Rakan Draz is a sophomore at Eastside High. This spring will be Draz\'s first track season and last fall was his first year running cross-country. He is coached by Ed Boehmke.

As Fauquier sophomore Sarah Bowman heads into this weekend\'s East Coast Invitational as the top seed in both the girls\' 1600 and 1000 meter runs, she brings with her a well established track record as one of the state\'s top distance runners and as well a very bright future being one of the state\'s best just as a sophomore.

Many of the top Richmond Metro area athletes gathered to compete in the Arthur Ashe Center over the winter break at the track invitational and clinic hosted by Maggie Walker. Menchville senior Dwight Porter posted the meet\'s sole state best performance as he won the 55 meter hurdles in a swift time of 7.55. Colonial Heights senior John Bailey yet again took another double victory in the long jump (21-2.75) and triple jump (42-8). Atlee senior Anthony Easter pulled off two impressive wins in the 300 meter (38.08) and 500 meter dashes (1:10.57). Maggie Walker sophomore Ritchie Vaughan had a great run in her 1600 meter win (5:23.66) as she won by over 30 seconds. Fellow Maggie Walker sophomore Emily Wauford also was a race winner in the 1000 meter run with her strong time of 3:20.83. Maggie Walker also had two individual winners in the distance events on the boys\' side as junior Daniel Howard in the 1000 meter run (2:43.23) and senior Jonathan Charlesworth in the 3200 meter run (10:22.04) were victorious. John F. Kennedy had the top two 55 meter dash sprinters on the day as Michael Drake (6.72) won for the boys and Shannon Hill (7.38) won for the girls. Pettes sisters from Armstrong ruled much of the girls\' side of the meet. Malaika Pettes, a senior, was the winner in 55 meter hurdles (8.93), high jump (5-1), and triple jump (35-1), while sister Shoshana, a junior, finished second in the high jump (5-1), long jump (16-3), and triple jump (34-6.25).

Salem\'s Amy Seward and Menchville\'s Yvette Lewis (formerly of Denbigh) did battle in an exciting showdown of the state\'s two best female jumpers with Lewis getting the better of Seward most of the day, which was a busy one for both. Lewis took home wins in the long jump (18-6.50), triple jump (41-4.50), and 55 meter dash (7.28), and a runner-up in the high jump (5-6) as she earned athlete of the week honors.

Colonial Heights jumper John Bailey got his second consecutive big invitational double win in the triple jump (43-10.50) and long jump (22-0) at the CNU Winter Frolic. The week prior at the Walt Cormack Relays at VMI, Bailey was a winner in the same events with leaps of 44-0 in the triple jump and 21-2 in the long jump. The Colonial Heights senior earned athlete of the week honors by notching his second double win in the horizontal jumps this season at CNU.

Casey Phillips ran cross-country and track at Mauldin High. Phillips currently is a freshman at Clemson University.

The F.I.T. Relays held for the first time ever at Prince George\'s Sports and Learning Center (where the Nike Indoor Classic is held), had some of the finest performances the meet has ever seen with my great early season times and marks being posted.

The Dragon Relays saw some exciting field event and relay action at the Arthur Ashe Center. Huguenot\'s Ronnie Bussell posted a state best of 22-11 to win the boys\' long jump, while second place finisher Reynold Smith of Forest Park (22-2.50) was a winner in the triple jump at a state best of 45-11.50.

Many of the state\'s best performances were posted at Christopher Newport University\'s Winter Frolic. Last year\'s state champions in indoor and outdoor track Deep Creek boys dominated the meet as well as did their girl squads by winning both team titles.

James Robinson\'s Steve Huntzinger, the defending state champion in the shot put, reminded everyone that the shot put state title runs through him to kick off his indoor season at the inaugrual George Mason Relays in Fairfax. At George Mason, Huntzinger powered a toss of 59-01.75 for the win to earn athlete of the week honors.

