What an amazing meet! There were a lot of exceptional performances throughout our long afternoon and evening of track & field. You all stepped up in a big way and showed just what an amazing calibre of athletes you are. But before we praise your individual accomplishments, we need to publicly thank those who gave you that opportunity in the first place: a HUGE debt of gratitude is owed Coaches Cross, Ware, Sweeney, and Hornik without whom this meet (and the training that led up to it) would be impossible. THANK YOU COACHES FOR YOUR TIME, SKILL, AND DEDICATION!

 

Here are the meet results in doc form:

Here's the official MileStat results:

 

 

Our High Jumpers showed the competition how it is supposed to be done. Yes, we did very well on the points in this event, but we also LOOKED like we were in control and didn't waste time and a million piddly jumps scissor-kicking the bar in competition. Congratulations to Luke H. on his hard-fought 2" personal best and Henry for his 5th place finish, both of which picked up points for the team. Coleman and Carter were apparently feeling pretty good today as they took first and second in the event by clearing the 5 foot bar! This milestone was a personal record for both boys (+2" for Carter who edged out first place on misses, and +4" for Coleman) and sets them on the Elite Middle School Performance list for this event. Looking forward, 5' 2" places a jumper on the Top 3 board in Coach Carrier's room and 5' 4" is the middle school record! The 5' 2" mark is one of the most clustered spots on the Big Board, but with only five MS athletes ever making that height is still rarified air. Good luck to all four of you in our next three meets!

 

The Shot Putters saw some stiff competition from the throwers at Lucille Brown. Still, Tyler was able to pick up 5th place points for us as Everett was able to tie his personal best. Nic broke into this event for the first time and set his first marks hitting his goal of a double-digit throw.

 

In the Long Jump, we went 4 for 4 with some kind of record. Pierce joined the trio who have been jumping for us all season, returning to the event for the first time since 6th Grade PE, and set himself a season record sailing over 13 feet. Stanton cracked 12 feet for the first time and almost skipped twelve entirely as he set a big 13 inch PR! Brennan broke into the 13s for the first time with his big eleven inch PR and team (and VA 7th-grade) leader Mason became our first fourteen-footer of the season with his ten inch improvement. Well-done guys!

 

The 4x800 Relay started the track events for us and while I know the guys were a bit disappointed at the end of the race, there is still much cause for celebration! We don't get to compete at this distance much over the winter season (this event is restricted to Varsity-level athletes at most of our meets), so we've only been able to try this distance in practice time-trials. All four boys rose to the challenge though with 4 for 4 personal bests! Kyan led the improvement train with a drop in time of fifteen seconds! Pierce was right behind him with an eleven second drop! For both boys, this marks the first time they have been sub-3:00 in this event. Nicely done! Stanton's improvement was a respectable 2.5 second drop from his time in December. Tyler led off the team as lead leg and best team-time on the day as he broke the two-and-a-half minute barrier for the first time.

 

We knew the 55m dash would be hotly contested, and with 24 athletes entered, we had plenty of competition. Congratulations to Noah on picking up our first blue ribbon on the track for the day with his Elite-level finish in this event. Matthew trimmed 0.04 seconds from his personal best while Arjun chopped off almost half a second (remember: in a race this short, every hundredth of a second dropped is worth celebrating)!  

 

We knew that one of our avenues for overall victory at the meet was going to be through being tougher than our opponents and overwhelming them with our depth, especially in the distance races. Personally, this meant for a lot of guys a chance to set a PR in an event that they have not often had a chance to compete in at a meet. Henry Nelson was our leading man in this event and he ran it both strong and smart as he boosted at the end to take the win with his best indoor 1600m time ever. The other three guys in this event also picked up points for the team with their finishes AND earned PRs on the way. Honestly, these might be my picks for the improvements I'm most proud of as a coach. Check it: Everett improved his personal best, set last season back in February by 42 seconds and is now knocking on the door to be a sub-seven minute miler. Luke M. (who let's just say was "hesitant" about this race) crushed his previous best by EIGHTY seconds, trouncing what he set back in November at our time trials. Nic has been working so hard since September and has continued to build on his Cross Country base and now broke the 8-minute barrier for the first time - decisively with a 20 second drop! Oh and by the way, Nic's first 800m of the race was ALSO a PR by ten seconds - two birds with one stone! When you put in the work...

