Mostrag breaks Lassiter's 12 year old record at FUMA

FORK UNION, VA -- The rest of the country better not be sleeping on Fork Union senior Axel Mostrag again. Last year at Nike Indoor Nationals, Mostrag showed those on the national scene how talented of a middle distance runner he is by nearly bringing his team's distance medley relay far from behind for a national championship and finishing up as a national runner-up for 800 meters. After his performance in the 1600 meter run at the Fork Union Indoor Invitational, anyone would be foolish to make the same mistake again to overlook the Polish national.

Mostrag broke the meet and facility 1600 meter record of 4:19.96 held by one of the high school greats at the mile distance in Seneca Lassiter, a Williamsburg product from Lafayette High School. Lassiter had high school prep bests of 4:08 in the mile and 3:53 for 1500 meters. He went onto star at the University of Arkansas and won NCAA championships in the mile and 1500 meters and as a post-collegiate won US national titles and competed in World Championships. Before there was Alan Webb, there was Lassiter representing the state of Virginia very well on the international scene.

Mostrag is not a native of Virginia as he has only lived in American for three years after beginning his attendance at Fork Union Military Academy three years ago in time for the track season as a sophomore. However, the Polish citizen has become a loved son of Virginia with his great performances over the past few years on the track. His greatest performance so far may have came this past Saturday on his home track at FUMA in the 160 meter unbanked surface known as the Estes Athletic Center.

The Fork Union middle distance star broke Lassiter's long standing record with a state best time of 4:17.76 in the 1600 meter run at the FUMA Invitational. Mostrag's time is also a personal best for him indoors in the event. With many of the nation's fastest times being produced on some of the faster and banked 200 meter tracks in the country such as top harriers from the Northeast at the New York Armory, Mostrag put up a time that ranks him right up there despite racing 11 laps around tight turns with no spikes. Not to mention, he was unpushed with the closest competitor being teammate Jeremy Haney at 4:30 for second place honors.

The ultimate shame is probably Virginia's top track athlete is limited to where he can compete because of sanctioning conflict issues with Fork Union's status as a category 3 private school with state associations that do not allow their schools to compete against schools such as Fork Union. Later this month at the Virginia Tech Invitational in Blacksburg, many of Virginia's best will be competing against a great amount of out of state talent converging on the state's fastest track. However, Mostrag and Fork Union will not be present because their team cannot compete against schools from states such as Maryland in sanctioned events.

Mostrag will not be invited to the Millrose Mile for the 100th annual event, despite Fork Union having athletes competed in the past such as Kippy Keino several years ago in 2002 and 2003 and fellow Virginia category 3 private school St. Catherine's had Katie Doswell also compete in the prestigous race. The tight rope that has to be walked to appease all state associations seems to have only been getting thinner over recent years. Mostrag's invitation would have certainly only made for a more legitimate field including one of the nation's top returning middle distance runners.

Thankfully, Mostrag will get an opportunity to race on a fast track against top high school competition in the 1000 meter run at the Collegiate Games on February 3rd in New York City. An elite field of high schoolers will be assembled including Mostrag to compete on one of the country's fastest tracks at the New York Armory. The Millrose Mile will be contested on the same weekend in New York City, but the best high school middle distance runner in the city that weekend might be at the Armory with Mostrag.

Fork Union's indoor season as team ends fairly early in mid February with their private school state championships and conference championships. Fork Union coach Winston Brown plans to find a quality meet for Mostrag to compete in during the open month of racing that exists now between their conference championships and Nike Indoor Nationals. Last year, Mostrag competed unattached in two college meets including posting a US #1 800 at the time of 1:54.40 at Liberty University.

Mostrag comes from a talented family of track stars as his older brother Mariusz, competed at Virginia Commonwealty University in Richmond, Virginia and qualified for NCAA Division I Outdoor National Championships last year for 800 meters with a 1:48.61 best. However, it appears the younger Mostrag ended up with the slightly better talent running faster times than the elder at this age. Despite plenty of false rumors that circulate about Mostrag as he is very physically developed, he is of typical high school senior age and meets all age requirements for Virginia and elsewhere.

FUMA Invitational Meet Summary

All photos by David Fleenor

FORK UNION, VA -- Several of this past weekend's best performances in the state came from the 2007 FUMA Invitational at the Estes Athletic Center. Fork Union's Axel Mostrag breaking Seneca Lassiter's 1995 meet and facility record of 4:19.96 with one of the country's fastest times for 1600 meters at 4:17.76 obviously was the performance of the meet, but there were plenty of noteworthy performances on Saturday at FUMA. The meet featured four state leading performances including Mostrag's 4:17 1600.