Along with the George Mason Relays being graced with having the state\'s best male shot putter in Steve Huntzinger of James Robinson, the meet also had the thrower who appears to be the best in the state on the female side in Gar-Field senior Tiffany Evans as she won with an incredible throw of 44-11.00 to earn athlete of the week honors.

Runners thrive on routine. Everything must go as planned in their training, in their diets and in their lifestyles. And that

The Shrine Bowl Run in South Carolina was started in 1986 by Everett Stoudenmire, with the help of the South Carolina Track and Cross-Country Coaches Association. This year's run is slated to start at 5:15 a.m on December 21st at the Columbia State House steps.

Even though there has been a venue change and a date change in the schedule, the winter holiday season can now once again be considered complete with another installment of the Friends of Indoor Track (F.I.T.) Relays. This year\'s edition, which has been moved from its George Mason University site of the past seven years due to a scheduling conflict, has still found an excellent home at the Prince George\'s County Sports and Learning Complex with its superb field event facilities and mighty fine 200 meter track.

Michael Casseri an 11th grader at Pulaski County High School died last night in a single vehicle car wreck. Casseri was returning home after the Pulaski County High School Cougar basketball team\'s game with Radford in which he played. As a sophomore, Casseri was runner-up at last year\'s 2A State meet in the Discus with a throw of 146\' 07\". With last year\'s state champion Bryant Garrett of Stauton River graduated, Casseri was favored to win his first state championship. Also, I spoke with Michael\'s dad and he said Michael had been throwing 165\' consistently in practice, and he had been practicing at least once a week during Football and Basketball on the discus. Michael was ranked 13th in his class and attended Southwest Virginia\'s Governor School at Pulaski County. At 6\' 5\" and 240 pounds, he was a young 16 year old junior with a May birthday. The Pulaski County High School Track Association and MileStat.com would like to express our deepest sympathies to the family of Michael Casseri as well as our thought and prayers.

Myerscough had the top mark in the discus last season heading into the 2002 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. After placing second in the discus and eigth in the shot put as well at the national meet, Myerscough will be one to watch again.

At VMI gathered an assortment of AAA and AA schools from various parts of the state to put together a strong all around meet for many squads in attendance. Held in the indoor track facility commonly known as \"The Pit\" a few great performances were showcased.

The first annual George Mason Relays kicked off the indoor season for many of the top teams in the Northern Virginia Area. Many teams saw great starts to their seasons from relays and individual performances.

Virginia\'s two representatives at Foot Locker Nationals in Fork Union senior Kippy Keino in the boys\' race and The Potomac School senior Cara Kiernan had two remarkable runs in San Diego as both took home for Virginia two All-American honors. Keino finished 15th with a time of 15:22 to round out the south region\'s pack of six All-Americans as the region took second overall behind the midwest region. Kiernan continues to amaze in her first year of running as she ran a personal best time of 18:02 to take 14th overall in the race and was the top finishing girl from the south region. Congratulations to Kippy Keino and Cara Kiernan for one giving us one exciting fall of cross country racing!

Many talented runners who have years and years of running under their belt, yet still are unable to fulfill the dream of advancing to the Foot Locker National Cross Country Championships. Potomac Senior\'s Cara Kiernan only needed just one season to realise this goal as she will be competing in this Saturday\'s Foot Locker Nationals cross country race at Balboa Park in San Diego as Virginia\'s sole representative in the girls\' race. Absolutely no one, including herself, could have imagined she would be here when started her first cross country season this fall...as a senior.

Freeman enters his senior year at Manhattan as a six-time All-American in the weight and hammer throws. After opening his indoor season with an automatic qualifying mark in the weight already, Freeman has hopes for even bigger marks this season and beyond.

After seven years as the men\'s assistant coach at Florida, Mike Holloway was named the head coach over the summer and has already taken big strides in the right direction.

Kate Niehaus earned a position in the girls Footlocker Nationals race on December 14th after placing 5th (18:06) at the South Regionals at McAlpine Park in Charlotte, N.C. on November 30th.

