FORK UNION TRACK AND FIELD NEWSLETTER
NOVEMBER 2012
FUMA GRABS THREE ALL– STATE PERFORMANCES Fork Union changed its fortunes from the past several state cross country meets with a return to the top—ten. The result was bolstered by the medal performances from the Lomong brothers and senior Russ Garver. The meet is contested annually at Woodberry Forest School and the beautiful surroundings only add to the drama of the championship. Trinity Episcopal won for the third year in a row surviving a gallant charge from the host Woodberry Forest Tigers. In retrospect, FUMA’s top three probably did not help the cause of the host school. Alex and Peter Lomong spent much of the race in the top five while Garver ran steady just outside the top ten. It appeared that the older Lomong (Peter) would end the day as FUMA’s number one runner but Alex overtook him in the final strides. Both were given the same time as they finished consecutively in ninth and tenth. A few seconds later, Russ Garver would claim an All– State honor for the first time in seventeenth place. The performance was a mere 181 places better than last year. Senior Jonathan Stone finished the year as the fourth man and improved on his performance from a year ago. Eighth grader Will Thompson was FUMA’s fifth man on the day. It has been a valuable year for Thompson as the Blue Devils look to next year. The Fork Union native ran consistently over the summer which paid huge dividends in both middle school and varsity competition. The countdown to State Meet 2013 is on!
Inside this issue: VPL CHAMPIONSHIP
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VPL PHOTOS
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RUSS GARVER
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INDOOR SCHEDULE
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FOOTLOCKER XC
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PHOTO GALLERY
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FUMA TOUGH UP FRONT FINISHES THIRD IN PREP LEAGUE A cold blustery day welcomed FUMA to Panorama Farms in Albemarle for the Virginia Prep League Championship. The team produced a third place finish, its best since 2007, and laid the groundwork for next year. The top seven finishers for the Blue Devils include three freshmen, a sophomore and an eighth grader. Throw in Avi Meadows performance from the Junior race and a seventh grader completes the top seven for FUMA. The Championship performance gives FUMA a lot to look forward to in the future. Freshmen Alex Lomong continued his amazing season with a third place finish overall, coming in behind Trinity’s 1-2 sweep. Alex will be the top returner in the Prep League. Brother Peter was the next FUMA runner in fifth place overall and Senior Russ Garver was seventh. Freshmen Thomas Pairet was the fourth man and eighth grader Will Thompson closed out the scoring for the Blue Devils. Freshmen sixth man Brennan Rhodes made an improvement of 1:21 to break the twenty minute barrier for the first time in his two years on the team. The day ended with the Junior race which saw seventh grader Avi Meadows finish in sixth place in a fantastic time of 20:05. Also running were eighth grader Jacob Holsapple and ninth grader Jack Weisel, both made significant improvements over the year and will certainly be a big part of next year’s title chase.
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VOLUME 7, ISSUE 1
THE COMEBACK RUSS GARVER AVERAGED 152nd PLACE IN HIS PREVIOUS 4 STATE MEETS BUT THEN 2012 CHNAGED IT ALL Though he has been on the team for seven years now it has hardly been a straight line progression up for Senior Russ Garver. In 2006, he arrived at FUMA as a 6th grader and found success immediately in Cross Country. In the 2006 Virginia Middle School Invitational he was the 6th grade Champion. His performances were solid through the rest of his time in the middle school. In 2008 he was 5th in the same meet with a time of 18:36. All indicators seemed to point to a successful high school experience. And then….. In the 9th grade Russ made a one second improvement at the state meet from his performance a year before. Chalked up as being an adjustment to the upper school there were no real causes for concern. A year later Russ would finish 189th (dead last) and run a time of 24:44! The junior season was not any better as he slipped to a 198th place and ran 23:39. It would have been easy for Garver to quit and cruise through his final two years at FUMA, fortunately he did not. In late February of 2012 with the help of Coach Mariusz Mostrag, Russ made a change to his diet. The results were almost immediate as Russ nearly won the Prep League Indoor title in the 500. Garver’s outdoor season would prove to be a breakthrough with massive personal bests in every event he contested. Before last May he had never broken five minutes for the mile, at the Fluvanna Invitational he would run 4:36. This past Cross Country season brought his time on the team full circle with numerous personal bests and honors. In his final season, Garver earned a top– ten finish at FUMA, All Virginia Prep League, All State and All South honors and the title the “Comeback Kid.”
2012-2013 INDOOR TRACK SCHEDULE DECEMBER 7/8TH - REAL DEAL TRACK CLASSIC—HAMPTON, VIRGINIA DECEMBER 11TH—FUMA MINI MEET # 1—FORK UNION, VIRGINIA DECEMBER 18TH—FUMA MINI MEET # 2—FORK UNION, VIRGINIA JANUARY 11TH—NEW YEAR’S OPENER—FORK UNION, VIRGINIA JANUARY 19TH—FRED HARDY INVITATIONAL—FORK UNION, VIRGINIA JANUARY 25/26TH—SAINT CHRISTOPHER’S INVITATIONAL—RICHMOND JANUARY 31ST—AT WOODBERRY FOREST FEBRUARY 8TH—JOHN RANSONE INVITATIONAL—FORK UNION FEBRUARY 16TH—VISAA STATE CHAMPIONSHIP—RICHMOND, VIRGINIA FEBRUARY 23RD—VPL CHAMPIONSHIP—RICHMOND, VA MARCH 8-10—NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP—NEW YORK, NEW YORK
THE WINGED F
FUMA RUNNERS FINISH BIG The 35th running of the Footlocker South Regional in Charlotte, North Carolina saw FUMA enjoy its best performance in years. Four athletes represented the Blue Devils on the last weekend of Thanksgiving leave and three came home with All-South medals. Russ Garver was 5th in the Senior race in a personal best 16:05. The seven year team member was in the lead at the two-mile mark. Alex Lomong started the day with a medal performance in the Freshmen race with a time of 16:56 and shortly thereafter, sophomore Peter Lomong had his best performance in Cross Country ever with a 16:25 top- 25 performance. The day ended with 8th grader Will Thompson running in the 13-14 age group three kilometer. Thompson was 60th in 11:32. A solid finish to XC 2012!
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FUMA TRACK AND FIELD NEWSLETTER
COACH BROWN FUMA BOX 278 4744 JAMES MADISON HWY FORK UNION, VA. 23055 Phone: 434-842-4289 Fax: 434-842-4299 E-mail: brownw@fuma.org
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PHOTOS BY CAPTAIN BOB BURGER