Ralph Epifanio's never dull take on the events as they went down at day one of flrunners.com Invitational 9.

The Clover Hill girls took runner-up in the invitational division at the flrunners.com Invitational held in Titusville, Florida. The Lady Cavs were led by top 15 finishes from Abby Badura (6th, 19:26) and Morgan Denecke (13th, 20:07) and held off Ridgeview High School of Florida by one point for second place in the team standings with a team score of 166 points and nearly their entire top 7 under 22 minutes on the Chain of Lakes Park 5K course. The boys finished 11th out of 25 schools in the invitational division led by a 33rd place effort by Allan Kirchhoff (17:16). Clover Hill is the first high school from Virginia to ever compete at the flrunners.com Invite, which has become the largest and most competitive meet in the Sunshine state and is mentioned among the largest in the country.

flrunners.com Invitational Results: Invitational Girls - Invitational Boys

Brad Miles, Kyle Hurston #3 + #5 all-time at Salesianuim. Emmaus (colds and all) is looking better than ever @ Paul Short. Lower Merion's Ben Furcht is amazing even himself. State College's girls have that 1-2 punch @ Steel City. Lauren Zarger loves it at home.

The biggest meet of the year is here again! The first night of meets is wrapped up and it was a great first day. Friends. Perfect weather. Great races. Anna Willard and Nike's great show and awards presentation. It doesn't get much better!

Here is a great forum post by "Doctor Bob" showing the history and great tradition of our beloved namesake meet. So many memories! Next year is year ten... can you believe it??!

The Race of Champions was amazing! Besides the course records mentioned in the headline they lived up to or exceeded the hype. The Girls ROC saw 24 girls go under 19 minutes (4 under 18). Community School, Winter Park, and Lourdes had a classic team battle. The Boys ROC had 10 under 16 minutes and 71 under 17 minutes. Belen Jesuit proved that they are the best team in the state, scoring just 40 points with a 16:02 team average. Columbus and Dr. Phillips were pretty impressive in their own right with 16:13 and 16:28 team averages for 2nd and 3rd.

More to come!

Friday Night Coverage

• Race Summaries
• Day 1 Summary by the always entertaining Ralph Epifanio
• Photo Album by Andrew Charles (over 2000)
• Photo Album by Ralph Epifanio (138 photos)
• Meet Results
• Videos - Coming Sunday and Monday

Saturday Coverage

• Photo Album by Andrew Charles (over 2000)
• Meet Results
• Videos (editing and uploading... more added over the next three days)
• Race Summaries - Coming

Andrews (pictured above, TXRunners photo) 17:07, Lutz in TX at Nike South | Hasay 17:54 season debut at Atascadero Invite |  A pair of all-time bests at Salesianum, DE | Dunbar, Kodiak, Francis three-peat in Alaska | Brasovan course record 16:46 at flrunners.com | PA Girls #1 Emmaus, Furcht 15:18 @ Paul Short | Doug Smith unchallenged 16:29 debut at Shore Coaches (NJ) | Quick times at Holmdel | Freshmen girls rock Maine FOC |

Race by race summary.

A lot of people have a lot of questions about this weekend.  Please turn to this to answer your questions rather than emailing or calling!

There will be plenty to do and see in addition to the great races this weekend at the flrunners.com Invitational 9 Presented by Nike.  Our friends at Nike have really stepped up their game to help us elevate the meet and give you more to do and see while there.

Read more...

In this week's Monday News and Notes section we talk about the return of Dakota Ridge's Kaitie Vanatta.  We also discuss the opener of all-American Emily Sisson (pictured far left by Tracy Rollins) and focus forward to the big weekend ahead, which includes the first state championships of the season, this one taking place in Alaska.

Here is an updated list of where teams are seeded, meet information, course map, etc.  AND BIG REMINDER:  Make sure your team is on the list and all your athletes are entered... the entry deadline is Sunday!!!!  Click here to enter

Pink, purple, green?  Who knows what color streaks she might have in her hair when the meet rolls around in three weeks.  But two things are for sure, she is fast and she has a great bubbly personality that you are bound to love!

Anna Willard competed in Beijing, alongside Jenny Barringer, in the Steeplechase.  She is a former American Record holder in that event, NCAA National Champion, and also runs a very good 1500 (4:12). 

We are happy to announce that Nike gave us the word today that Anna (aka "A-Dub") has committed to speak at flrunners.com Invitational 9.

Look for more announcements to come soon about the speakers, the Nike display they'll be creating for us, and another special feature Nike is bringing exclusively to our meet!

Click in side the article for several FloTrack interviews with Anna so you can learn more about her.

With two and a half weeks go to until the entry deadline we have over 115 schools entered or committed.  We are expecting to get a at least a couple dozen more before the deadline and at least our small school and invitational divisions are at risk at reaching capacity.

Here are the preliminary seeding of which races we have seeded teams into.  We plan to move up a few teams to the Race of Champions if they are impressive in early season meets, and we're hoping for a few last minute entries to spice things up even more.  If you see any mistakes, please let me know.

The Girls Race is especially is going to be HOT!!!   ALL of the top ten returning girls individuals will be competing and the top four returning girls teams will all face off... on top of PLENTY more of the state's finest athletes--and some out of state guests as well.  This will again be the largest and most competitive meet in the state of Florida!  Don't miss out!

We had a very productive meeting today in Titusville with the new provost of Brevard Community College and other key staff members, the County Parks Department, Coach Jeff Kramer, and the County Sports Commission. Everything is great and everyone is on the same page and ready to make this thing a huge success! So here are some details about this year's event....