Hannah Brown

Here are the top girls from the VAXC Invitational.

Here are the girls all-time rankings for 5K according to our database.

A list of the top 500 girls performances all-time in the MileStat.com XC Invitational meet history.

Check out the top athletes and times from MileStat XC through the years.

Here are the top 1,000 girls times from the Great Meadow non-state meet course.

Here are the all-time top 1,000 times on the Sugar Hollow course.

Photo by Andrew Kicinski   A great competition in the jumps at the Liberty Elite Invitational on Saturday between David Prince of Patrick Henry (Roanoke) and David Johnson of Charlottesville. Prince recorded a huge personal best by 13 inches in the long jump with a VA #2 mark of 23'2", while Johnson was a foot behind in second place at 22'2". A big improvement for Prince, who failed to qualify for the Group AAA state outdoor championships. Johnson's specialty is the triple jump as a returning Group AA state champion, which he shined in again at Liberty University to improve his state leading mark in the event with a US #3 leap of 46'8".  Monacan senior Kaila Blackburn broke 11 minutes for the first time for 3200 meters in a duel with Watauga's (NC) Darby Middlebrook (2nd, 10:59) with a US #2 indoors performance of 10:56.74. Region IV outdoor 1600 meter champion Joel Johnston took first in the 1600 at the Liberty Elite meet with a time of 4:28, while Blacksburg junior Nick Link was able pull away from Staunton River's Stuart Robertson (9:40) for the win in the 3200 with a 9:36 clocking. Blacksburg sophomore Kendell Wiles dipped just under 1:20 in the 500 meter dash, while teammate Hannah Brown won the 1000 in 3:06 after getting a workout in by also competing in the 500 before and 300 after the 1000.   Liberty Elite Invitational Complete Results

Group AA virtual meet team and individual (top 8) rankings based on performances in the MileStat.com database currently (December 15th). Lafayette boys and Blacksburg girls are currently ranked #1 in AA followed by the E.C. Glass boys and Fluvanna County girls.

Photo by Andrew Kicinski   The sprints and jumps were dominated for the most part by North Carolina athletes at the Liberty Christmas Invitational, while the distance races went to the Virginians. After completing a breakthrough cross country season which included the Group AA state individual title and qualifying individually for the Nike Cross Nationals, Hidden Valley junior Carolyn Bethel came out on fire for her second indoor season by running two personal best times in the 1600 (5:05.23) and 3200 (11:03.25) meter races at Liberty University. Bethel was only a week removed from wrapping up her cross country season in Oregon at NXN. Read more highlights from Liberty...

  A top 25 list of returning Group AA girls athletes by event from last year's indoor track season. The Blacksburg girls will be tough to beat in Group AA with their big three in short sprinter Alyn Carr, long sprinter Kendell Wiles, and mid-distance runner Hannah Brown. All are capable of winning state titles individually this winter.

The depth and quality of competition continues to grow each year in high school cross country within the state of Virginia and the 2011 edition of the Virginia High School League Cross Country Championships will showcase this great abundance of great talent in runners, teams, and coaching.

Pre-meet rankings for the 2011 VHSL State Championships including the 16 team qualifiers and top 25 individuals for each classification.

  A brief look at some of the top invitational meets on October 1st with Virginia runners. Great American leads the way with Octoberfest and Glory Days close behind as the featured meets.

The Blacksburg girls will be looking back to return to championship glory after being defeated by their district rival Hidden Valley the past two years at Great Meadow with a good crop of young talent surrounding one of the top returning middle distance runners in Virginia, Hannah Brown (2:09 800/4:54 1600). Individually, Crystal Nelson of Millbrook was the most consistent and top performer last fall among all the returnees in Group AA including a 17:49 personal best to finish out at Foot Locker South. Meanwhile, Cave Spring's Katie Fortner will look to continue to progress from her stellar freshmen year breaking 18 minutes for 5K, 11 minutes for 3200, and 5 minutes for 1600. Forter and Brown should battle often in Southwest Virginia this fall, while Powhatan's Rachel Byrd is a darkhorse after a surprising strong finish from the Region I runner last fall when she finished 5th at the state meet. Read more...

  Blacksburg junior Hannah Brown and Bassett senior Michelle Church (pictured above by Ryan Kelly) both posted stellar personal best 3200 meter performances on Friday night at the Raleigh Relays. Region IV distance runners Brown and Church placed third and fourth respectively in a field featuring virtually all of North Carolina's best with times of 10:49.60 and 10:50.06 respectively. Brown was coming off a VA top 5 all-time indoors mile performance of 4:51 at the New Balance Indoor Nationals two weeks ago, while the VMI recruit Church earned Group AA All-State indoors in two races in the 1000 (3rd, 2:59) and 3200 (4th, 11:20). Brown's Blacksburg teammate and New Balance Indoor All-American miler George Carter took sixth place honors in the high school boys' 3200 meter race at North Carolina State University's outdoor track facility in Raleigh with a time of 9:21.68.   Raleigh Relays High School 3200 Results

