Athlete of the Week - Matt Schiffbauer

The AotW for June 29th through July 5th is Matt Schiffbauer of Marshall University. Schiffy went out to Eugene over the weekend and ran 3:50.95 and 3:52.65 on back-to-back days to finish 5th in the 1500m at USATF Junior Nationals. TriStateRacer.com also went out to Eugene to watch the action. He wrote some great re-caps and took some incredible photos (like the one above) while at the meet. Everyone ought to take a few minutes and check it out, the photos alone are worth your while. At any rate, great job by Schiffy, clearly he is being well-coached and he will be going great places sooner rather than later. Best of luck as he prepares for his cross country campaign.

Special mention to Clara Grandt for running 34:13 in Oregon off of a tough two-week turn around from NCAAs. Great season, Clara.

Athlete of the Week - Zach Tennant

The AotW for June 22nd-28th is Zach Tennant of North Marion High School. Zach's final race of the year was at Nike Outdoor Nationals and he ran 4:19.09. He was at the head of the chase pack with 225m to go, but faded and lost a lot of time in the final half of the lap. This was his final race of the summer, so he'll be off the front page for quite a while. Congrats to Zach for a fantastic senior season, it's always great to see kids seeking out tough post-season competition.

Special mention to Jacob Burcham, he ran 4:43 at a meet down in Cabell Midland last weekend. After this weekend (USATFs), we'll be into the road racing season for the majority of the summer. Best of luck to everyone out there and I'm sure we'll see some new faces on AotW.

Athlete of the Week - Clara Grandt

The AotW for June 15th-21st is Clara Grandt. Clara wins her AotW via her 4th place finish in the 10,000m at the NCAA Championships. Clara ran 33:45 in a tough race, leading a very large portion of it. Clara is a fourth-year Mountaineer, trained by Sean Cleary. This is Ms. Grandt's first All-American performance, and it was an improvement of 7 spots from her finish last year. She is a Doddridge County graduate. She also has the qualifier for USATFs, but I have not heard if she's headed out to Eugene or not. Tip of the cap to everyone involved, it really is something special to see a girl go from leading the WV State Meet to leading deep into the 10,000m at NCAAs. A special mention about Tone Belt (Berkeley Springs) who finished 7th with a HJ of 7' 1 1/2".

Athlete of the Week - Zach Tennant

The AotW for June 8th-14th is Zach Tennant of North Marion High School. Zach earns his award (his 3rd in the last 5 weeks...) by virtue of his invasion of Virginia over the weekend. He attended the Milesplit.com Elite Gala and dominated the 1500m in a time of 3:54.89. Mr. Tennant is coached by Josh Simpson and is headed to William & Mary this Fall. Kudos to him for pursuing post-State Meet competition and for his stellar times. I've heard that he is going to run at Nike Outdoor Nationals later this month. Zach narrowly beat out some of the great performances down in Huntington over the weekend. Noteables were Bubby Dent who ran 15:59 at the age of 42, Andrew Benford who won the event, and Jacob Burcham who ran 16:32 at 1/3 the age of Mr. Dent. Tip of the cap to Pat Riley for putting on a first-class event and hopefully starting a new, yearly big-time race in WV.

This week will continue a great streak of WV running action with the NCAA T&F Championships starting on Wednesday and the Festival of Excellence up in Toronto on Thursday, in both events we'll have athletes up against some of the best in the world.

Athlete of the Week - Marie-Louise Asselin

The AotW for June 1st-6th is Marie-Louise Asselin. Marie runs for WVU under Sean Cleary and is a Sarnia, Ontario native. This past weekend she won the NCAA East Regional 5000m in a

time of 16:03.29, the second fastest time in WVU history. Some of her reported splits were 4:53 for 1600m and 9:19 for 3000m. She out-kicked Frances Koons down the homestretch. Her win qualifies her for the NCAA Championships June 10th-13th. West Virginians entered (as best as I can find) are: Tone Belt (Berkeley Springs/Louisville) in the LJ and HJ, Jasmine Cotten (Fayetteville/Cincinnatti) in the Heptathlon, Marie-Louise Asselin (WVU) in the 5,000m, Chelsea Carrier (Buckhannon-Upshur/WVU) in the 100h and Clara Grandt (Doddridge/WVU) in the 10,000m. Best of luck to everyone going to NCAAs.

Athlete of the Week - Zach Tennant

The AotW for May 25th-31st is Zach Tennant of North Marion High School. Zach set new AAA 3200m and 1600m records and finished third in the 800m. It was a 9:14/4:13/1:57 triple. Mr. Tennant had one of the best distance state meets in history and should be commended for capping his senior year in such a fashion. The future is bright for this guy and William & Mary is lucky to have him. Congrats to all the numerous deserving athletes out there for their weekends as well. That was certainly the best distance state meet we have had in a long, long time, if not ever.

