The New Bern boys from North Carolina continue to impress with an incredible indoor season of amazing relay performances topped most recently tonight at the KTC Indoor Track Classic in Tennessee as their 4x400 meter relay ran the #2 time ever in high school history on all sized tracks with a 3:13.24 performance on the oversized track at East Tennessee State. Their time was actually faster than the listed "national record" in the high school boys indoor 4x400 meter relay set by Muir High School in 1996 at 3:13.34, but Muir High School will keep their national record (for now) as they ran their time on a 200 meter indoor track which is the standard for all high school national record performances in the circular running events. The fastest oversized track perfomance belongs to Dallas Lincoln at 3:11.7, which puts the performance by the New Bern boys in perspective since they just ran the fastest high school 4x400 indoor time since the 1970 performance from the Dallas Lincoln squad. More results and news from Johnson City forthcoming...

Quite a few national caliber high school track stars will be headed to Tennessee this weekend for the KTC Indoor Track Classic held at East Tennessee State in Johnson City. The New Bern boys from North Carolina have been traveling all around as of late including trips to Arkansas, Virginia Tech, and the New York Armory and this weekend find themselves at ETSU with their US leading 4x400 meter relay and national ranked individual athletes. Their 4x400 meter relay will be looking to run ever closer to the high school national record of 3:13 after running 3:17.00 at Virginia Tech last weekend. The Hendrix twins, currently ranked #1 and #2 in the 500, will look to drop their 400 season best times further with Anthony at a US #2 time of 47.73 and Andrew at a US #3 time of 48.12. Teammate Fuquawn Greene is also a national leader in the 200 meter dash with his 21.39 season best. Greene will be racing in the 200 meter dash this weekend along with the 60 meter dash, which his 6.85 season best ranks him third in the US at this time. Chalonda Goodman, the returning Nike Outdoor Nationals champion in the 100 and 200 meter dash, makes her 2009 debut this weekend in the 200 meter dash. Goodman, a senior at Newnan High School in Georgia, has a personal best of 23.22 in the event. The national leader in the weight throw and US #5 in the shot put, Lauren Chambers, with her 58'4.75" season best in the weight throw, will make an attempt at the high school indoor national record in the event. Chambers, a Southern Cal commitment, qualified and competed on the US team at the World Junior Championships last summer. Also competing this weekend in Tennessee will be a teammate of Chambers from the 2008 World Juniors team in hurdler Jasmine Stowers from South Carolina. Another one of South Carolina's best is also making the trip to Johnson City in junior Briana Nelson, one of the nation's top returning 400 meter dash specialists with a 53.45 personal best and third place finish at Nike Outdoor Nationals last June. KTC Indoor High School Classic Performance List

           

  Milligan College, Tenn. (Jan. 26, 2009) --- Milligan College Head Coach Chris Layne announced the addition of seven male distance runners to the 2009-2010 cross country and track and field squads late last week.    Osceola High School's Jeffrey Surran (Kissimmee, Fla.), Greeneville High School's Matt Murphy (Greeneville, Tenn.), and Daniel Boone's Justin Little (Gray, Tenn.) highlight the list of commitments for Milligan's men, who finished 16th at the 2008 NAIA Cross Country National Championships after not cracking the top 25 national rankings all season long. 

Despite losing their head coach and several key legs due to graduation from last year, the Eleanor Roosevelt girls still find a way to rise to the top on the national leaderboard in the relays as shown with their 1:38.27 clocking in the 4x200 meter relay at the Virginia Invitational, which could stay as the #1 time for quite some time. The state of Maryland produced 3 US #1 performances this weekend in Blacksburg including Afia Charles of Eleanor Roosevelt beating two previous US #1 leaders in the 500 meter dash (1:14.69) and Saniel Atkinson of Bishop McNamara now sharing the top performance in the high jump at 5'9". (Photo by Brandon Miles) 5 New US #1 Leaders Girls 4x200 - Eleanor Roosevelt (MD) 1:38.27 Girls 4x400 - Bethel (VA) 3:48.91 Girls 4x800 - Southern Regional (NJ) 9:07.67 Girls 500 - Afia Charles (Eleanor Roosevelt MD) 1:14.69 Girls High Jump - Saniel Atkinson (Bishop McNamara MD) 5'9"

Wayne Davis (NC) finished just off of his national record performance (7.06) from a year ago at Virginia Tech with a 7.09 clocking this past Saturday in Blacksburg, VA. (Photo by John Herzog) A total of 10 new US #1's this past weekend for boys. Six of which were produced at the Virginia Tech Invitational. Boys 300 - James Taylor (Nansemond River VA) 33.88 Boys 3200 - Tyler Stutzman (Western Albemarle VA) 9:05.58 Boys 400 - Clayton Parros (Seton Hall Prep NJ) 47.58 Boys 4x400 - New Bern (NC) 3:17.00 Boys 4x800 - Morris Hills (NJ) 7:46.54 Boys 500 - Anthony Hendrix (New Bern NC) 1:03.48 Boys 55H - Wayne Davis (Southeast Raleigh NC) 7.09 Boys 800 - Sadiki White (Allentown NJ) 1:52.40 Boys SMR - Washington Township (NJ) 3:30.84 Boys Triple Jump - David Wilson (George Washington VA) 49'4.50"

