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DyeStat 2001 Indoor
Microtel Virginia Tech Invitational
Preview of star studded meet
Alan Webb entered in 1000 and 500; NC sends Boulware, Barrino, Haas to big meet; girls feature Moss, Meekins, Nelms, Sanders, Otstott; 7-foot high jumpers
by Pearl Watts
No need to talk in anticipation of how the state AAA meet may turn out. Virginia Tech's Rector Field House in Blacksburg will be hosting what will amount to about as close to a preview as it gets on the track this Friday and Saturday with the Microtel High School Invitational.
Most of the top athletes and schools from around the state, in addition some of the top flight programs from North Carolina, Maryland and D.C. will descend upon Tech's extremely fast 200 meter banked track in what is annually one of the top indoor meets on the East Coast every year. Normally Virginia Tech hosts two high school invitationals each indoor season, one in early January and one in late January, but the Rector Field House facility had prior commitments earlier this month. That left only this weekend for high schoolers to roll into Southwest Virginia for some hot times, distances and marks.
The meet will begin at 4:00 p.m. on Friday with running event trials for both boys and girls in the 55 meter hurdles and 55 dash. There will also be running event finals in the 4x800 relay followed by the 3,200 run for both boys and girls beginning at 7:10 p.m. There will be numerous sections for each event with the fastest seeded sections running first. Field event action starts at 5:00 p.m. Friday with competition scheduled in the girls shot put, pole vault and triple jump and also the boys shot put and triple jump. Saturday's running event schedule begins at 10:00 a.m. with the 4x200 relay followed by the 1,000 run; 300 dash; finals in both the 55 hurdles and 55 dash; the 1,600 run and 4x400 relays with the girls races preceding the boys races for each event. Saturday's field event finals include the boys long jump and girls high jump at 10:00 a.m.; the boys pole vault at 10:30 a.m. with the girls long jump beginning at 2:00 p.m. and the boys high jump at 4:00 p.m.
As goes with the territory, the most highly anticipated race will be the boys 1,000 meter run scheduled for 12:05 p.m. on Saturday, with high school indoor mile record holder Alan Webb of South Lakes scheduled to toe the starting line. Webb, for those just reappearing from a nearby cave, ran 3 minutes 59.86 seconds at New York City's 168th St. Armory track last Saturday to become the first high school runner in 34 years and only fourth ever to complete 1,760 yards in less than four minutes.
If Webb is able to bypass the media attention expected for his appearance on Saturday by a safe margin, he could make a serious threat on the national 1,000 meter record of 2:23.85 set by George Kersh of Pearl, Mississippi in 1987. Only four runners have gone below 2:25.9 all time, none since 1987, and coach South Lakes coach Scott Raczko said, "There has obviously still been a lot of attention directed towards Alan this week, but he has had some good workouts since the mile race and I wouldn't be too surprised to see him run below 2:25 if he handles the start well and stays relaxed." Webb is also entered in the 500 dash at 3:50 p.m. and is expected to place well in that event if he can perform perhaps his best run of the day in avoiding all the well wishers and question askers between his two races.
Some of the top competitors entered on Friday's schedule in the girls events include: in the 55 hurdles Keosha Sanders of Brooke Point, who was third at the AAA state meet last year in 8.14 along with Brooke Point teammate Rachael McIntosh and Oakton's Bonnie Meekins. The girls 55 dash should be one of the top events overall with four of the top seven finishers from last year's state AAA indoor meet entered in Ara Towns of Bethel, Sanders of Brooke Point, C.D. Hylton's Terri Davenport and Happy Darcus of Albemarle with Tysha Colon of H.D. Woodson (D.C.) also one of the top contenders. The girls 4x800 should see Robinson and Jefferson (Alexandria) among the top teams and the girls 3,200 run boasts some of the top names from the mid-Atlantic region in Jefferson's Kelley Otstott, River Hill's Lee McDuff (Md.) and both Jeannie Addison along with Ashley Seaton from Richmond's Thomas Jefferson. In girls Friday field events, the pole vault will include Kira Barcus of Atlee and Centreville's Alicia LaRoche while the shot put could be a battle between two 43 foot plus throwers in Amanda Walker of Bethel and Ayanna Jones from T.J.-Richmond with Meekins of Oakton and Ashley Bell of J.R. Tucker among the top entries in the triple jump.
The boys 55 hurdle and 55 dash events will have Vance High School (Charlotte, NC) teammates Robert Boulware and Duan Barrino among the favorites. Boulware over the barriers was the North Carolina state oudoor 4A champ last year in both the 110 hurdles (14.31) and 300 hurdles (38.06) while Barrino was the outdoor state champ in the 100 dash with a best of 10.60 and was also state indoor 55 dash champ with his best last year of 6.35 ranking him sixth in the nation. In the hurdles, Boulware's most serious challengers could be B.J. Hancock of E.C. Glass, the third place finisher at indoor states and state meet sixth placer Dwight Porter of Menchville. The 55 dash field of challengers for Barrino include defending 55 dash state champ Jerome Mathis of Petersburg who ran 6.45 to take the AAA title last year and also includes state placers from last year Brandon Andrews of J.R. Tucker and Omar McDaniels of Bayside.