Very grueling analyzing and researching was put into selecting this year\'s All-MileStat.com girls cross country team as there were so many qualified athletes and coaches that deserved recognition. Well after lots of second guessing, debate, and contemplation, here is your 2002 All-MileStat.com girls cross country team

Very grueling analyzing and researching was put into selecting this year\'s All-MileStat.com boys cross country team as there were so many qualified athletes and coaches that deserved recognition. Well after lots of second guessing, debating, and contemplating, here is your 2002 All-MileStat.com boys cross country team...

List of the top returnees from last year\'s AAA and AA state indoor track meets.

American Christian Academy senior Joy Griffith ran 17:46 for 5K at the COTR Jingle Bell Run on Saturday (12/7). The time breaks the state record for eighteen-year-old females by more than a minute.

St. Paul\'s sophomore Tara Lenn earned a spot in the National Cross Country Championship race by finishing fourth at the Footlocker South Cross Country Championships on November 30. A week before she leaves for San Diego, Lenn took the time for this interview with AlabamaRunners.

Jake Morris has been running for Aiken since seventh grade. Morris, a junior finished second in the AAAA State XC Meet (2002) to help the Aiken Hornets to a fifth place team finish. Morris also runs track for the Hornets.

No one in the South Region could have expected Cara Kiernan, a senior from Vienna at The Potomac School, to have cracked into to the top eight in the seeded race in Charlotte. In fact, nearly the same could be said about her in Virginia as only a few had started to take notice of her after her dominating wins at the Independent School State Meet and MileStat.com Invitational. However, many should have taken heed last week when she broke the Fork Union course record at the MileStat.com Invite. She made it very clear early on in the race that she was ready to run as she was in the thick of things with the front pack of runners vying for national qualifying spots from the get go. Rachael Forish of Texas had broken away from this pack and went onto win the race in 17:56, but as for Kiernan, she remained right with the chase pack behind Forish as they entered the lake for the final stretch. With less than 100 meters left, she made a hard push to the line and broke away from the pack to earn an astonishing third place finishing time of 18:05.22 to secure her spot to the Foot Locker National Meet in San Diego and earning herself athlete of the week honors.

Kippy Keino Keino, had lots of billing going into the Foot Locker South race as a pre-race favorite to qualify and even made it publicly known that was his goal. And despite the overwhelming pressure, Keino came through as predicted. None for his fast starts, the race was perfectly suited for Keino as he was with the leaders through the mile at 4:38 and the two mile at 9:38. A pack which had consisted of more than eight runners at that point, begin to string out as Kentucky\'s Bobby Curtis took command of the lead with North Carolina\'s Matt Debole giving chase. As others begin to drop back off the hard early pace, Keino stuck with the Florida duo of Ryan Deak and Steve Hassen as they pulled each other along. Then in the final 100 meters, Deak and Hassen kicked it in together for third and fourth and left Keino behind, but still Keino fought his way to the line to a sizzling time of 15:01 on a not so sizzling day with temperatures hovering around or below 50 degrees with fair gusts of wind. His time placed him fifth in the race and punched his ticket to run in San Diego where Kippy will surely be welcomed by the warmer weather he loves like back home in Kenya.

With the cross country season done for all except two (Foot Locker Finalists Cara Kiernan and Kippy Keino), we look back at the state\'s fastest 5K times this past fall as we separate the times into top 15 lists by the grade levels. Please note that this list only contains times from full 5K courses and no \"converted\" times such as those from the William & Mary Invitational 3.05 mile course.

Interesting stat at looking at how this year\'s top 25 state meet finishers either improved or didn\'t improve from last year\'s state meet.

Shalane Flanagan is a junior at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and is arguably the most dominant female collegiate distance runner in the nation with countless All-American certificates, blazing track marks, and a cross country national title.

With five All-American certificates to his credit, Missouri\'s Christian Cantwell should be one of the big favorites in 2003 for the NCAA shot put title. The Big 12 record holder in the event enters his senior campaign as the one to beat in many minds around the country.

FORMER TULANE RUNNER & CLUB COACH WITH PR'S FROM 38.9 (352 yards) to 70:21 (1/2 marathon).