92 images are now online for viewing from the Cold Winter Day run.

The Simon Gratz boys and West Catholic girls were traveling out-of-state and in-state looking for competition and wins this week. They found both. At the Burdette Classic, soph Ryann Krais and senior Carrington Queen post some remarkable early-season times in the 60 hurdles. But they each took the 200 as well. Three other records were set as well, including the Pole Vault.

Although I have the big picture in mind, the small steps to get to my final goal are important.

I keep raising the topic of transition because so many things changed for me as soon as I graduated from college and then moved over here...

Tyrone Gayle talks with six of Florida\'s top graduates from the class of 2005 and catches us up on how their first season as college freshmen has treated them.

The holidays were a chance for some to get some rest and get ready for the busy January and February indoor challenges. For others, it was a chance to experiment with relay combos. Or, it was an opportunity to get that state qualifying performance out of the way. But for the West Catholic team, it was an opportunity to help a teammate cope with a family tragedy. There were five meets, including the first two Philadelphia Catholic League offerings, and three in the boys/girls coaches associations in the Philly region. (PICTURED: Diandra Witherspoon takes the baton from teammate Christiana Taylor)

Jim Kilbreth, the first Shrine Bowl Run Coach in South Carolina was given a football, signed by all 2005 participating athletes, by Everette Stoudenmire, coordinator of the run, prior to the start of the 20th annual fundraising event.

Photo Gallery of the 12/23 DVGTCA Indoor Meet #4 @ Ursinus College

Williams Sub-11 translates into $10,000 for charity

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (Oct. 6)

The 2005 Foot Locker X-Country Championships will be shown on Fox SportsNet on Wednesday, Dec.21, from 3-4pm (EST). Check your local listings for the time in your area... TV GUIDEAlso, check COMCAST.NET for possible broadcast on your cable system. For example, it is on Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia in the Eastern Delaware County area on Channel 36 on 12/21 at 2pm, and a Midnight on 12/22.

There doesn\'t seem to be a shortage of good throws in the early going of the boy\'s shot put. The girls are getting some incredible December performances into the books. Full coverage of two TFCAGP meets, the DVGTCA meet, Dickinson College (minus school names), Hill School Invitational, and the Bishop Loughlin Games, and the Franklin & Marshall HS Inv.

The few Floridians who made the long trip to the meet in Rhode Island were welcomed by a brisk taste of New England\'s finest cold front.

Former Chester HS star Kia Davis enters her first season as a volunteer coach for the UNLV women\'s track and field team...

138 images are now online for viewing from the Shrine Bowl Run, held Dec. 17.

Chantilly senior Brad Siragusa was kind enough to keep a journal of his Foot Locker Nationals experience this past weekend in San Diego. Very in-depth journal that gives site visitors a good feel for what it feels like to be a part of a Foot Locker Nationals meet.

It\'s an all-time SE PA record for West Catholic senior Latavia Thomas. Karen Shump, Penncrest is throwing well. And Ryann Krais and Carrington Queen are tearing through the short (distance, not height) hurdles for this early in the season.

The Episcopal girls certainly didn\'t sneak up on anyone this year, but in this sport hype often overshadows reality. And coming into the 2005 cross country campaign the girls from Jacksonville were determined to live up to the expectations. And the good news is: with no seniors, there\'s more years to come.

Jeff Buys, 2005 Shrine Bowl Run Coach released the assignments for each athlete earlier today.

The National Scholastic Sports Foundation

I decided to go explore some trails today since I have basically been running the same routes since I\'ve been here!

Twenty-four images are now online for viewing from the USATF National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships, held in Rhode Island Dec. 10.

Photo Gallery from the races by Keith Capecci, Josh Hibbs and Liz Costello at the 12/10/05 Foot Locker Championships

Here is a list of the runners from Tennessee that competed in the USATF National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships this weekend. If I left anyone out please let me know and I will gladly add them to the list.

Ten junior athletes persevered through strong winds in the aftermath of blizzard-like conditions that rocked the northeast to win individual titles Saturday at the USATF National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships held at Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island.

After placing the highest of any West Virginia runner at the Foot Locker South Region, Rachel Buser a sophomore from Berkeley Springs traveled to Rhode Island to give her shot at the USA Track and Field National Cross Country Championships. Buser, the 2005 AA WV State Champion, ran the best race of her career and dipped below the 18 minute barrier with a 3rd place finish of 17:58.42. With this finish, Buser also received the title of All-American! Luke Unger of Berkeley Springs was the highest finishing High School boy placing 36th in the Young Men Division in 16:12.03. Lucas Warner of Tucker County placed 69th in the Intermediate Boys race with an elite time of 16:47.41. Teammate John Lowther finished in 17:05.32.

NOTE:COMING THIS WEEK: The season training plans for the three from their coaches, Dave Marrington (Keith Capecci), Bob Ayton (Josh Hibbs), and Mark Tirone and Ryan Comstock (Liz Costello) -- all of whom were enjoying the festivities and races in San Diego. Pennsylvania\'s three qualifiers in this year\'s version of cross-country\'s race of stars had envisioned better finishes -- but each came away with much more than they had ever hoped. Council Rock North\'s Keith Capecci has a growing confidence he hopes will take him to an individual state title. Hatboro-Horsham\'s Josh Hibbs never thought he was this good. Those days are over. And Conestoga\'s Liz Costello is no longer intimidated by the aura surrounding other quality runners.

