A new U.S. record in the girl's weight throw and a stellar DMR between two NTN top-five teams went down at the Brown Invitational this weekend, while over in Michigan a handful of great performances occurred. See those results and others this week, as the last competitions of 2007 took place.
Running Around the Nation - Sunday Edition
Brown Invitational (RI)
Brown Invitational Results: Friday / Saturday
The Brown Invitational perenially attracts a lot of the top east coast talent during the month of December and the 2007 edition was no exception. The highlight of the day came from Victoria Flowers (Sr., Classical, RI). Flowers broke the U.S. record in the girl's weight throw with a mark of 61' .75". Her throw smashed the old record set by Maureen Griffin (Pocatello, Idaho) by 2.25 inches.
In Saturday's action Caitlin Lane (Sr., Greenwich, NY) beat a stellar girl's field in the mile, outkicking Hannah Davidson (Sr., Saratoga Springs, NY) and Sam Roecker (Jr., Burnt-Hills, NY) to win the race in 4:57.08. Davidson finished second with a time of 4:58.48 while Roecker finished third in 4:59.95. In the girl's 800m run Jordan White (Sr., Acad. H. Name) led four girls to 2:20 or faster as she won the event in a great mark of 2:15.33.
Other highlights of Friday's action came from the Girls Distance Medley Relay Championship race where NTN top-five finishers Burnt-Hills and Saratoga Springs toed the line against each other and produced an amazing race. Burnt-Hills stretched out a win of less than two seconds, beating Saratoga 12:05.94 to 12:07.05. LaSalle Academy (RI) placed third close behind in 12:11.90.
On the boy's side triple jumper Steve Crouse (Sr., Colonie, NY) put up the top mark of the day, winning his best event in 47' 8.5". Crouse easily beat the field and established himself as one to watch this year in the triple jump. More highlights and results are forthcoming from Saturday's action.
Great Lakes Track and Field Holiday Classic (MI)
Great Lakes T&F Holiday Classic Results
While most meets around the Midwest don't start up until after the New Year, the Great Lakes T&F Holiday Classic kicked off this week with some of the top athletes in Illinois and Michigan opening up their season. On the boys side a few performances really stood out nationally. Isaiah Ward (Sr., Mumford, MI), running for the Motor City Track Club, beat the field in the 800m dash to win in 1:56.00, seven and a half seconds ahead of his nearest competitor.
Ward's club team also won the 4x800m relay, running a great early season time of 7:56.22. Going off of last year's indoor results, that time would place them in the top twenty by the end of the indoor season. What a great performance early on! Also competing well was Calen Boyd (Lansing Eastern, MI) winning the long jump with a great mark of 22' 6.25". Varick Tucker (Sr., Belleville, MI) won the boys 400m by nearly two seconds in 50.40.
On the girl's side, Leslie Aririguzo (Sr., West Bloomfield, MI) beat in-state rival Raven Clay (Sr., Cody, MI) by three hundreths of a second, winning the 60m hurdles in 8.78. Clay finished in 8.81 and the nearest competitor to those two was .63 seconds away. Illinois sprinter Aaliyah Brown won both short sprint races as well, winning the 60m dash in 7.83 and the 200m dash in 26.14, both great times for this early in the season.
Burdette Indoor Classic (PA)
Burdette Indoor Classic Results
The stars of Pennsylvania were out in full force at the Burdette Indoor Classic this week. A dozen noteworthy performances took place, while one such performance was put on the backburner. The performance that ultimately did not count came from 800 meter star Chanelle Price. Price ran in the girls 800 and blazed a 2:08.x, however she was DQ'd due to a lane violation. She came back later in the day to run 56 in the 400 on her team's 4x400m relay team according to PennTrackXc.com.
While Price tends to receive much of the attention whenever she is competing, many other top girls put their stamp on Pennsylvania stardom. Ryann Krais (Sr., Methacton) won the girls 60HH in 8.68 and the 200m in 25.68. Shanae Bailey (Swenson) won the other short sprint, the 60m dash, in 7.73. Abby Schaffer (Easton) won the pole vault with a great mark of 12' 0", while Karen Shump (Penncrest) won the girls shot put with a throw of 46' 7.75".
On the boy's side Tony Shirk (Phoenixville) put up the top performance of the day. His 15' 1" pole vault effort easily won him the competition and put him in the upper tier of national competition in the event. Two other top field event marks came from Folarin Ijelu (Wissahickon) in the triple jump as he leaped 46' 2.5", while DJ Thomas (Coatesville) threw 55' 5.5" in the boys shot put to easily win his event.
In the distance events, North Penn won the 4x800m relay with a great time of 8:06.13, showing that they will be a force nationally this season in the event. North Penn's Zack Montijo placed second in the open 800, losing to Upper Dublin's Michael Palmisano 1:58.20-1:58.42 in what finished up as perhaps the most exciting race of the day.
Marine Corps Holiday Classic (NY)
Marine Corps Holiday Classic Meet Page
Marine Corps Results: Boys / Girls
*Summaries by ArmoryTrack's Christopher Hunt
Charlene Lipsey isn’t seasoned enough to walk into the 800 meters with an intricate gameplan. She didn’t enter the invitational 800 meters with splits in her head, knowing how fast she wanted to run each lap. The Hempstead junior didn’t map out any surges and certainly didn’t have a finishing time in mind. Click Here for Full Girls Summary.
Warwick Valley's Ryan Florkiewicz knew to keep things in perspective. This was good, for now. They still had cross country legs, he said. They are still trying to remind their bodies what indoor track feels like.
But if they felt that way, his team sure didn't show it. Mike Fox (3:09.4), Karl Schnabl (51.7), Florkiewicz (2:02.2) and Brad Ackerman (4:20.6) won the championship distance medlay relay in 10:24.05 at the Marine Corps Holiday Classic. Click Here for Full Boys Summary.