 

The 4x200 was a tough break and a good lesson in making sure we're prepared before coming to the line. Without tape to mark our steps and take-off points, we had to guess a little, and a little makes for big differences in this relay. Unfortunately, our handoff at exchange one drifted beyond the exchange zone, thus disqualifying us from a team time and a shot at points here. Even so, Coach Sweeney was able to get splits on the guys, and we can walk away with a trio of PRs. Carter's anchor leg shaved another 0.07 off of his last 4x200 attempt. Pierce was able to chop off almost a full second from his personal best on his leg. Mason hit a big milestone as he broke 30 seconds for the first time, dropping all the way to 29.33! 

 

To be honest, the competition in the 500m was stronger than anticipated with the unknown level of the Powhatan runners being a bit of a dark horse. Coleman responded nicely to the challenge and picked up his first blue ribbon of the day with a strong push in the final lap on the way to a solid PR! He is now only 1.92 seconds away from adding a third individual Elite mark to his name! Benjamin ran a solid time to pick up 4th place points for the team. Matthew tried out this event for the first time on Friday, and I'm so glad he did. Besides setting a NEPR in the 500 that was sub-two, he also PRed in the 400m by two seconds in the first two laps of the race! Efficiency!

(Note: NEPR = New Event Personal Record, which I pronounce "neeper" in my head FWIW) 

 

The A-Thousand was another place we picked up a bunch of points with our strength and depth. It is an embarrassment of riches for the coaches that we can slot nearly any of you into any event and still pick up points left and right. So fortunate we are that you all are awesome! Noah picked up his first PR of the day and his second gold medal as he demolished his Bruner Meet-set personal best by 7 seconds (and doing it 20 seconds ahead of the second place finisher). If we can even up the splits a little, that 3:00 mark looks mighty fragile! Excitingly, this 3:04.47 is an Elite Level performance, making Noah 9th on the all-time list (right behind Coach Cross's son, Philip!). Also worth noting is that this is Noah's THIRTEENTH Elite Level Event, giving him this coveted status in every individual running event competed from the 55m to the 1600! Truly amazing! 

Also in the 1000, Kyan set a new best mark on Friday, dropping his previous time by 5 seconds and adding a point to the team total. Brennan and Mason were both attempting this distance for the first time, and along with Stanton, might make them the top three seventh-grade 1000m runners in the state!

 

By the 300m, all of the athletes at the meet were starting to show some of the strain of the day. A host of scratches from other schools slowed down the meet a touch as droves of them decided they had nothing left in the tank. Props to Nic, Everett, and Luke M. who were all still feeling their 1600 success from earlier, but guts-ed out the 300 anyway. In the PR department, Carter had a nice 2-second drop from his previous best set back at the Bruner Meet. The big news for the 300m, though, was Luke Hudson's results. Skipping over 43 seconds entirely, Luke earned himself Elite Performance Status for this event with his 42.73 second dash. This mark makes him the 11th fastest St. Chris Middle Schooler we've ever had in this event, mere tenths behind fellow 8th grader Christian Both. Congratulations!

 

Another event that we get very few chances at during the indoor season is the 3200m. Simply being considered strong enough and mentally tough enough to compete in this event is worth noting. Both Stanton and Tyler were competing at this distance for the first time and both acquitted themselves well. Their only competition, in fact, were some ringers that Coach Dunn met at a 5K who run for local distance running club, Endorphin Fitness. Just by finishing, both picked up points for the team and a NEPR. Tyler, on his first attempt at this distance, is less than 19 seconds away from Elite status. Just sayin'... Also, by virtue of there being so few 3200m runners at the middle school level, Stanton looks to be the seventh grade MileStat leader in the event in VA!

 

As always, the 4x400 finished us off for the night. More than one opposing coach gushed praises for the four of you (Coleman, Henry, Benjamin & Noah), who just looked darn impressive during your win. We didn't have the heart to tell them that you've all run a little faster previously. That's how good you all are.

 

So, in the end, our combined team was able to handily take the win on the meet by 44 points over second place Collegiate. It truly was a team effort, for while we did take our fair share of first places (6 of 12 events), we backed it up with a depth of competition and talent that the other teams just couldn't match. You all should be proud, but also hungry to get back to testing yourselves against JV competition to help stretch your personal bests.