More Motor City
Track Club-Mi (from left) Jerrel O'Neal
and Marcus Thigpen |
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Mark Manny, Coach Butch Caldwell
and Tiffany Hawell. All are from Virginia Beach, VA. Coach
Caldwell caught my attention with his Santa Clause hat. As it turns
out he got it for Christmas, wore it one day to a meet and found
that his team was able to find him easier. So now he wears it regularly
at meets. |
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Elizabeth Seton-MD (from
left) Olukemi Adetayo, Lisa Antoine, Chantelle Davis, Brianna McPhatter
Lonique Moore |
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Charlotte Latin-NC:
(from left) Matt McAdams, Whitney Player, Natasha Adlakha and
Leah Worthy |
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Workerbees
Howard xxxxxMeet Director. As part of his duties
to for grounds and lawn care at Virginia Tech, Howard is responsible
for activities at the field house, including track and field meets.
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Steve Huntzinger--Shot Putter
Steve won the Shot Put becoming the US#1 with a throw
of 63-7.
Steve Huntzinger
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Steve is a senior at James W. Robinson Jr. Secondary School in
Northern Virginia. Steve absolutely loves throwing. It was something
he decided he wanted to do in sixth grade. Steve was inspired
by Nick Welihozki, now a senior at Stanford University who was
an elite thrower at West Springfield High School in Northern Virginia
when Steve was in middle school. Steve watched Nick throw and
told his Dad “this is what I want to do.” So Steve
started throwing in eighth grade and has been ever since. The
key to his success and advice he gives to others is: repetitions.
He says, “Repetitions is the key. You need to get
Steve with Coach Zack Scott
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through the boring times…repetition after repetition…thousands
of them until it is second nature.” In addition you need
to master finding the focal point early so that you can do the
repetitions. Steve trains year around with no time off to speak
of. His workouts might not be as hard during the off-season but
training off-season avoids “wasting time to catch up.”
Steve has already signed with William and Mary University in Virginia
for next year. He will be majoring in Finance where he will be
building on the financial skills he has been developing since
he started his lawn service business in sixth grade. While cutting
lawns, Steve saw the advantages of creating his own business and
watching it grow. Encouraged by his parents, particularly his
Mother, Judy an accountant, Steve was introduced to a
Steve with Mom, Judy
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stock broker through whom he bought stocks. He soon learned the
value of investing that has grown to a nice portfolio for a high
school student. He is a good student and has done very well in
his business classes, many of them Advanced Placement level classes.
Currently, he is Branch Manger of the Apple Federal Credit Union
at James W. Robinson, Jr. Secondary School. “Apple Federal
Credit Union and Robinson Secondary School have established a
partnership by opening a student run Apple branch in the school,
which gives every student the opportunity to learn about valuable
money management skills. Through this educational partnership
students and parents can join Apple FCU and [get] all our great
benefits to use. Students in the Accounting class run the Ram
Branch of Apple FCU.”
His goal for track and field this year is to win a national championship
in shot put. Steve has a very positive attitude that shows when
he talks especially about throwing and finance. We’ll look
for him at the national meets this season.
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Tiandra Ponteen
Tiandra won the 300 with a 37.85, becoming US#3 all time. She
also led the Eleanor Roosevelt 4x400 relay team to a win.
Tiandra was born on St. Kitts, one of two islands in the tiny
island nation of St. Kitts-Nevis in the Caribbean. (Some facts
about St.Kitts-Nevis). She started running when she was about
7 years old but didn’t get serious until the 11-12 year
age bracket. She arrived in New York City from St. Kitts where
she attended middle school and started high school at Washington
Irving High School. She later transferred to Eleanor Roosevelt
High School in Prince George’s County, Maryland where she
is now a senior.
Tiandra says she runs every race to the “best of my ability.”
She works very hard at training and uses the results of her races
to motivate herself. If she looses or doesn’t perform as
she wants or thinks she can, she becomes angry with herself, becomes
quiet, turning her anger inward while focusing on her goals and
working harder. Winning today at she a level “makes me very,
very happy.” To Tiandra it helps to overcome the disappointment
at her loss earlier in the season to Shana Cox in the 300m.
While Tiandra trains hard. She does no weight training. This
shocked many coaches she interviewed with on her college visits.
They assured her that she would be doing weight training at the
college level. She is excited about the next level, though she
knows it could be difficult to make changes to her routine. For
college next year, she has singed with the University of Florida.
(Incidentally, Reggie Witherspoon who also became US#3 in the
300 this week, will also be attending the University of Florida.)
Goals for the future for Tiandra include “being on the
Olympic team for my country.” If that happens, Tiandra will
be joining countryman, Kim Collins who was a 2000 Olympian in
both the 100 and 200.
About St. Kitts-Nevis
St. Kitts-Nevis is a federation of two islands forming an independent
country located in the northern half of the Eastern Caribbean
about 1,300 miles southeast of Miami, Florida and 250 miles southeast
of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. As the slogan says, it’s
“Two Islands One Paradise.” St. Kitts is 23 miles
long and five miles across at its widest and has an area of 68
square miles. The highest elevation is 3,792 at the top of Mt.
Liamuiga. Nevis, is to the south of St. Kitts and is about 7 miles
in diameter and an area of 36 square miles. The climate is tropical
with an average yearly temperature of 79 degrees with low humidity.
The total population is about 45,000 with 36,000 on St. Kitts
and Nevis 9,000.
St. Kitts gets its name from Christopher Columbus who came upon
the island in 1493 during his second voyage to the Americas. There
is some controversy about whether it was named for himself or
St. Christopher. At any rate, the island is commonly referred
to as St. Kitts and the inhabitants call themselves Kittians.
The early history of the country and for more than three-quarters
of a century was dominated and shared by both the British and
the French. The lure of the island was its agricultural production
particularly sugar. In 1983 the two island federation gained its
independence as a two-island nation within the British Commonwealth
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