KNOXVILLE, TN - One of the largest contingents of Virginians in recent years made the trek west to the Volunteer Outdoor Track Classic held at the University of Tennessee. Friday\'s portion of the meet had to deal with severe weather, but Saturday found clearer skies as the stormy weather had moved east to the weather encountered by many Virginians at meets on Saturday.
The boys\' distance medley relay on Friday evening had to deal with the poor weather as Virginia\'s Fork Union Military Academy went head to head with North Carolina\'s Broughton, which featured one of the nation\'s top distance runners in Sandy Roberts. Fork Union was forced to take a second place finish to the gang from North Carolina as Broughton won in a time of 10:28.27. Fork Union finished with a time of 10:30.52 for second. Axel Mostrag ran the 1200 leg versus the 1600 anchor leg, which had helped FUMA to a national runner-up finish in the event at Nike Indoor Nationals. Mostrag split a 3:05 with Polish buddy Szymon Rolla running a 4:28 on anchor.
On Saturday with better conditions, Mostrag competed in the 800 meter run and won with a state leading time of 1:53.66, which certainly ranks him highly on the national leaderboard as well. Mostrag got revenge on Brought\'s Roberts in the race as Roberts finished third in a time of 1:57.03. Colonial Forge\'s Blake Arnold also posted a swift time in the race with the state\'s second fastest performance at 1:55.47.
Arnold\'s teammate Dan Leyh had an exceptional distance double in the meet as he posted a winning time of 4:20.66 in the 1600 meter run and also took first place in the 3200 meter run with a time of 9:33.57. Leyh was also a member along with Arnold in the third place DMR squad on Friday night in a time of 10:47.83.
Thomas Jefferson\'s Stephany Reaves had probably the best female distance double among Virginians as she won the 800 meter run in a solid time of 2:16.70 and came back to finish second in the 3200 meter run with a time of 11:15.69.
However, J.J. Kelly junior Brittany Killough also put together two fine races in the distance events as she posted personal bests in a second place finish in the 1600 meter run at 5:14.30 and a third place finish in the 3200 meter run at 11:20.11. She will play a major role in the Group A State Meet in June.
Gloucester\'s Emily Webb competed in the rarely contested 2000 meter steeplechase with a solid effort of 8:05.72 to finish third overall. Webb competed in the event during summer track last year. The 2000 meter steeplechase standard for Nike Outdoor Nationals is 7:30 and the MileStat.com Elite Track Gala may be the final meet for steeplechasers to earn a late NON qualifier with the 2K steeple being held on June 10th and the late entry deadline for Nike Outdoors on June 11th.
William Fleming\'s Omni Ashford took the win in the long jump competition despite a slick runway with a leap of 16\'10.25\". Ashford also finished second in the triple jump at 34\'3.75\" as teammate Jasmine Bethel gave William Fleming a 1-2 finish in the event with a winning mark of 35\'1.75\".
Fork Union\'s Brandon Caleb was also a winner in the long jump as more than half the field fouled on all of their attempts. Caleb was one of four athletes to get a mark in with a top jump of 22\'1.50\". Caleb also won the 110 meter hurdles with a solid time of 14.61.