McCorory Blasts Drake 400 Field in 50.13; Big Weekend for Virginia Track

Last weekend was just a superb time to be a track fan in Virginia. On the national level, Hampton's Francena McCorory blitzed a top-notch field, which included 2012 Olympic gold medalist Sanya Richards-Ross, in the Drake Relays women's 400. To watch the video is amazing as Francena passed several runners on the last turn and came into the straightaway about eight meters ahead of everybody. Her time of 50.13 is about a second faster than where she has been at this point of the season in recent years, so it's interesting to see how her progress ends up this year. 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Some video from the Hampton Relays (below)

Today's article was printed two weeks ago in the Daily Press. I had enough sense to note that McCorory had a 50.1 split in the 1600-meter relay - this after running in two other events. Talking with her that day she was quite happy about the split. I started asking about her goals for the year. While some athletes just aim to maintain their fitness in the year before an Olympics, Francena talked about running her best 400 time - which is already a blazing 49.48.

"You know...break 49," she said, and I had to laugh. Honestly, I have no concept of breaking 49 -- my talent aced out around 51-52!

In other big news from Virginia last weekend, the Patriot HS girls, with Rachel McArthur at the anchor, won the HS girls distance medley at Penn Relays, while the Lyles brothers (Noah and Josephus) of T.C. Williams, both cracked the 46 second barrier on their 400-meter legs, leading the Titans to a US #1 1600-meter time of 3:12.17. On a side note, I am proud to note that the Lyles' live next door  (literally next door) to where I grew up as a young kid in Alexandria, so I'd like there's something in the water supply in Lower Alexandria!

In other Penn news, Drew Hunter of Loudoun Valley won the Penn 1500 AND 3000, becoming the first athlete since Matt Centrowitz to pull the distance double; Lake Braddock's super soph Kate Murphy out dueled fellow Virginian Libby Davidson of E.C. Glass to claim the girls 3,000 title, while Brandee Johnson and Nansemond River (Suffolk) took the small schools 400-meter relays.



HAMPTON -  After a six year hiatus, the Hampton Relays resumed business on the blue track of Armstrong Stadium this weekend. As expected, the host Pirates excelled on the oval, but the stars of the day may have been a few of their alumni.

Olympic gold medalist and indoor world champion (400-meters) Francena McCorory ran a trio of events, as did two-time NCAA champion Yvette Lewis. In the women’s 400 relay, McCorory and Lewis combined with fellow alums Breana Norman and Teiara Denmark to decimate the college teams with a time of 45.02, two seconds ahead of runner-up Campbell University.

Not to be outdone, the Hampton Alumni quartet of Reggie Dixon, Charles Clark, Je’von Hutchinson and Brandon Jones raced to a 40.43 win in the men’s 400 relay, edging Virginia Union (40.65). Hutchinson also won the open 400 in 46.65.

After the meet, Francena proved to
be a woman of many talents, even
helping a confused old runner
and current sportswriter take
a selfie. 
But McCorory wasn’t done. Later in the day, she breezed to a win in the 200 (23.01), and then saved the best for last, anchoring the winning women’s 1600-meter team with a split of 50.1.

For the 2006 graduate of Bethel High, the past year has a whirlwind. After being part of the winning women’s 1600-meter relay team at the 2012 London Olympics, it was apparent that McCorory was on the brink of a breakthrough year. And the Hampton native broke through in a memorable way. First, she won the indoor 400-meter world championship in Sopot, Poland, and followed up in the outdoor season with arguably her greatest performance to date, capturing the outdoor 400 national title with a career best time of 49.48. In the process, she outkicked Olympic legend Sanya Richards-Ross.

“Last year was crazy,” said the former world record holder in the indoor 400. Asked what she learned from the experience, McCorory was reflective.

“I learned how strong I am. I learned to believe in my training, and also to go out and have fun.” But she summed up her feeling in one word --- blessed.

Asked what she hoped to gain from competing in her hometown, McCorory added, “I know where I’m at in training and where my level of fitness is. But it’s also a chance to run in front of my family, friends and sorority sisters (McCorory is a member of Delta Sigma Theta).

Lewis, who also serves as a track coach at Hampton, has competed in invitational events in which the Pirates were competing. But as a world class hurdler, she has become accustomed to competing in only one event per meet. On Saturday, along with the 400 relay, she won the 100 hurdles (13.47) and placed second in the 200.

Asked about the last time she competed in three events, Lewis, who scored in as many as five events in high school (Denbigh, Menchville) and college championships, thought for a second and replied, “It’s been a while, a couple of years.” But the experience should help to prepare the MEAC Hall of Famer as she prepares to compete on the European track circuit later this summer.

For Pierce, who coaches both McCorory and Lewis, the busy day made for a good workout.

“They are getting ready for world competition. Yvette is getting ready to run in Shanghai next month, while Fran will be competing in Jamaica."

More than anything, the Pirates director of track and field was happy to the revival of a meet which hadn’t been run since 2009.

“The demand was there, from all the former runners and current athletes. In fact, many of our alumni are still involved in track and field,” said Pierce, citing his own wife, Hampton track alumnae and current assistant coach at Bethel, Cantrese Pace-Pierce, as an example.

“But it had to be the right time,” he added. In the past, the meet was held in March, usually under cold and blustery conditions. “The one thing I promised was – it will not be in March,” added Pierce. “We had to make sure that schools would come, and it was a gamble because they are on spring break.”

