With just one day remaining until the inaugural Athens Mile, excitment is building! With a highly competitive Clydesdale division, a possible 4-minute miler, and Panthro from Thundercats (you'll just have to come to check this out), Saturday's event looks to be a fun one!
Summer is underway! Barbeques, swimming pool trips, lawn mowing and baseball watching fill our days. And if you’re a runner who doesn’t have the Olympics to worry about, summer means one thing...base training; mileage, mileage, and oh yeah, more mileage....
Jacob Burcham ran a blazing 4:02.73 U.S. #2 mile at the addidas Grand Prix at Icahn Stadium in New York City on Saturday June 8, 2012 placing 2nd to surprise winner Bernie Montoya's 4:01.32 from Arizona. Burcham was not one of the favorites, but this junior sensation from Cabell Midland has been gearing for the post season all year.
(Photo by Lance McDaniel)
Jacob Burcham has done it again! At the IAAF World Youth Championships in Lille, France Burcham represented this great state and country in phenomenal fashion. He placed an amazing 7th among the international competitors in the 1500 with a smoking time of 3:46.55! That's equivalent to a 4:04 mile! That's crazy fast...especially for an upcoming high school junior. Simply amazing! My congratulations to Jacob and his coach! I can't wait for cross country season!
In this past weekend's Adidas Grand Prix track and field meet in New York, Cabell Midland sophomore Jacob Burcham clocked a very impressive 4:07.66 full mile in the High School Boys' Dream Mile! Great job Jacob!!
The girls of Williamstown High School were all business at the Region IV A meet, taking home the win with 217 points. They placed first in an amazing 11 or 19 events. Taking home the runner up trophy was St. Marys High School in 114 points. On the boys side it was St. Marys taking home the victory. Led by junior Derek Renner the Blue Devils scored 156 points, besting their closest competition, Williamstown High by 42 points.
The Richwood High School girls rolled over the competition at the Region III A meet placing first in 12 of the 18 track and field events, and winning the overall meet in 243 points, 189 more points than second place Pocahontas County High School (84 points). The boy’s side was flip-flopped. The Pocahontas boys came out on top with 202 points, while Richwood placed second with 148 points.
It was all Tucker County at the Region II A track meet. The girls of Tucker County, led by Elizabeth Carr, beat out East Hardy High School for the victory, scoring 184.5 points, 93 more points than East Hardy. The boys of Tucker County came away with the “W” for the day, but not as easily as their counterparts. Led by Chris Bonner, they won with 131 points. Pendleton County High School, their closest competitor, finished the day with 106.333 points.
Both the boys and the girls saw the same team results at the Region I A meet with Doddridge County taking first and Wheeling Central Catholic taking second. D’Andra Swiger, Bethany Carroll, and Sarah Ferguson led the way for Doddridge in their victory on the girls side. Daniel Plaugher, Caleb Moore, and Dillon Muhly-Alexander let the way for Doddridge in their victory on the boys side.
Shawnee Carnett, a sophomore from Concord University earned her 2nd All-American status and first Indoor All-American status tonight in Albuqueque, New Mexico. Carnett placed 3rd in the Women's 800 meter run of the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships. Her time was a blazing 2:11.97! Congratulations to Shawnee and her coach, Michael Cox.
Maggie Drazba - WVRunners File Photo
This past weekend saw some stiff high school competition from various states at West Virginia University’s indoor track facility, and many runners from the mountain state set themselves apart from the rest of the competitors.
WVRunners File Photo of John Paul Blankenship (L) and Coach Mike Cox
This past weekend’s indoor meet at Marietta had a strong showing from Concord University’s women and men’s teams.
This Saturday is the day! Cabell Midland High School will once again be hosting the West Virginia High School State Cross Country Championships. If you’ve never been to Cabell Midland for the state meet, I strongly encourage you to come out. They put on a great meet, and the awards ceremony is one of the best I’ve seen among any high school sport awards ceremony!
The festivities begin at 10:00 a.m. with the Boys AA/A race. The Girls AA/A race starts at 10:45 a.m. The AA/A awards are at 11:45 a.m. The last two races of the day are the Boys AAA race at 1:00 p.m and the Girls AAA race at 1:45 p.m. The AAA awards begin at 2:30 p.m. This meet looks to have some of the best competition this state has ever seen. So, come on out and enjoy the show!
On October 21, 310 St Eusebius ends his reign as Catholic Pope. On October 21, 686 Conon begins his reign as Catholic Pope. On October 21, 1492 Columbus lands on San Salvador Island and “discovers America.” On October 21, 1512 Martin Luther joins the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg. On October 21, 1555 English parliament refuses to recognize Philip of Spain as king. And on October 21, 2010 cross country regional races were underway all over the state of West Virginia.
Photo courtesy of tristaterunnur.com
There are less than 20 days until the West Virginia High School cross country state meet, and the men’s AAA race looks to be an exciting one. With names like Jacob Burcham and Cody Pelliccioni, one tends to forget the other very talented harriers in the hunt for an individual state title. One in particular is the senior from Fairmont Senior, Dayton McVicker. In a sport where placing matters more than times, McVicker is showing he has what it takes to contend for the title. He recently won the Times Invitational, beating 93 other runners and some of the top competition in the state. Earlier in the season McVicker placed 1st of 109 runners at the popular West Virginia early season meet, the Chick-Fil-A Invitational. I look forward to watching McVicker mix it up with top competition in the state!
This past weekend saw one of the largest collegiate cross country invitationals in the South, and the runners from the WVIAC placed high. The Greater Louisville Classic, held at Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Kentucky had over 1500 finishers in the college races, and the entire meet produced 20 national elite times.
File Photo: Dayton McVicker at 2010 New Balance Outdoor Nationals
This year’s Chick-Fil-A Invitational, held on the home course of Williamstown High School saw great competition and quick times! This invitational, which is one of the largest invitationals in the state with over 400 runners finishing this year, produced 5 Milesplit Elite performances.
Jacob Burcham (File Photo)
This year’s Geico Classic, which was held on Cabell Midland High School’s cross country course this past weekend, showed significant improvement in time from last year’s race and produced many Personal Records from some of the best competition in the state.
