Nelson County track and field coach Kevin Walker took a group of his athletes to Lynchburg on Jan. 13 and 14 to compete in the Liberty Flames Invitational hosted by Liberty University at its Tolsma Indoor Track Center.
The coach documented the two day event for the Nelson County Times with results and his comments.
--
The Liberty Flames Invitational was a long two-day meet for all the track teams that participated in it. Our team went in knowing the meet would pretty much take their entire weekend away from them. The team showed a lot of determination at the meet. We have talked about being competitive at these big invitational meets. Over 90 percent of the team either tied or set new personal records at the meet.
We started the meet on Friday with the boys 300 meter dash. Rodrell Smith ran the 300 for the very first time. He admitted that he had more left in the tank at the end and could have run faster. He won his heat in a school-record time of 37.02 seconds. Forrest Lipscomb also ran a PR in the 300. We concluded Friday night with the 1,600-meter run. All of our runners in the 1,600 ran personal bests. It is pleasant to watch all of them compete. Each week, they have all improved in their races. I think they all will get a lot better. They still haven’t run the perfect race yet, and when they do, it will be something special and make us a good team across the board. At the Group A level, we can be very competitive across the board.
Saturday, we opened up with Olujawon M-Vance running a personal best in the 55-meter hurdles, 8.78 seconds. We followed up that performance with the “A” 800-meter relay team setting a new school record and qualifying for the Indoor National meet with a time of 1:35.58. Ashley Wells finished fourth overall in the high jump with a season-best jump of 5-feet. She had cleared 5-2, but barely nicked the bar on the way down. She was running back and forth between the high jump and the shot put. She set a new personal record in the shot with a throw of 31-4¾. Her last throw seemed to be marked short of what she threw. I think if it was marked correctly, she would have thrown better than 33 feet.
We had a five-hour break before our last event of the meet. All of the 3,200-meter runners ran new personal bests for indoors. Ramona and Abigail both ran very good races. Miguel followed the girls up with a new personal best. I was surprised to see him run as well as he did considering he had a foot injury. If he was at 100 percent, I think he would have run several seconds faster.
James Ballowe followed that up with a school record. He ran a very tactical race and led for several laps. The last three laps, he broke away from the pack and out-distanced everyone to the finish line. He ran a 30-second last lap, which is amazing. This was the first time he ran this race for the season. I think he will run even faster the next time he attempts it, once he even out his split times. Andrew Cheape finished up the day with a personal record by more than a minute.
It is good to see our kids build confidence each meet we compete in. I think this confidence will lead to a great season for outdoors. They realize every day of practice is very important to what we are trying to accomplish as a team. They come to practice and give everything they have every day. Some days, you can just look at them and tell they gave 100 percent. Those that have qualified for nationals are looking forward to going to the meet and seeing how they rank with the best in the United States.
Nelson results at the LU Flames Invitational
300-meter dash: Rodrell Smith 10th in 37.02 (new school record), Forrest Lipscomb 41st in 38.38 (PR), Cody Hubbard 164th in 43.01, Doug Taylor 168th in 43.22.
Girls 1600-meter run: Anadely Piedra 94th in 6:12.43, Abigail Ballowe 109th in 6:26.10, Ramona Bryant 100th in 6:23.24, Sarah Ziegler 124th in 6:42.87 (all PRs)
Boys 1600-meter run: Miguel Zarate 62nd in 4:49.72, James R. Ballowe 64th in 4.49.78, Andrew Cheape 164th in 5:13.92 (all PRs)
1000-meter run: Sarah Ziegler 135th in 3:49.65 (PR)
55 meter dash: Robert Burke 94th in 7.43 (PR), Clay Clarkson 99th in 7.48
Boys 800 relay: “A” team of Forrest Lipscomb, Londen Wheeler, Rodrell Smith and Olujawon Meredith-Vance 8th in 1:35.58 (school record, national qualifying), “B” team of C. Hubbard, D. Taylor, R. Burke and Pao Jitsong, 46th in 1:48.69
55 meter hurdles: O. M-Vance 27th in 8.78 (PR)
3200 meter run: James Russell Ballowe 8th in 10:18.49 (school record), M. Zarate 18th in 10:37.05
High jump: Ashley Wells 4th at 5-0
Girls shot put: Wells 12th at 31-4¾ (PR), Amber Perkins 51st at 24-9
Boys shot put: Kendal Lee 28th at 39-5½ (PR), Brandon Brinson 56th at 33-9¾ (PR), William Brown 70th at 30-5.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Results Loading...