Freshman Kathy Kroeger of Independence H.S. in Franklin placed 16th out of the top 40 Cross-Country runners in the nation with a time of 17:57. Rob Sorrell of Bolton H.S. ran a 15:53 finishing 30 overall. Rob was followed closely by fellow tennessean Clay Hannah of Lebanon H.S. Lebanon. Clay placed 32 with a time of 16:04.

Middle Tennessee men\'s and women\'s track programs open the indoor season Saturday, hosting the MT Christmas Invitational at Murphy Center beginning at 10:30 a.m.

I have always enjoyed running, but I feel like moving over here to Switzerland has kind of renewed my passion for this thing, this distance running thing.

Four-time Footlocker National qualifier Kate Niehaus DNF at this year\'s meet in San Diego, Calif.

Find out which cross country girls from the state of Virginia were selected to this year\'s All-MileStat.com team. Runner of the Year, Coach of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, and Most Improved Runner of the Year awards were given out as well as the first, second, and third teams consisting of seven runners each.

Stello

A really funny person in college, before my races would say, \"Josi... \"Boawwlss to the Woawwllls!\"

Lauryn Williams, who attended Rochester H.S. (PA) before moving on to the University of Miami, is one of the leaders of the \"youth movement\" in U.S. track and field. From the Walt Murphy. By the IAAF News Service.

The selection was very tough as always for the All-MileStat.com Team. As this cross country season like any other, anything can happen. What you expect to happens never seem to does and what happens you never would have expected. One week someone is hot, the next week that person is out of the picture. A star runner goes down, a newcomer comes out of nowhere. There were many deserving athletes to be on this list. Looking at this year\'s group, there are probably a dozen or so runners who are probably in a group of their own and then 3 dozen or more runners who could beat each other on any given day. Some of the runners missing from this list definitely deserve recognition for their fine seasons. Let these All-MileStat.com selections serve as a way to recognize the great accomplishments of the state\'s top athletes this fall, while serving as motivation and providing drive for those left off or returning next fall to strive for greater excellence in the future.

So you wanna get recruited, huh? Many high school track and field/cross country athletes dream of competing on the collegiate level, but few believe they can actually do it. The truth is, you do not have to be a Footlocker finalist, an All-American, or even the best runner/jumper/thrower on your team to get recruited.

Reduce sugar intake!!!!!!!!

After tomorrow, I will know more about exactly what races I am running, what times I have to run to qualify for the official National Team etc

Eileen and Jim Kilbreth, cross country and track and field coaches at Spartanburg High School resigned Nov. 17, making the announcement at the school\'s cross country award ceremony.

Stanford bound Kate Niehaus will compete in her fourth consecutive Footlocker National meet this upcoming Saturday, as a senior at Spring Valley High School.

30 images are now online for viewing from the Appalachian Invitational, held Dec. 4 in Boone, N.C.

At the 2005 Annual Meeting in Jacksonville, two of our officials received very high honors from USATF.

Test your distance knowledge by entering our prediction contest for the 27th annual Footlocker Nationals being held on Saturday, December 10th, at Balboa Park in San Diego, California. The Winner will receive a $100 gift certificate to the Running Zone and a 1 year subscription to flrunners.com. Sponsored by The Running Zone

West Virginia University hosted the annual Holiday Classic held at the Shell building on Saturday, December 3, 2005. There were numerous elite performances of athletes from all over the State.

With the subscription funds I am hoping to raise, I would like to establish a small staff of dedicated staff writers, photographers, and elite performance processors for MileStat.com. Since December of 2000, 99% of the work on this site has been done exclusively by me. However, over the years I have gladly welcomed the assistant of volunteer contributers to the site. Doug McDaniel has been especially been a great help to me over the last few years in probably the most time consuming task of the site in processing and entering high school elite performances. John Herzog and Lee Dick have blessed the state over the past few years as well with their amazing photography skills and equipment. Several others also have contributed to the site through articles and photos. The site has done fairly well and the coverage has been excellent over the years, but I think we can accomplish a whole lot more with hopefully a stronger financial backing. I have set a goal of 1,000 subscribers for this year. If you do the math with the $18 subscription rate, that is $18,000 a year (though actually paypal deducts a 72 cents fee for every transaction, so the total would be lesser than actually $18,000). Some opponents of the subscriber system would like you to believe that I will personally be pocketing the majority of this money. That is not the case. I will do a breakdown of my projected costs for this upcoming year.

340 images are now online for viewing from the AAU National Cross Country Championships, held Dec. 3 in Rock Hill, S.C.

The 2005 Pennsylvania Foot Locker Finalists needed some workouts, and they also needed some qualifying times for the Indoor season. Lucky for them there were some meets with good competition the week between the regional and the finals. And several top performances from 2005 outdoor are back in action right where they left off... (pictured: Now soph Karen Shump, Penncreast, at the 2005 PTFCA Indoor State Champs.)

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The West Virginia University track team will open its 2005-06 season and host the WVU Holiday Classic Saturday, Dec. 3, in the WVU Shell Building. The meet is scheduled to get underway at 10:30 a.m.

It

Group A is usually the neglected classification of Virginia high school running. With small school enrollments that see most of their top athletes being gobbled up by the jock sports such as football and basketball, it is hard to field a cross country team and much less have one of the state\'s top teams and individuals with the two-time defending Clarke County boys and their star runner in junior Simon Biddle-Snead. Simon Biddle-Snead and the Eagles are starting a resurgence in Group A running that has not seen since the mid 1990\'s with the Central boys\' state championship dynasty. Biddle-Snead recently won his second Group A state individual and his team won their second state title in a row in a dual meet-type score of 20 points. With only one senior on the squad, the Clarke County boys will be returning a team that could make even a bigger splash against their Group AA and AAA counterparts next fall.