2010 Spring Track Roundup: Hellos, Goodbyes, and Glory

As the dust settles, and another season has ended, the 2010  Charger track team had an eventful June.  With the successful state meet barely in their rear view mirrors, the team still had some celebrating to do. While most athletes headed into the off-season following states, or began their summer cross country workouts, or many of the seniors basked in the glory of the ends of phenomenal careers, four members made the commitment to milk every last drop out of this season, and travelled to Greensboro, NC on June 17-19th to compete in the New Balance Nationals.

Freshman Sean McGorty and senior Chris Foley represent two ends of the spectrum for the team. While Foley wrapped up his championship career at CHS, including a state title, All-American honor, and multiple school records, McGorty’s career is still in an early state.  In Greensboro, they competed in the Freshman Mile and Two Mile Runs respectively.  While they each finished in the middle of the pack of the national meet, their times (McGorty- 4:36.81) and (Foley-9:12.75) demonstrated that they had maintained a high level of form for a long time, fighting off mental fatigue and 90+ degree temperatures.

The meet hit the climax as both McGorty and Foley joined their two XBC Track Club teammates, junior Mohamed Labor-Koroma, Jr, and senior Matt Cumpian, in an attempt to break the school Distance Medley record. The 10:36 mark had stood for 15 years, and the four boys who had broken a similarly strong 4x800m relay record, gave one last valiant attempt at glory.  Despite their fatigue, all four of the boys exceeded expectations and ran as close to perfect a relay as they could have expected at this point in the season.

McGorty led the relay off in the 1200m leg, fighting strongly for position, and running a 3:17.8, before handing off to Labor-Koroma’s 400m leg.

As he has throughout his career-best postseason, Labor-Koroma demonstrated that he was more than up to the task, and ran up to the level of his competition.  Receiving the baton in 7th place, Labor-Koroma (aka Humza Jala II) moved the team into 3rd place, motoring to a personal best time of 48.72h for the 400m leg.

Knowing the first half of the relay had exceeded expected predictions, Matt Cumpian took the baton in the 800m third leg. Despite admitting to a certain level of burnout after a long year, Cumpian fought with every ounce of his being.  Going into the last hundred meters of his high school career, and nearly collapsing after finishing, Cumpian handed off the baton at the 6:12.7 mark, and a 2:05.5 split.  Going into the the 1600m leg, Foley knew that he had to run a 4:23.2 or faster to get the record.

Given the heat (90+ degrees) and the fatigue from running the two mile the night before, Foley charged into his leg with an agressive 62.7 initial lap.  He settled strongly into his rhythm in the  his 65.8 2nd lap, moving up in the field, as he came through the 800m mark in 2:08.5.  Foley strongly advanced on teams ahead him, and maintained an even pace with his 66.5 third lap.  Seeing the clock read 9:27.7 going into the bell lap, knowing that he had 68 seconds to secure the record, Foley pulled out a 62.2, coming home with a 4:17.3 split, the second fastest mile of his career, and stopping the clock in 3rd place with a 10:30.00.  For the boys, this was the second relay record in the last month, and for both Foley and Cumpian, a perfect way to cap off two brilliant, twelve-season careers together.

While the boys were celebrating their relay record, head coach Jason Franks, and his wife Jamie, had cause of their own to celebrate, as they welcomed the birth of their first son.  Garrett James Franks was born at 9:01 am on Friday, June 18th, at Reston Hospital.  He weighed 8 lb 0 oz, and was 20 inches long.  Both parents and child are doing well, as the team welcomed a new member to the Charger Track family, looking forward to seeing the young man grow as he attends many future track meets as he follows in his father’s footsteps.

On June 22nd, the 2007-10 era officially ended, as twenty-one seniors were amongst the graduating class who received their diplomas at the George Mason University fieldhouse.  Those team members included:

Olabisi Abisogun (William & Mary)
Chris Aramburu (Northern Virginia Community College)
Matt Cumpian ( Harding University*)
Harold Dockins, Jr. (Virginia Commonwealth University)
Casey Donovan (Florida State)
Rico Dutton (Stony Brook University)
Chris Foley (University of Virginia *)
Rachel Grochowski (University of South Carolina *)
Thomas Johnston (University of Illinois)
Megan Louis (Longwood University)
Genevieve Manley (University of Tennessee)
Jenna Marlette (Randolph-Macon College **)
Ryan McWeeny (James Madison)
Chris Menzel (Virginia Tech)
Sam Park (Virginia Commonwealth University)
Molly Placido (Philadelphia University)
Mustafa Rasheed (Virginia Tech)
Son Tran (Art Institute of Washington)
Melanie Vassallo (James Madison University)
Elizabeth Vranas (University of Virginia)
Jordan Young (Amherst College*)

*= Will run Track/Cross Country
**= Will Play Field Hockey

By the numbers, this graduating class stacks up well with many other distinguished CHS classes.  While the teams were not able to bring home any team titles, individually, their accomplishments were significant.  Including cross country, winter track, and spring track (individually and relays), the class of 2010 earned the following honors:

• All-Concorde District- 72 times (6 cross country, 25 winter track, 41 spring track)
• All-Northern Region-28 times (3- CC; 10 WT; 15 ST)
• All-State- 5 times (2-CC; 2 WT; 1 ST)
• All-American- 1 (WT)
• District Championships (Ind & Relay)- 8 times (3 WT; 5 ST)
• Regional Championship- 3 times (1- CC; 2 WT)
• State Championship- 1 time (ST)
• 12 Season Athletes- 3 (Chris Foley, Matt Cumpian, Thomas Johnston)
• Four School Records were broken by 2010 members (Indoor & Outdoor 3200m- Chris Foley; Outdoor 4x800m & DMR (Seniors Chris Foley & Matt Cumpian).

Congratulations to all of the graduating senior class members, and thank you for your contributions.  You have helped maintain a high level of achievement in your time in this program, and your standard of excellence only serves to keep the bar high for your teammates and for future programs to follow.

Lastly, the coaching staff says goodbye to Tom & Linda Foley, who have served as their parent reps to the Booster club, as well as organizers of the Cassel’s XBC Track Experience for the past seven years.  When ever we asked, you gave.  Your efforts will be missed, but we wish you well as you continue your “track parent” careers next year, splitting time between Bucknell and the University of Virginia.

For a full list of seasonal results, please go  to:http://www.chargercctrack.com/stresults.html

For a final performance list for the season, go to:http://www.chargercctrack.com/stperflists.html

For pictures from Tom Foley’s albums over the past three years, visit: http://picasaweb.google.com/CHSrunning