Four state championships and the New England Championships highlight this weekend's track and field action.  Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wyoming all have their indoor state meets, while the New England Championships bring together six states, all competing for regional bragging rights.  See what's happening!

Weekend Results & Highlights

Florida Weekend Highlights (FL)

For the best coverage of Florida go to FLRunners.com  

Florida Weekend Highlights (By Jason Byrne): Friday / Saturday

  While the indoor season starts to wrap-up in most states across the nation, Florida started their track season outside in the nice weather that shines upon the state this time of year.  Despite it being so early in the season, a few performances really shined.

  One of the most surprising performances of the entire weekend nationally came at the Louie Bing Invitational.  Freshman Dedric Dukes (Washington H.S.) kicked off his high school career in grand style, winning the 200m dash, 400m dash and long jump.  His long jump mark of 21-10.75 was solid, but his best performances were in the sprints.  Dukes ran 21.53 and 48.28, as his 400m mark easily ranks him as one of the top quarter milers in the country currently.

  At the Sam Burley Hall of Fame Classic, Brandon O'Connor (Miami Southridge H.S.) burned up the track on his way to winning the boys 200m dash.  O'Connor ran a 20.93, which according to FLRunner.com's Jason Byrne, would have ranked O'Connor in the U.S. top ten in the event last year at the end of the season.

  More highlights from the Sam Burley Classic came on the girls side, where Ebony Eutsey (Miami Southridge H.S.) dominated in the 200m and 400m dashes.  Eutsey won the shorter sprint event in 24.27, while winning the longer event in 54.09.  Brittney Sinclair (Miami Southridge H.S.) also impressed with her performance of 45.56 for the 300m hurdles.

PTFCA Indoor State Championships (PA)

PFTCA State Championships Meet Page

PFTCA State Championship Results

Ijeoma Iheoma beats Chanelle Price at 400m in U.S. #3 54.54

(Photo by Don Rich)

  Saturday's PTFCA Indoor State Championships brought together most of the top athletes in Pennsylvania to prove just who is the best this winter in each respective event.  No other head-to-head match-up made as much spalsh as the dual between Ijeoma Iheoma and Chanelle Price in the girls 400m dash.  Both athletes ran incredibly fantastic races, with Iheoma winning 54.54 to Price's 54.82.  Iheoma's time ranks her U.S. #3 currently, while Price won the 800m dash as well Saturday in 2:09.40.

  In the field events, Karen Shump kept up her winning ways by winning the shot put in 48-10.25, which is the top performance of the weekend and tops rival Becky O'Brien's (ME) 48-10 thrown yesterday at the New England Championships.  Also, Abby Schaffer vaulted 13-00.25 in the pole vault, ranking her U.S. #4.

Ryann Krais (PA) wins big in 60m hurdles at PTFCA Championships

(Photo by Don Rich)

  Two other performances that really stood out on the girls side were from Carly Seymour in the 3000m run and Ryann Krais in the 60m hurdles.  Seymour won her race in 9:54.56, which currently ranks her U.S. #2 in the event.  Krais also impressed with her 8.54 finish in the hurdles, which ranks her U.S. top ten.

  On the boys side, the relays stole much of the attention on the day.  In the DMR, LaSalle won with a strong third and fourth leg to run 10:15.89.  Their mark easily ranks them as U.S. #1 in the event.  Meanwhile, North Penn won the 4x800m relay in 7:48.99, which currently ranks them U.S. top five in the event.

  On the track, Khaliff Featherstone kept up his winning ways, dominating by nearly a second in his marquee event of 400 meters.  Featherstone ran well under 49 seconds, finishing with a mark of 48.30.  Keenan Michael also had a dominating performance in the 60 meter hurdles.  He ran just .01 off of his PR, winning in 7.99.  In the field events, Sheriff Jabin lept to a U.S. top ten mark in the high jump with his winning mark of 6-10. 

