Photos by Rick Andrews for flrunners.com
It was an amazing two days of races that concluded today in stellar fashion. The race grew by 1000 athletes in one year and was packed... the JV Boys race had over 560 athletes in it! And the ROC certainly did not disappoint.
In the Girls ROC, freshman Mary Ann Brown set the pace early with a quick first 1200. Just before the mile mark, Kathryn Fluehr took over and did not look back. She took several along with her including her sister Erika, Shelby Hayes, Nicole Carpio, Stephanie Strasser, Stephanie Schappert, and Liana Epstein (Lake Braddock VA).
Kathryn lead through the two mile with Erika and Shelby in tow with sub-11 pace and then the continued to pound to the finish. The crowd gasped as they saw her coming down the final stretch and toward the clock. A big applause and cheers went out, as the seconds ticked away and Fluehr stretched to hit the 16s. She just missed as the last second ticked away, but certain proved she is a legit national contender with the second fastest time ever on the course 17:00.73--compared to former national camp Ashley Brasovan's 16:46 looks pretty darn impressive! Her sister also ran a 17:24 and Shelby Hayes had a big PR of 17:31. Winter Park's girls came through with their most impressive race of the season with 68 points and a 18:44 team average!
Schappert, Epstein, Capio, and Strasser also dipped under 18 minutes and Mary Ann Brown hung on for a new PR of 18:06 for 8th. Twenty-three girls went under 19.
For the boys there was a lot of hype about this field compared to that of 2002 or 2004. Many of us felt like this class of boys is every bit as good if not better and that a meet record was all but imminent. We were right!
The race was bunched up through the mile and the leaders only slightly thinned out at 2 miles in 9:47. Then the last mile they just pounded on each other.
Coming down the final straight Matt Mizereck and Armando Del Valle traded leads seemingly a dozen times before Mizereck pulled it off at the end 14:56.51 to 14:56.84 in one of the closest races in our ten year history. The party didn't stop there... Erick Montoya, who was with the them at the two mile mark hung on for 15:05 and Michael Wallace, Tyler Davidson, and JL Hines all went under the former course record of 15:24 set last year by Derek Wehunt. Now just imagine if Colin Barker and Will Stanford were healthy (severe flus) or if Brian Atkinson was there as well!!! The big surprise was on the team-front when Dr. Phillips boys upset favorites Miami Columbus 81-96.
In all there were 24 under 16 minutes!
Coverage:
Video Interview with Mizereck and Del Valle by Robert "Doctor Bob" Cooke
Photo Album by Rick Andrews (over 2400 photos posted of each race)
Photo Series of the exciting Mizereck-Del Valle Finish (shot by Joe Mizereck)
Coming:
More photos by Paul White, Ralph Epifanio, and others
Meet Summary and Open Letter by Jason Byrne
Ralph's Musings, a meet summary by Ralph Epifanio (including interviews)
Reports of splits from our IPICO Sports timing at the mile marks
AND MORE! CHECK BACK!