Monday, January 12, 2009

High School Indoor A Go!

High School
So it has already started out as a frigid 2009, but it looks like indoor track has arrived just in time to heat things up. You can already see a huge upswing in participants from around the state (with runners from WV Flyers, Cabell Midland, St. Albans, Ravenswood and Hurricane) which will only help raise the level of competition to new heights when spring track rolls around. These guys and gals should be commended for getting out there and getting the work done in the dreary winter months. They'll get their rewards in the spring.

In case you missed the discussions on the message board, there were two high school meets this weekend that featured WV runners. The Flyers Meet in Morgantown and the Marietta High School Open in OH, which from what I hear has a pretty nice track.

The Flyers meet was kind of light on the competition but did feature an impressive line-up in the Boys 1600m. The race got out a little slow which motivated Fairmont Senior superstud David CerealO to take the lead and start laying down the hammer. After he made his intial push the front he went unchallanged to the finish line. He was able to negatvie split the race by quite a bit with an impressive time of 4:39.4 which puts him as the #1 1600m runner on the 2009 list. Wheeling Central's Rob Bonenberger stole the 2nd spot from a fading Frohnapfel with a brand new PR of 4:51.00. Keep your eye on this up and coming runner as he begins his campaign to take over the single A distance scene.

The Marietta meet saw some big names showing up to get in a rust-buster race or two. Shady Springs runner Chelsea Callaway has already returned to her regular M.O. by winning the the 1600m with a time of 5:42 and then coming back to finish 3rd in the 3200. Hurricane All-State runner Alex Dent cruised it in for the win in the 3200m. with a time of 12:24. Dent was also spotted in the 4x800 with phenom teammate Josie Crouch. Crouch went on to win the 800 with a time of 2:26 and finished 3rd overall in the 200m. If there wasn't a rule restricting it I would say let this girl run every single event and win the state meet with just her (I bet she can high jump 7 feet).

On the guys side we have another big blip on the radar from middle school runner Jacob Burcham (the previous being when he went down to Footlocker in Cross Country and won the 13 age group race). This time Jacob turned up in a nasty 1600m/3000m double where he ran 4:55 and 9:45, which is just ridiculous for someone who plays basketball and runs 15 miles a week. The other runners in the state can give a sigh of relief though, because this guy won't be unleashed on them until next year when he actually enters high school. Ravenswood runner Nathan Rees looks like he's going to be taking over the reigns as the stud of AA with his "Holy Crap" performance in the 3K and 800m where he destroyed the competition with a 9:40 and 2:03(that's the holy crap part). Job well done to Nathan who may go down as one of the best runners in Ravenswood history, which is no small feat considering the deep tradition of distance runners at that school. Cabell Midland runner Trey Beckett was spotted leading the way in the 1600m but apparently came out of the race before the finish line. Maybe he wants to remain incognito like the St. Albans guys in the 4x800 who ran a pretty studly time and gave the rest of the field a little spanking.

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