VHSL Indoor State T&F Championships (VA)

VHSL Indoor State Meet Pages: Group AA / Group AAA

VHSL Indoor State Championship Results: Group AAA / Group AA

Find the Best Race Coverage at Virginia's MileStat.com

Javell Bullard (VA) & Taylor Sykes (VA) run U.S.#1 & U.S.#2 times for 500m

(Photo by John Herzog)

AAA Meet Summary: Two team champions were crowned. One was expected, while one was a mild upset. Two state meet records were set. A US #1 was recorded in the 500. A state record of 22 years was taken down. A trio of individuals won a pair of individual state titles, while a pair of twins won brought a state title each home for dinner. Two days jam-packed with drama, controversy, and close finishes, yet another great VHSL Group AAA State Indoor Championships has been completed.  Click Here for Full Article (by Brandon Miles of MileStat.com)

AA Meet Summary: Close team battles down to the very end at the Group AA State Indoor Championships, especially among the boys teams. The defending Group AA state indoor champions of Brookville boys led by Ethan Nixon, a state champion in the high jump and 55 meter hurdles, gave the favored Western Albemarle boys a fight all the way to the end, but a 4x400 meter relay (3:30.20) win to close for Western sealed the deal.  Click Here for Full Article (by Brandon Miles of MileStat.com)

Tynita Butts (VA) leaps 20-00 to win LJ, a new U.S. #2 performance

(Photo by John Herzog)

  While the Group AA and Group AAA Championships are mostly held on Saturday, Group AAA had qualifying races and a few final relay and field events contested Friday evening.  A few of the highlights came in the long jump, where Tynita Butts and James Taylor performed exceptionally.  Butts lept to the win in the girls competition with her leap of 20-00.  It also ranks her U.S. #2 currently.  Taylor meanwhile, lept 23-08.25 to win the boys side of the event, a U.S. top ten mark.

NACAC Cross Country Championships (FL)

NACAC CC Championships Meet Page

NACAC CC Champs. Meet Results: Junior Men / Junior Women

  A trio of prep distance runners took part in the NACAC Cross Country Championships Saturday in Orlando, Florida.  The NACAC Championships bring together 16 teams teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. 

  In the Junior Men's 6k race, Kevin Williams (CO) (pictured left) finished third for Team USA in fifth place overall.  Williams' time was 17:51, only four seconds out of fourth place.  It was a great performance for Williams.  Ben Johnson (NM) was expected to compete, but was not in the final results.

  Meanwhile, in the Junior Women's race, Emily Reese (GA) ran an incredible race to finish second overall at the 4k distance.  Reese's time was 13:15, twelve seconds off of race winner Kendra Schaff (Canada), who won the race in 13:03.  Emilie Amaro (FL) also ran for Team USA, finishing second for the squad and seventh overall in 13:35.  Reese and Amaro helped Team USA finish second overall behind race champion Canada.

New England Championships (MA)

New England Championships Meet Page

New England Championships Results: Boys / Girls

  The best track and field athletes from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont assembled at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletics Center in Boston, MA to compete for regional bragging rights. 

  Highlights abound on the boys side Friday night, with most of them seemingly coming from Connecticut athletes.  Kicking off the night, Parker Bourdreau (CT) easily won the 1000m run, winning the race by nearly three seconds and running a new U.S. #1 time of 2:27.63.

  In the sprints, Matt Marriott (CT) and Cas Loxsom (CT) put on the best show.  The two athletes ran stride for stride in the 600m dash, with Marriott charging to the tape a mere one-hundreth of a second before Loxsom, finishing 1:22.05 to 1:22.06.  Meanwhile, Dominic Smith (CT) lit up the track with his U.S. top ten performance in the 300m dash.  Smith once again crushed his competition, this time finishing in 34.78.

  One of the biggest surprises of the meet came from Omar Aden (MA).  Aden was easily one of the top three favorites heading into the championships in the mile, but Danbury's Willie Ahearn (CT) had been showing his strength all winter in the event and had a slight advantage over Aden.  However, in the end, Aden pulled off the upset of sorts, beating Ahearn by just over a second in 4:14.70.

  The top field event performance came from Dwight Barbiasz (NH).  Barbiasz lept 6-09 to easily take home the gold in the high jump.  His performance also ranks him in the U.S. top 15 currently.

  On the girls side, distance star Emily Jones (MA) once again proved the class of the field.  This time Jones won the two-mile run in 10:33.99.  She won the race by over seventeen seconds, while also running under 10:34 for the third week in a row.  Jones has been the most consistent top tier performer in the distance events this winter, which indicates great things for the spring.

  In the middle distance events, Anna Shields (CT) and Eryn Wheeler (RI) dominated thier respective events and earned U.S. top ten rankings in the process.  Shields continued to show why she is going to be a force in the 800m this season, winning the 1000m run in 2:53.77.  Wheeler, meanwhile, won the 600m dash in 1:33.79.  Both efforts were mighty impressive.