In distance events the favorite for the 3,200 run is former Foot Locker cross country finalist Stephen Haas of North Mecklenburg (NC) who had a best outdoors last year of 9:11.30 with Robinson's L.A. Snead and Brian Dumm among the top local entrants. In field events Friday, Mike Zyvolovksi of Long Reach and Robinson's Steve Huntzinger are among the top seeds in the shot put and Duan Barrino is one of the co-favorites in the triple jump.
Saturday's running events on the girls side has the 300 dash field looking extremely strong this year with three of the state's top finishers from last year's indoor meet entered in Nicole Cook of Petersburg, Keosha Sanders of Brooke Point and Courtney Tolbert of L.C. Bird. With Spotsylvania's Jennifer Nelms, H.D. Woodson's Tysha Colon, Lakeasha Dudley of Bayside and Hylton's Terri Davenport also entered; the 300 dash looks to be the deepest event ot the meet on the girls side. The 500 dash field includes Cook of Petersburg, who ranked third in the nation last year at 1:15.23, Nelms of Spotslyvania, Hayfield's Cristina Borden and Monique Boley of Washington-Lee. The 1,000 run looks like it could shape up into a Northern Region duel among Kelley Otstott of Jefferson, Oakton's Keira Carlstrom and Mo Hagan of West Springfield while the 1,600 run favorites include Jeannie Addison of T.J.-Richmond, Shannon Sauders from Jefferson Forest, Gar-Field's Dionne Evans and Randy Buzzell of Middletown (Md.).
In the sprint relays, Bethel is usually the team to beat and they look like they will have senior Ara Towns available for both the 4x200 and 4x400 with Eastern Region foe Bayside among their top pursuers. The girls field events have state indoor AAA champ Krystle Moss of Jefferson challenged by state AA champ Nelms of Spotsylvania in the high jump with standouts in the long jump including Sanders of Brooke Point, Meekins of Oakton and Dudley of Bayside.
Boys running events on Saturday should also see some hot times in the 300 dash with both Duan Barrino and Anthony Boulware of Vance entered along with Brian Ford of Atlee, the fourth place finisher at last year's state meet and Bethel's Domonick Richmond. The 1,000 run, in addition to headliner Webb of South Lakes, has Webb's Seahawks teammate Richard Smith, Oakton's Phil Gaeta and Shane Stroup of River Hill (Md.) while the top entries in the 1,600 run include Stephen Haas of North Mecklenburg, Woodside's Curtis Parker, the state outdoor 800 meter champ; John Piersol of T.J.-Richmond and Fork Union's Andrew Keino. The 500 dash, which is run predominantly in the mid-Atlantic region and had 1:04.64 by West Potomac graduate Jerry Harris as the nation's leading time last year finds Webb of South Lakes in the field and conceded as having a solid chance of running in the 1:05 range with the Hayfield duo of Ron Richards and Mike Walker also expected to press the action. The sprint relays should find Eastern Region perennials Bethel, Deep Creek and Menchville among the top squads along with Hayfield, Vance and also Atlee with Brian Ford leading the way.
In Saturday field events, both the high jump and pole vault bring together most of the state's top performers. The high jump is not an event to be missed with four of the top seven from last year's state indoor meet ready to raise the bar including state runnerup Jerome Mathis of Petersburg, Menchville's Keith Moffat, John Hubbard of G.W. Danville and Quentin Matthews of Deep Creek, who was also the state outdoor champ at 7-0.25 with Middletown (Md.) seven footer Greg McCormick also in the talented field. The pole vault will have state outdoor champ David Sullivan of Centreville along with Sullivan's teammate Mark Kupets and will also include all staters Billy Morris of E.C. Glass and Daniel Garrett of Great Bridge while the long jump will have Tim Campbell of Kellam, fourth at last year's state indoors, as one of the favorites.
Lake Braddock's highly rated boys and girls teams will be one of the few area squads not entered at Virginia Tech, opting instead to go a twelve team invitational at the Prince George's County Sports Complex instead this Saturday. The meet will start at 9:30 a.m. and will be entirely of the running relay variety with no field events. Lake Braddock is planning to load up three different events on both the boys and girls side. The Bruins boys will have Frank Francois, Pat Buchanan, Mike Yakovac and 800 meter anchor runner Jimmy Judge as their sprint medley relay squad and will run the trio of Francois, Buchanan and Yakovac on both their 4x200 and 4x400 relays with Jim Borrell replacing Judge for each of those races. The Lake Braddock girls will line up Kelly Swain, Louis Beale, Cheryl Carr and Heather McCarthy in the distance medley relay; Sarah Beale, Shawnette Adams, Meredith Brill and Alexandra VanHeuven in the 4x200 and will go with Sarah Beale, Adams, Brill and freshman Courtney Sanders in the 4x400 relay.
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