Two of the state best times came from a pair of Matoaca athletes in Shanneka Claiborne and Aramis Massenburg. Claiborne apparently loves the Estes Athletic Center as her previous personal best in the 55 meter dash came in last year's Fork Union Invitational with a 7.13 clocking. After the Bethel pair of Shakia Forbes (7.19) and Crystal Carrington (7.21) had bested Claiborne's previous state leading best time in the event this season of 7.23 on Friday night at CNU, Claiborne answered their challenge on Saturday at FUMA. The Matoaca senior reclaimed her spot at the top of the state leaderboard with a personal best clocking of 7.09. Her second state title seems to be a strong possibility after winning the 100 meter dash title last June.

 

Meanwhile, teammate Massenburg had already been the state leader in the 55 meter hurdles with a 7.52 clocking from a Dinwiddie polar bear meet, but showed he can do it in indoors by clocking a 7.48 inside the Estes Athletic Center to win the hurdle event. Massenburg had a busy day finishing second in the triple jump (43'5") and long jump (20'9.75"), while finishing fourth in the high jump (6'2") to go along with his hurdle victory.

In the long jump, Rashaad Cannon of Highland Springs topped Massenburg by leaping to a state leading mark of 22'10.25". Cannon had actually posted a mark of 23'3" in an earlier home polar bear meet. Cannon was not finished with the long jump as he swept the horizontal jumps with a leap of 44'3" to take first place in the triple jump as well.

Despite Massenburg's individual performances on the day and Aaron Hudgins' 6'4" win in the high jump, Matoaca as a team ended up a distance second place to Fork Union with 57 points. Fork Union tallied 90 points with individual event winners in the 500, 1000, and 1600 meter races.

 

Fork Union's Jamie Reichlen put up a solid 500 meter time on the 160 meter track with a 1:08.85 clocking to continue his strong indoor campaign as one of Fork Union's several outstanding middle distance runners. Teammate Szymon Rola won the 1000 meter run for the second straight year in a row at the FUMA Invite in a time of 2:35.14 to win by four seconds. It is quite impressive that Fork Union has two 1000 meter runners with times of 2:33 and 2:35 respectively on the 160 meter track this season in Reichlen and Rola and neither is Fork Union's top runner Mostrag.

Nansemond River had the top finishers in the 300 meter dash with Darryl Brickhouse (37.02) and James Taylor (37.57). Both Brickhouse and Taylor also ran on the winning 4x400 meter relay (3:31.87) to close out the meet.

Turner Ashby's Justin Smith won his second straight invitational in the shot put with another performance over 50 feet with a throw of 50'6.75".

Daniel Inge of E.C. Glass cleared 14 feet again in the pole vault to consistently continue as one of the state's top vaulters in AAA with a first place finish at FUMA.

Halifax County's Patrick Terry should contend for the Northwest Region title in the 55 meter dash and solidified his title as a favorite in the event by clocking a 6.51 in the 55 meter dash to win on Saturday.

 

Brentsville sophomore Danyelle Kent-Robinson had a stellar meet as the only athlete to win three events. Kent-Robinson cleared a personal best height of 5'6" to win the high jump competition. She also ran personal best times of 8.96 and 43.71 to win the 55 meter hurdles and 300 meter dash. Kent-Robinson should be competitive in all three events at the AA State Meet in March.

Kayla Lewis of William Fleming nearly joined Samella Koroma and Allison Jones in the 40 feet club this season in the shot put as she bested top seed K'Lynne Robinson of J.R. Tucker in a great throwing show with Lewis as the winner at 39'11" and Robinson in second at 39'5". Lewis is now the top ranked thrower in AA in Virginia.

Tucker sophomore Jasia Richardson nearly pulled in two wins in the long jump (16'11.50") and triple jump (36'7"), but Matoaca's Mia Aghaji stopped her from a first place finish in the triple jump with a top mark of 36'9.50".

Aghaji joined teammate Shanneka Claiborne on their 4x200 meter relay as they put up a solid time of 1:52.24 on the short track.

Gloucester nearly swept the distance races if it was not for Albemarle sophomore Liz Barclay's 5:14.82 win in the 1600 meter run. Gloucester sophomore Hannah Varnell finished second to Barlcay in the 1600 meter run with a time of 5:24.88 and came back to win the 1000 meter run in 3:10.58. Meanwhile, Gloucester senior Emily Webb won the 3200 meter run by 14 seconds with a time of 12:00.43.

 

William Fleming senior Brittany Cabbler finally got to compete without Natalie Woodford of Patrick Henry after finishing a close second to the Patrick Henry sophomore in the 500 meter dash at Liberty last month and 300 meter dash at VMI last weekend. Cabbler took it out on the field at Fork Union in the 500 meter dash with a three second win in 1:22.84. Her win helped charge William Fleming (52 pts) to a narrow one point team win over Brentsville (51 pts) as Kent-Robinson's three wins helped Brentsville stay in team contention. A second place finish in the 4x400 meter relay from William Fleming and Cabbler helped put the team over the top against Brentsville and Matoaca (3rd, 50 pts).