  In the field events, Becky O'Brien (ME) performed well coming off of her U.S. #1 throw last weekend at the USATF Indoor T&F Championships, where she placed sixth in the professional field.  On Friday night, O'Brien won the event with a tremendous throw of 48-10.  Also, in the high jump, Hanna Muir (MA) once again lept well, winning the event by two inches in 5-07.

  The relay events impressed as well, with deep and talented fields for each of the three relays.  The shining squad of the evening was LaSalle Academy (RI), who won the 4x200m and 4x400m relays.  In the 4x2, the squad ran 1:44.51, then coming back with three of the same members in the 4x4 and winning that event in 3:59.01.  Overall, LaSalle Academy had a great evening.

MITS State Championships (MI)

MITS State Championships Meet Page

MITS State Championship Results: Boys / Girls

  Up to five inches of snow couldn't stop the best athletes in Michigan from converging on Central Michigan University Friday evening.  While many fans expected the meet to be cancelled, the MITS committee decided to press forward with the festivities, and did the athletes come up big!

  On the boys side, numerous results earned top ten national rankings.  The field events saw Matt Armstrong throw 61-06.5, eclipsing the 60 foot mark, while Joe Wesley continued his strong indoor campaign with another pole vault performance over 16 feet, with his winning mark of 16-06.

  In the sprints, James Jackson ran a U.S. top 15 time of 6.85 in the 60m dash, beating the field through an intense three rounds of the event in one evening.  Meanwhile, Roscoe Payne hurdled to a U.S. top ten mark in the 60m hurdles, winning comfortably in 8.00.

  In the distance events, Isaiah Ward continued to impress, winning the 800m dash in 1:54.31, easily outdistancing himself from the rest of the field.  Ward ran the U.S. #2 time in the event last weekend when he broke into the 1:52 realm, but helped his team to win the 4x800m relay Friday night in 8:00.

  Maverick Darling also put on a great show, outkicking Isaiah VanDourne 9:21.71 to 9:22.06 in the 3200m run.  Bobby Aprill won the 1600m run, while Varick Tucker dominated the 400m dash once again, this time running 49.57 in the event.

  In the girls events, the top performance came from Ariel Roberts, who lept 5-09 in the high jump.  Roberts' jump easily won her the competition and ranks her atop the high jump rankings nationally.  She eclipses Kelly McNamee's (WA) leap of 5-08.75 from two weeks ago.

  While Roberts' jump was perhaps the most impressive individual performance, the best dual of the night came in the girls 60m hurdles, where nationally ranked Leslie Aririguzo and Raven Clay met once again.  These two have battled for a couple years now, and this time the dual once again lived up to its billing.  Aririguzo sqeaked out a close win, 8.67-8.75, as both athletes earned themselves top ten national rankings in the event.

  The top distance performance of the night came from Becca Addison in the 800m dash.  Last weekend, Addison ran 2:11 in the 800, while this time around she cruised in to a comfortable two second win in 2:14.46. 

Wyoming Indoor State T&F Championships (WY)

Wyoming Indoor State Champs. Meet Page

Wyoming Indoor State Results: Boys / Girls

  If any state has one dominant athlete that steals the show nearly every time out, Wyoming is one of those states.  Stephen Michael (Sr., Laramie) is one of the most versitile athletes in the country this year and he proved that again Saturday at the Wyoming Indoor State T&F Championships.  Michael won the long jump, triple jump, 200m dash and 55m dash, going through the rounds.  He won the triple jump in 47-00.5, the long jump in 23-00, the 200m dash in 22.55 and the 55m dash in 6.51.

  Two other young men who performed well were Justin Gebicki (Sr., Cheyenne East) and Justin Roberts (Jr., Cheyenne Central).  These cross town athletes both won their respective events in grand fashion.  Gebicki won the pole vault with a great mark of 16-00, while Roberts won a deep shot put event with his toss of 55-08.5.

  The best performance on the girls side came from Jordan Merback (Sr., Kelly Walsh), who won the triple jump in 38-01.  Her mark gave her a U.S. top twenty performance and easily the top performance in Wyoming this year.

York Invitational (IL)

York Invitational Meet Page

  For years the York Invitational brings together many of the top track and field athletes in the state, in one of Illinois' best indoor invitationals.  This year, numerous performances highlighted the event, once again proving that the Joe Newton Field House brings out greatness in all that compete under its roof.

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