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DyeStat Virginia
1/20/01 at Fork Union Military Academy, Fork Union VA
12th FUMA Invitational
Bethel sweeps team titles
- Results
and 41 DyeStat Elite Performances
Mike Lloyd doubles: 6.55 and 7.60
Curtis Parker 2:33.64 1000 (2nd to his US#1)
Jennifer Nelms triples: 41.74, 1:19.64, 5-4
Alonzo Moore 48-9.5 TJ
Newsberger 43-6 SP - Preview from the meet director
Preview from the Meet Director
On Saturday, January 20th the tiny town of Fork Union (pop. 486) will increase tenfold when schools from all over the East converge for the Fork Union Invitational. Now in its 12th year, the Invitational has become best known for its top-caliber competition and down-home hospitality. The meet typically draws 50-90 schools yearly.
The event is the brainchild of former head coach Fred Hardy, Jr., now co-director and assistant coach. When FUMA completed the Estes Athletic Center in 1989, Hardy went to work on putting a meet that centered on bringing in the best athletes from all over the East. To say that he succeeded is an understatement. Numerous Olympians, NCAA Champions, and international standouts have competed in the FUMA Invitational. The Sydney Olympics featured four alumni of the meet: Latasha Colander, Lawrence Johnson, Ibrahim Aden, and James Carter. Other former standouts include Olympians, Saeed Basweidan and Jama Bile, NCAA Champions Seneca Lassiter and Martin Keino, as well as national high school leaders Sally Glynn, Braxton Davenport, and Greg Yeldell (HS AOY).
Many storied match-ups have been contested here over the years, and the history of the meet is replete with anecdotal lore. One of the best for the home team recalls the scratch meeting when several coaches, having seen FUMA's Davenport and Keino compete the previous evening in ESPN's Sunkist Invitational, remarked on their absence from the Invitational. Little did they know that even as they spoke a red-eye flight from Los Angeles was touching down at Dulles with the pair aboard. They arrived in time to score 30 points and help secure a team championship.
Last year the meet was dominated by Eleanor Roosevelt High School of Greenbelt, Maryland who became the first tam to claim both the boys' and girls' titles in the same year. Outstanding performances were turned in by ER's Allen Simms (LJ and TJ winner) and Dematha's Adrian Washington (1:06.00/500).
The FUMA Invitational also succeeds in bringing the community together. Teachers, coaches, spouses, and even faculty children pitch in to help run off the meet, and the dining hall staff runs a concession stand second-to-none. While the atmosphere may seem cramped to some, no one can dispute that the FUMA family puts on a world-class event.
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