DiValentin & Sun Earn All-State Honors

The 2007-08 Indoor Track Season reached its peak this Friday and Saturday, February 29th and March 1st, at the VHSL AAA State Championships at George Mason University.  The Chargers were represented by seven athletes in 9 events, and they capably competed against the best athletes in Virginia.

The girls had three athletes entered in the meet, and each met their own level of success.  Junior Kim Weinberg, who qualified for her first state championship, equalled her personal best with a 9′ 0″ pole vault.  Freshman Amira Idris qualified in two events, the 55m and 300m dashes.  She lived up to her own young, but lofty standards by equalling her personal best of 7.51 in the 55m dash, and set a new personal record in the 300m dash, of 42.09.

Junior Lia DiValentin was involved in one of the closest finishes of the entire meet, in the 3200m run.  Running a fast, but strategic race, Lia sat in 3rd place, directly behind the leaders for the first 2800 meters, before taking the lead in the final quarter mile.  In exciting fashion, she led all the way down the final homestretch, only to be overtaken at the line, in the smallest of margins: .06 seconds.  Her time of 10:48.86 was one of the top 15 state meet times in history, and her runner-up finish is her fourth consecutive (in indoor track, outdoor track and cross country).  As frustrating as it may have been not to finally break through with her first state title, DiValentin continued to show why she has been one of the best distance runners in Virginia over the past two years. (For a video of this race, go to: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1335547791?bctid=1431497647)

The boys were represented by four athletes.  The pole vault competition opened the meet on Friday evening.  Kyle Cantrell participated in his first state meet, and while he did not clear the opening height of 12 feet, he did compete ably, and showed that he earned the right to be there.  Junior Wes Sun continued his improvement over the past two years, despite dealing with a sore quad strain.  The regional runner up this year, Wes had the highest placing of any regional vaulter, jumping 13′ 6″, and earning his first All-State award with his 6th place finish.

On the track, two more men competed well.  Senior Raymond “Bugsy” Urrutia qualified in the 55m and 300m dashes.  His state meet started with a 6.67 run in the 55m dash, good enough for 17th place.  He returned on Saturday afternoon to cap off his best season with 12th place in his last event, with a personal best time of 36.08.  Senior Eric Palmer also enjoyed his first trip to states with a 16th place in the 1000m run, in a time of 2:38.47.

With the regular season now completed, two athletes, DiValentin and Palmer will continue to the NIKE Indoor National Championship meet in two weeks, where they will compete in the 5,000m Run/1 Mile Run (DiValentin) and 800m Run (Palmer) respectively.

Full results of this meet can be found at: http://www.chargercctrack.com/wt07results.html.

Thank you to Chris Dolan for his photos, found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kippercd/.