Hampton’s Trey Holloway (Grassfield) won the 110-meter high hurdles with a clocking of 14.31. Other Pirate winners included Stanley Davis (men’s 400 hurdles), Ce’aira Brown (women’s 800), Sulaiman Fareed (men’s shot-put) and Kayla Key (women’s javelin).

Desmond Fogg (Warwick High) of Norfolk State also treated himself to a 21st birthday present, winning the 1500 meters (4:07.77).

In the high school meet, most of which took place on Friday, it was Phoebus who stood out among the local high schools. Dartrez Thompson won the 100 (10.74) and 200 (22.39), Amira Aduma captured the 300 hurdles (44.26) and both the boys (8:21.62) and girls (10:23.15) 3200-meter relay squads won gold.

Hampton senior Tori Ray, who recently made a verbal commitment to North Carolina A&T, won the girls 200 (24.98), while the Menchville foursome of Jada Key, Jermyiah Jones, December Hutchinson and Jermyriah Jones cruised to a season best 3:54.68 in the girl’s 1600-meter relay.

In all, 23 high schools, ten colleges and four club teams took part in this weekend’s festivities.






Ironclad Bourbon Distillery To Open in Downtown Newport News

Although I have been aiming to focus more on sports posts, I couldn’t pass up this story. Best wishes to the King family and to the newly formed Ironclad Distillery. Cheers!!
Logo for the new Ironclad Bourbon

About a year ago, I noticed an e-mail message in my Google mail account. By itself, this is not an odd occurrence, but what stood out is that the e-mail came through an account I have with the Guru website. Guru is one of those one-stop shops for freelancers like myself who are in search jobs for their companies.

Turns out the mail came from a man named Steve King, and his message was indeed interesting. To paraphrase, it said, I’m looking to open a bourbon distillery in downtown Newport News, and can we talk? When I inquired for the directions, he told me to look for an older looking warehouse down on 23rd Street, in fact, just across from City Hall.

Really? You got my attention.

While I’m not at liberty to discuss what we talked about, I was pleased with the visit. Years ago, Steve bought a beautiful old three story brick building to house his Paul Davis restoration company. But the reality was that his company only needed about a third of his building’s 30,000 square feet.

Little ways to go before the distillery is finished,
but the bourbon is holding up well!
But that was OK, as I was about to see. King spent the next hour showing me the “other” side of the main level, and in the process taught me a little about the bourbon industry. He showed me the wooden casks – “new white oak! The bourbon picks up flavor from the wood” where his product will ferment and go through the process of becoming bourbon for a minimum of two years. I saw the 26-gallon stills – “we pour in 22 gallons and heat to 180 degrees.” I saw the barrels of corn, wheat, barley and rye, a distiller’s dream. King adds, “We get those (corn and wheat) from a farm on the other side of Williamsburg (Renwood Farms), which is the oldest operating farm of its kind in the United States.

At the end of the process, King will be the proud owner of Ironclad Bourbon. The name itself is reminiscent of the Monitor-Merrimac battle, which is apt because you can see where the actual battle happened from his spot at 124 23rd.

The (un)finished product!!
City leaders are hoping that Ironclad will become one more stepping stone in its efforts to revitalize downtown. Plans are in the works for tours of the plant (got mine already!). Davis already has a son, Owen working for on board. In fact, it was Owen who gave WAVY-TV 10 their tour of the plant. The Ironclad label was designed by Davis’ oldest son Ben, and Steve’s daughter Kara is the company’s Creative Director.

The plans for Ironclad are big for the Davis family. “We want to move up to a 100 gallon system, then possibly 150...200, says Steve. “A couple of 100 gallon systems would be enough to produce enough product to be commercial.”

As the only new bourbon distiller in Hampton Roads, the King’s have a clear path on the road to spirits success.

SEVA Girls Well Into Swim Season; Hosting Movie Benefit This Sunday

The South Eastern (VA) swim team season is well underway, and the girls team recently took part in the VSI SC Age Group Championships at the Collegiate School Aquatic center in Richmond.
Last year, it was the "7 Dwarfs" who led the girls team for
SEVA. Jacqueline Tinneny and Morgan Miller
are still around, but coach Jeff Kincaid is looking for
new talent.

It was a great outing for the Newport News based squad, who placed fourth of 31 teams.

According to coach Jeff Kincaid, Morgan Miller was his team’s standout in Richmond.

Says Kincaid, She really did the best job on our team, scoring and placing (in the 13-14 year old category) at night. She really shined in the 200 free and 500, as well as the 1650.”

Kincaid also noted that six other girls made it to the NASA cup, a new meet, which will be held in Florida later this summer.

South Eastern’s Jacqueline Tinneny, a DAILY PRESS all-star from Grafton High, won the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:05.18.

While the girls were in Richmond, Dave Henderson took 8 boys to a higher level meet called NCSA. Said Kincaid, of his colleague, “It’s really a big meet with 2000 kids and extremely difficult to make it back in finals; but, we have a few horses that made it back in a couple of their best events. “

Unfortunately, the results aren’t available at this time.

In other South Eastern news,  the team is hosting a private movie showing of “Touch The Wall” featuring Missy Franklin and Kara Lynn Joyce.  It’s the story of two Olympians in a documentary chasing their dreams with their coach in preparation for the 2012 Olympics.  The team has invited a few folks from outside the team, but still has a small handful of tickets available. The event will be held this Sunday, April 12th at 2:30 at the Kiln Creek theaters on Victory Blvd. in Yorktown..

The team website can be found at http://www.sevaswimming.com/