Athlete of the Week - Karly Hamric

The Athlete of the Week for May 18th-24th is Karly Hamric. Ms. Hamric is a Preston High School product who now runs for the Mountaineers. She ran 4:22.89 over the weekend, finishing 2nd in the 1500m at ECACs. That was a break-through race for Ms. Hamric and qualifies her in the 1500m for Regionals. Best of luck to Karly and congratulations on a terrific new personal best.

Athlete of the Week - Zach Tennant

The AotW for May 11th- 17th is Zach Tennant of North Marion High School. Zach earned his award by running a 4:16.99/1:58.87 double at NCACs this past Thursday. Mr. Tennant also has a 9:25.67 performance this season. After having his cross country season cut short by injury, the defending AAA 1600m champion appears prepared to defend his title and more. He is coached by Josh Simpson and plans on running for William & Mary in the Fall. Best of luck to Zach later this month in Charleston.

The First Annual Official W Fantasy Track Extravaganza

Ever wanted to prove to the rest of the state that you’re the smartest track mind in West Virginia?
Ever wanted to win fabulous prizes?
Ever wanted to humiliate your friends with your genius?

Well, you might be the perfect contestant for The First Annual Official W Fantasy Track Extravaganza! The W Fantasy Track Extravaganza is a contest open to the public where people pick 5 athletes and earn points based off their athletes’ performances at the WV State Meet. Winners earn bragging rights and fabulous prizes!

Here’s how the game works:

1. You email me your name and your team name by midnight on May 16th. (“John Smith” and “The War Gophers”)
2. I post all the entry names on the 17th and all the people being impersonated ask that their names be removed.
3. You email me your list of FIVE high school athletes and the tiebreaker (see #5) by midnight May 20th. I'll then post all the rosters so people can follow along as the results come in.
4. During the State Meet, you earn points based on the following system:

-- 1 point per team point your athlete scores in the 800m, 1600m and 3200m. (10 for 1st, 8 for 2nd, ect.)
-- 4 points per State Meet Record your athlete sets in the 800m, 1600m and 3200m
-- Athletes must run under standards of 2:01/4:36/9:50 (boys) and 2:26/5:30/11:40 (girls) in order to accrue any points in the respective events.
-- No points are earned for relays or any events other than the 800/1600/3200.

Example:
John Smith’s “The War Gophers” pick Zach Tennant, Chelsea Callaway, Alex Dent, David Caldwell and Nathan Rees. Zach Tennant runs the 1600 and 3200. He wins the 1600 in 4:38 and gets 2nd in the 3200 in 9:31. “The War Gophers” score ZERO points for Zach’s 1600 performance (4:38 is too slow) and score 8 points for his 3200 performance. The points for the other 4 runners are then added up in similar fashion and “The War Gophers” get a point total.

5. For a tiebreaker, you must guess the cumulative winning time for all classes of the boy’s 1600m. Any further ties will be broken by coin flip.

Example:
“The War Gophers” think Class A will be won in 4:37.12, Class AA will be won in 4:31.76 and Class AAA will be won in 4:16.97. So, he submits a guess of “13:25.85”. If he ties with another team, the team closest to the actual total will win.

6. Prizes: There are 3 fabulous prizes. The Grand Champion gets the first pick of the prizes, First Runner-up gets the second choice and Second Runner-up gets left with the scraps.
-- You get an extensive, front-page interview on runthearb.com, conducted by the famous W. Even eastern panhandle folk can win this prize, so this might be their big chance.
-- You and your friends get to go on a run with W and Megan Metcalfe at a location of your choice (within reason) at a distance of your choice (within reason) at a pace of your choice (within reason).
-- You and three friends get a summer cookout on the Metcalfe/W porch in Morgantown. Special guests may be in attendance.

I encourage everyone to play, so please post any questions you have. Remember to email me your team names at w-arb@hotmail.com at any time before midnight on May 16th and email your athlete rosters at any time before midnight on May 20th. Let’s have some fun and may the smartest person win.

Athlete of the Week - Clara Grandt

The AotW for May 4th-May 10th is Clara Grandt. Clara earned her award via her first place finish in the 5000m at the Big East Championships with a stellar time of 16:07.55. Ms. Grandt is now on quite the roll of NACAC Cross Country Champion, 33:16 10000m and Big East 5000m Champion in 16:07. Clara continues to headline a fantastic spring by the state and hopefully she can really shine at Nationals next month.

Great weekend by the state in general, from the middle schoolers to the open road runners out there. I hope everyone is looking forward to the upcoming championship season.