The fabled Fort Washington Avenue Armory on Manhattan's Upper West Side will once again play host to this weekend's New Balance National High School Championships, the culmination of a long season of indoor track and field. The meet will take place Friday-Sunday, and will be live streamed online. Typically, this stream has been quite good...very high video quality and solid announcing to accompany. Results will be posted on Delta Timing's website, and we'll do our best to tweet out updates as we receive them.
As for our locals, a very small group of athletes will travel north to compete on the world's most famous indoor track, and yet, despite the small number, Central Virginia will be very well represented as usual...
Sunday 1:26pm: Boy's 2 Mile Championship (Gannon Willcutts-Western Albemarle)
Willcutts, the Central Virginia XC runner of the year, has had a relatively low key indoor campaign up to this point. Yes, he did pick up his fourth individual state track title a couple weekends ago with a 4:20 clocking in the 1600, but he also finished runner-up in the 1000 in 2:34 and "only" split 2:00 on Western's 3rd place 4x800 relay team. BUT, those perceived blemishes mean very little as I'm sure that the Princeton-bound Willcutts has had this 2 mile date with the nation's best circled on his calendar all season long. Plus, his 9:05 solo 3200 meter victory back at the Virginia Tech Invite in January, where he won by almost 20 seconds, showed that he is ready to run well under 9:00 in the right race with some competition.
If the early pace is fast and honest, then I fully expect the Western Albemarle school record of 9:03.84 (Tyler Stutzman, 2009) to fall, and possibly the Central Virginia all-time record of 8:56.93 by Adam Visokay (national runner-up at this very same meet back in 2012) too.
Sunday 10:25am: Boy's 800m Championship (Alex Lomong-Fork Union)
For Lomong, this meet will be a very rare opportunity to compete against top quality competition on the fastest of tracks. Arguably one of the nation's most underrated middle distance runners, Lomong, whose older brother Lopez is a world class miler who carried the American flag into the Olympic Stadium at the 2008 Beijing Games, has quietly put together one of the best resumes this area has ever seen. And yet, since it is often done against weaker competition in smaller meets, the Fork Union senior rarely gets the attention he so richly deserves. This season, despite putting up stellar marks of 1:04 (500), 2:30 (1000), and 4:18 (1600), Lomong has often been lost in the shuffle behind Willcutts and fellow Virginian Drew Hunter, whose 3:57 mile a couple weeks ago was a national high school record.
Nevertheless, expect a big, big run from Alex at this meet. Due to seeding rules, he will almost certainly be in the 2nd or 3rd fastest section since his 800 personal best of 1:51.72 was run last spring, and not indoors this winter. That shouldn't matter too much though, as national champions have been crowned in this event before from "slower" sections (UVA's Nathan Kiley is a prime example as he won the 2013 title from the 2nd section in a time of 1:51.37...fast heat was 1:51.40 that year). At the very least, the vaunted 1:50 barrier is primed to go down for Lomong this year, either here at this meet or later this spring. Here's to hoping it comes this weekend.
One other thing to note is that Albemarle's Anthony Kostelac holds the Central Virginia indoor 800m record with his national title winning time of 1:50.96 from 2010. Albemarle could be losing two area all-time records this weekend...
Friday 3:55pm: Girl's Emerging Elite 4x800m Relay (Albemarle)
The foursome of Halley Dillenbeck, Ryann Helmers, Lauren Hughlett and Kathryn Mayo have been on a tear as of recently, capturing the school's first ever 4x800 state title a couple weeks ago thanks to their 9:34.33 clocking. That time not only smashed the overall Albemarle school record (indoors and out), but also qualified the quartet for both this meet as well as the venerated Penn Relays at Philadelphia's Franklin Field in late April. That's great news because in my (arguably) biased opinion, those are the two greatest and best high school meets on the entire calendar all year.
Anyways, this will be the first ever trip to the Armory for all four girls, and with none of the quartet graduating, it should prove to be an invaluable experience for big meets down the road. There is little doubt that this meet and the atmosphere surrounding it can be a bit intimidating at times, but so long as that doesn't affect these four girls, then expect another few seconds to be shaved off that school record time of 9:34. The Armory's track is one of the fastest in the world, and with anchor runner Mayo fresh off her stellar state meet double (2:14 anchor split/3:00 1000m individual title), if the first three can get the stick around to her in okay shape, then Mayo should have no trouble bringing it home strong.