 The 2009 track and field rules meetings will not be held in the seven geographic  locations. The track and field rules meetings will be put online and all coaches may  access the online program beginning February 2, 2009. Track and field rules meeting  information will be online and all coaches will be required to go online and complete the  requirements.    There are very few changes in track and field for this spring and we felt that this would  be a cutback that would be beneficial to both schools and coaches in terms of travel  expenses.       

 King College head cross country coach Peter Dalton is pleased to announce the addition of Heidi Waldbart (Henderson, N.C.) to the Lady Tornado 2009-2010 squad. The Lady Eagle from East Henderson high school is a four-time State cross country qualifier and possesses a personal record of 21:01 for 5,000 meter. Under the tutelage of East Henderson coach Rusty Ward, Waldbart was named to the All-Conference and All-Region teams numerous times and also garnered the Kiwanis All-Star award.

 Here is the last of the preseason rankings. This is for the distance and mid-distance runners.       

  Let's just say, what if for a min. and say every boys team in the state had a meet with the scoring 10,8,6,4,2,1. Well with the magic of that new fangled internet stuff here is what it might look like............... 

 Let's just say what if for a min. and say every girls team in the state had a meet with the scoring 10,8,6,4,2,1. Well with the magic of that new fangled internet stuff here is what it might look like............... 

 Here are the 2009 preseason rankings for the long jump, high jump, pole vault, and triple jump. 

 Here are your top ten returners for the 100 and 200 meter sprints. I have also included links to the entire rankings for that event. 

 The Milligan College men's and women's track and field teams ran in the Appalachian State University (Boone, N.C.) Indoor Meet on Saturday.  The Buffs took down a school record in the process.   In the field events, freshman Tanner Payne (Georgetown, Tenn.) set the school’s shot put record at 11.20 meters (38 feet 1 ½ inches) replacing Justin Westerman’s 36”8.75’ throw. SeniorJamal Phelps (Chicago, Ill.) also did well for the Buffs jumping to sixth place in the triple jump with a 43”6.5’.

 Here is the second page of preseason rankings. This will be for the throws.   

  BOARD OF CONTROL MINUTES January 8, 2009 Hermitage, Tennessee 1. Roll Call 2. Approved minutes of last meeting

 Ronnie Carter, Executive Director of TSSAA, announced at the January 8, 2009 Board of Control meeting that he will retire in June 2009.  Carter is the third Executive Director in the association’s history and was preceded by Gill Gideon (1972-86) and the association’s first director, Mr. A.F. Bridges (1946-72). Mr. Carter joined the TSSAA in 1978 as an Assistant Executive Director.  He was named Executive Director in 1986.   He is the fifth longest tenured active Executive Director in the NFHS (National Federation of State High School Associations).  Since he was hired in 1978, he has seen approximately 180 executive directors at the other 50 state high school associations.  Only two other NFHS member state associations have had three or fewer executive directors than TSSAA since their associations were formed.  The Connecticut association, which hired their first director in 1969, is currently on their second director and the Rhode Island association, which hired their first director in 1968, is currently on their third director.

As 2008 disappears in the rear view mirror, we will be counting down what we felt were the 10 best performances of 2008. Today we revisit the top moment of the year as voted by our staff and webmasters.

As 2008 disappears in the rear view mirror, we will be counting down what we felt were the 10 best performances of 2008. Today we revisit the moment voted as #2 by our staff and webmasters.

As 2008 disappears in the rear view mirror, we will be counting down what we felt were the 10 best performances of 2008. Today we revisit the moment voted as #3 by our staff and webmasters.

As 2008 disappears in the rear view mirror, we will be counting down what we felt were the 10 best performances of 2008. Today we revisit the moment voted as #4 by our staff and webmasters.

Foot Locker All-American Kathy Kroeger announced yesterday that she will be heading to Stanford University. Ocean City (NJ) standout Brett Johnson, the nation's top returning miler, has committed to Virginia.

 Financial Report of the 2008 State Cross Country Meets 2009-2010 TSSAA Calendar Proposal from Oliver Springs High School for Changes in Classification The major proposal being submitted to the Board for consideration is to change all present classifications of A/AA so that there would be three classes in golf, cross country, girls’ soccer, soccer, track and field, and tennis.    

 With the 2009 track season just around the corner it is time to start looking at who the top returning people in each event will be. This first list will be for the hurdlers and I will try to add some more every few days.