The 2008 Outdoor Track invitational season began this past Saturday, March 29th, on a blustery day at Westfield High School.  Both the boys and girls team partook in the 12th Annual Carolyn Legard Relays meet, a unique competition which consisted predominantly of relays with a few individual events, giving the Chargers a chance to see where they stood after just over one month of practice.

In the 22 team field, the Chargers showed some promise, with the boys team placing 12th and the girls 17th.  The lone victory in the meet came from sophomore Chris Foley, who showed excellent form in winning the boys Freshman/Sophomore 1600m run.  Sophomore Jenn Withers placed 2nd individually in the pole vault, with juniors Kyle Cantrell and Josh Trikakis combining for a 3rd place team score in the same event.  Other top 6 finishes came from the Boys 4x 1600m Relay(4th place) of all seniors:  Eric Palmer, Peter Bruneman, Theo Holton & Stan Mufti; the Girls 4x1600m Relay (6th) of Lauren Lenski, Jenna Marlette, Karen Spears & Lia DiValentin; Amira Idris (6th) in the triple jump;  and the Boys Fresh/Soph 4x400m relay of Eric Grant, Chris Foley, Matt Cumpian and Mo Labor-Koroma. Running without the their full team, the Chargers both show promise for the future, and also that they still remain a ways from their best form (par for the course, in the early season).

Thank you to Chris Dolan for taking an extensive photo gallery of the meet, which can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kippercd/sets/72157604307666689/.

Results can be found at: http://www.chargercctrack.com/st08results.html.

Other exciting news came this weekend from the NCAA front.  Two Charger alumni reported early season success.

Hours before her brother's first victory of the season, Bucknell runner Eileen Foley (Class of 2007) earned her first victory in collegiate competition.  Competiting at the Susquehanna Invitational in PA, in the 5000m Run, Eileen ran a personal best time of 18:46 for the win.  Details can be found at: http://bucknellbison.cstv.com/sports/w-track/recaps/032908aab.html.

Also earning NCAA success this week was William & Mary sophomore Nicole Kazuba (Class of 2006).  The Chantilly indoor and outdoor track record holder and state champion in the pole vault, Nicole also jumped a personal best height of 12-8, earning the school outdoor record for W&M, along with a qualifier to the NCAA regional qualifiers later this spring.  Details can be found at:  http://tribeathletics.com/story.php/6872/.

As always, the Chantilly coaching staff is proud of the feats of all athletes, present and past, and continuing to represent the team with pride and excellence.

The Spring Track team will be in action twice in the upcoming week: on Wednesday, April 2nd, at Robinson (vs. Robinson & Westfield); and again on Saturday, at Lake Braddock.  Meet details and entries will be posted at www.chargercctrack.com, as they become available.