As for our locals, a very small group of athletes will travel north to compete on the world's most famous indoor track, and yet, despite the small number, Central Virginia will be very well represented as usual...
Sunday 1:26pm: Boy's 2 Mile Championship (Gannon Willcutts-Western Albemarle)
Willcutts, the Central Virginia XC runner of the year, has had a relatively low key indoor campaign up to this point. Yes, he did pick up his fourth individual state track title a couple weekends ago with a 4:20 clocking in the 1600, but he also finished runner-up in the 1000 in 2:34 and "only" split 2:00 on Western's 3rd place 4x800 relay team. BUT, those perceived blemishes mean very little as I'm sure that the Princeton-bound Willcutts has had this 2 mile date with the nation's best circled on his calendar all season long. Plus, his 9:05 solo 3200 meter victory back at the Virginia Tech Invite in January, where he won by almost 20 seconds, showed that he is ready to run well under 9:00 in the right race with some competition.
If the early pace is fast and honest, then I fully expect the Western Albemarle school record of 9:03.84 (Tyler Stutzman, 2009) to fall, and possibly the Central Virginia all-time record of 8:56.93 by Adam Visokay (national runner-up at this very same meet back in 2012) too.
Sunday 10:25am: Boy's 800m Championship (Alex Lomong-Fork Union)
For Lomong, this meet will be a very rare opportunity to compete against top quality competition on the fastest of tracks. Arguably one of the nation's most underrated middle distance runners, Lomong, whose older brother Lopez is a world class miler who carried the American flag into the Olympic Stadium at the 2008 Beijing Games, has quietly put together one of the best resumes this area has ever seen. And yet, since it is often done against weaker competition in smaller meets, the Fork Union senior rarely gets the attention he so richly deserves. This season, despite putting up stellar marks of 1:04 (500), 2:30 (1000), and 4:18 (1600), Lomong has often been lost in the shuffle behind Willcutts and fellow Virginian Drew Hunter, whose 3:57 mile a couple weeks ago was a national high school record.
Nevertheless, expect a big, big run from Alex at this meet. Due to seeding rules, he will almost certainly be in the 2nd or 3rd fastest section since his 800 personal best of 1:51.72 was run last spring, and not indoors this winter. That shouldn't matter too much though, as national champions have been crowned in this event before from "slower" sections (UVA's Nathan Kiley is a prime example as he won the 2013 title from the 2nd section in a time of 1:51.37...fast heat was 1:51.40 that year). At the very least, the vaunted 1:50 barrier is primed to go down for Lomong this year, either here at this meet or later this spring. Here's to hoping it comes this weekend.
One other thing to note is that Albemarle's Anthony Kostelac holds the Central Virginia indoor 800m record with his national title winning time of 1:50.96 from 2010. Albemarle could be losing two area all-time records this weekend...
Friday 3:55pm: Girl's Emerging Elite 4x800m Relay (Albemarle)
The foursome of Halley Dillenbeck, Ryann Helmers, Lauren Hughlett and Kathryn Mayo have been on a tear as of recently, capturing the school's first ever 4x800 state title a couple weeks ago thanks to their 9:34.33 clocking. That time not only smashed the overall Albemarle school record (indoors and out), but also qualified the quartet for both this meet as well as the venerated Penn Relays at Philadelphia's Franklin Field in late April. That's great news because in my (arguably) biased opinion, those are the two greatest and best high school meets on the entire calendar all year.
Anyways, this will be the first ever trip to the Armory for all four girls, and with none of the quartet graduating, it should prove to be an invaluable experience for big meets down the road. There is little doubt that this meet and the atmosphere surrounding it can be a bit intimidating at times, but so long as that doesn't affect these four girls, then expect another few seconds to be shaved off that school record time of 9:34. The Armory's track is one of the fastest in the world, and with anchor runner Mayo fresh off her stellar state meet double (2:14 anchor split/3:00 1000m individual title), if the first three can get the stick around to her in okay shape, then Mayo should have no trouble bringing it home strong.
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