The AotW for February 9th-15th is Clara Grandt. Ms. Grandt wins her award via her 8th place finish at the USATF Cross Country National Championships. She covered the 8,000m course in 28:22 (that's 17:43 5K pace) and is now positioned to possibly run for the U.S. at the World Cross Country Championships. Clara is a 2005 graduate of Doddridge County High School and currently runs for the Mountaineers under Sean Cleary. In high school she was a 5:18/11:27 girl her junior year (injured for most of her senior year). If she isn't a testament to hard work, high mileage and running under Coach Cleary, no one is. Best of luck to Clara at NACAC or, more likely, Worlds.
Michael Hardbarger is the AotW for February 2nd-8th. Mr. Hardbarger earns his award via his performances at the Empire Eight Conference Championships over the weekend. At the meet he won the 800m (1:56.68), won the mile (4:18.69) while breaking his own meet record and was named the men's Outstanding Athlete of the Meet in track events. Michael is a 2005 graduate of Ritchie County High School and is a senior at Rochester Institute of Technology. Congratulations to Mr. Hardbarger and keep up the hard work.
Suncrest runner Cameron Greza laced up his flats and blazed to a 5:09 1600m this evening in a time trial on the track. He broke the Mon. County Middle School record of 5:13 with a gut wrenching 2:30 last half. Of course he won't get credit for this because this was not a middle school meet and it doesn't really count. But he did it, and because of this awesome run he earns the Middle School Athete of the Mid-Week!!! A title I just completely made up to have a reason to hype up what he did. Looks like Cameron has a realistic chance to pull off the rare sub-5 middle school mile this outdoor season. We'll ceratinly be keeping an eye out this spring to find out how he's progressing. Congrats to Cameron on a job well done.