Hannah Brown (pictured above by Frank Locascio) sure picked a difficult course to set a new 5K personal best and break a meet record on. The Blacksburg junior who ran under 5 minutes for 1600 meters and won the Group AA 800 outdoor state title with a 2:12 personal best in the event showed herself to be just as capable of excelling at the 5K distance in her first race of the cross country season by winning the Blue Demon Invitational in a new meet record time of 18:59. Following individual race champion Brown, the Blacksburg put three more runners under 21 minutes on the Christiansburg High School's hilly and challenging home 5K course layout while placing six among the top 15 places for a low team score of 27 points.   The Jefferson Forest girls (64 pts) finished as a respectably solid second place in the team standings with distance and points to spare on the third place and host school Christiansburg girls (110 pts). For the second straight weekend, Cave Spring freshmen Katie Fortner ran strong up front in the field to take runner-up honors and join a short list in the course's history under 20 minutes at 19:40.   The Blacksburg boys put on an even more dominant team display than their female counterparts by flirting with a near perfect score of 15 with only Group AA All-State caliber runner Cody Seymour of Cave Spring able to break up their top five in fourth place with a time of 16:45. Battling it out for first place individually were Blacksburg teammates Frank Locascio and George Carter with Locascio pulling out a slight margin of victory at the end in a time of 16:21 over Carter in second at 16:22. Despite not running one of their top five runners in Anthony Noegel, Blacksburg followed Locascio and Carter pushing the pace up front with Caman Skelton (3rd, 16:36), Zach Link (5th, 16:59), and Matthew Paiser (6th, 17:10) for a 49 second spread and team average of 16:41. A 5K performance under 17 minutes at Christiansburg usually is a good sign for an eventual Group AA All-State finisher, so Blacksburg might have a handful of guys on the podium at Great Meadow come November.   The Abingdon boys certainly stamped themselves as the next best team in Southwest Virginia and Region II following Blacksburg with their runner-up finish and team score of 69 points putting them well ahead of the other teams competing at the Blue Demon Invitational. Abingdon had a great 17 second swarm of finishers for their top four runners finishing between places 8 and 14 as well as times between 17:33 to 17:50.   Blue Demon Invite Results: Varsity Boys - Varsity Girls - JV Boys - JV Girls Race Videos by Tayloe Skelton: Varsity Boys - Varsity Girls - JV Boys - JV Girls Photo Gallery by Frank Locascio Photo Gallery by Tayloe Skelton

MileStat.com visited one of the state's top cross country programs on Thursday with the Blacksburg boys and girls working out at Brown Farm in Blacksburg, which included a 20 minute tempo run and 5x460 meter repeat workout. More to come from the practice including photos. Workout videos & interviews posted below.   The Warm-Up 20 Minute Tempo Run 460 Meter Repeats Coach James DeMarco Interview Hannah Brown & Sarah Dorrell Interview George Carter & Frank Locascio Interview

Another year of fast times were produced at the annual downhill mile road race in Blacksburg, Virginia. Race winners for this year's Draper Mile were recent Blacksburg High grad and incoming Georgetown freshmen Joanna Stevens in 4:45.6 as the top female finisher and Hermitage High alum and current Virginia Tech runner Kieran Lee at 4:08.8 as the top male finisher. Draper Mile race runners-up were two current high school runners at Blacksburg High School with Hannah Brown trailing Stevens in four seconds later at 4:49 to tie for sixth fastest all-time in race history, while Carter ran with Tech's Lee until the end to settle for second and drop two seconds from his 2009 race performance to 4:09. Carter's 14 year old younger brother Michael posted a great time of 4:29 as the top finisher in the 14-16 age group. Michael Carter joins his brother this year on the defending Group AA state cross country champion Blacksburg squad as an incoming freshmen. Results & race video below.   Draper Mile Complete Results Race Video from the Draper Mile - Footage from finish line & course preview

Blacksburg girls set DMR national record! 11:31.26 They came in hoping to win – hoping. The national record seemed possible but not even Joanna Stevens’ best-case scenario worked out this good.   The Blacksburg (Va.) senior didn’t anticipate taking the stick all alone on the anchor lap and realizing that with a lap left, she would be racing the clock to become the fastest distance medley relay in nation history (Photo by Victah Sailer). Kathleen Stevens (3:31.56), Sarah Dorrell (58.97), Hannah Brown (2:12.61) and Joanna Stevens (4:48.14) won the DMR at the New Balance Outdoor Nationals in 11:31.26 Saturday, breaking Warwick Valley’s 2008 record of 11:31.81.   Virginia's All-American/Top 6 Finishers on Saturday Girls DMR - Blacksburg - 1st, 11:31.26 *NEW NATIONAL RECORD* Girls High Jump - Chelsea Utley (Green Run) - 2nd, 5'8.50" Girls 4x100 - Western Branch - 4th, 46.79 Girls Long Jump - Nikki Nunn (Manchester) - 4th, 18'6" Boys High Jump - Philip Morris (Glenvar) - 5th, 6'8.75" Boys Long Jump - Renay Ransaw (Hampton) - 5th, 18'6" Boys Shot Put - Isaiah Simmons (Woodbridge) - 6th, 61'2" Girls Mile Run - Kathleen Lautzenheiser (Midlothian) - 6th, 4:52.44 Emerging Elite Girls 200 - Cassandra Jones (Granby) - 5th, 24.82 Emerging Elite Boys 4x400 - Blacksburg - 6th, 3:23.22

Blacksburg sets DMR National Record, FitzSimons has 2nd stunning anchor!  (Photos by John Olson and Victah Sailer)

Blacksburg might be losing two great runners and twins to graduation after this spring in Kathleen and Joanna Stevens, but Coach James DeMarco has another star coming up and running faster than the twins did as a sophomore in Hannah Brown. Brown (pictured right by John Herzog)  has ran personal bests under 5 minutes for 1600 meters and under 3 minutes for 1000 meters this indoor season and last week won her second consecutive Group AA state indoor 500 meter dash title. Brown will be running as a key leg on Blacksburg's 4xmile relay this weekend at the Nike Indoor Nationals, which the team will be attempting to break 20 minutes and break the national record held by Saratoga Springs. MileStat.com intern Elisabeth Greenwood interviewed the Blacksburg sophomore Brown last week as she prepares for Boston with her teammates. Read more...