Why We Do It. Meet MileStat's Freelancers & Hear Their Advice

Wherever athletes toe the line, mark the runway, or arc through the air Milestat tries to provide comprehensive coverage of cross country, indoor and outdoor track across the Commonwealth.In order to give the audience top notch reporting on meets and events across the state, Nolan employs a group of free lancers to capture the news of the day in pictures, interviews and recaps, tweets, and video. Here’s your chance to learn more about the folks who contribute to the content you find on Milestat!

Photo

Although she never competed in high school, Mary Ann Magnant shoots thousands of pictures annually for Milestat. She’s been taking action shots for the past four years. Magnant works “primarily in the southeastern part of the state, but [has] covered meets all over Virginia and in MD, NC, PA and CA.” She especially likes “to cover the Cross Country State Championship Meet. Great Meadows provides a beautiful backdrop for the races, the energy level is high from the athletes and the crowd, and by this point in the season I have seen most of the athletes race more than once, so I feel more invested personally too.” In addition to providing exciting Milestat coverage, Magnant is “a mom of four teenaged girls who keep me very busy. I also work for Recruit 757 covering high school football and basketball, and Game Face Media covering a variety of racing events.” Magnant has met hundreds if not thousands of athletes in her work. She says, “Grant Holloway is an amazing, diverse, talented and humble young man. You might assume that an athlete of his status wouldn’t take the time to say hello much less have a conversation with a photographer, but Grant goes out of his way to greet me with a big smile and a hug. He is a great role model for any high school athlete.”


Like Magnant, Lisa McArthur did not compete as a runner in high school but that doesn’t stop her from shooting. Currently, she splits her time between working at the Running Store in Gainesville and shooting for Milestat and parent company Milesplit. She’s been providing photo coverage since January 2014. She confides, “we are creating a ‘living’ resume for these athletes through our coverage. I can honestly say that I think I have the perfect job and I’m very thankful for this opportunity.” She says that shooting meets “allows me to watch my [3] daughters compete. My role of being a photographer for Milestat / Milesplit has given me opportunities to cover some of the biggest meets around the country, see some really neat venues and places, and develop friendships that I know I will have the rest of my life.” McArthur finds the 4 x 400 M Relay the “most intense event to watch.” She also says, “I’ve been most moved by the competition between my daughter Rachel (Patriot 2017) and Kate Murphy (Lake Braddock 2017). The two have developed a great friendship, and more importantly, they share so much respect and they truly inspire one another.”


Tim Dillstin also loves covering the 4 x 400 M Relay. He says, “It's often the most exciting race of a track meet. Because it's a team event and the last race of the day, the teams and spectators get loud. In most other races the eventual winner is out in front early and then stays there. In relay races there is more passing and gaps can open and close quickly.” Dillstin ran cross country and track in high school. He reminisces about “how little my coach and I understood about the importance of nutrition. I remember eating french fries for lunch on the day of a race. The only discussion we ever had about nutrition was my coach telling me to drink more Gatorade and less soda. Today, my kids can recite entire rants from their coach about what they need to eat and drink. We have come a long way.” Dillstin has covered meets for 5 years primarily in the Loudon County and NOVA regions. Outside of Milestat he’s a nearly two-decade manager for his company. He says, “I am a huge fan of the competition, taking pictures keeps me close to the action. I can talk to the athletes, coaches and meet organizers. This allows me to get to know athletes and families from all over, not just the ones from [my kids’] school. There are so many great athletes and families and getting to know more of them has been on of the biggest bonuses of working with MileStat. These kids are more than great athletes, they are really good people too, and being around good people is a great way to spend my off time.” He continues, “I have been so impressed getting to see this sport's champions up close. Too often, the best athletes in sports have huge egos. Not in this sport. My daughter Sarah met Caroline Alcorta (West Springfield 2015) a couple years back and told me she was fantastic to talk to. My son Lucas tells me that when he is around Drew Hunter (Loudon Valley 2016) he is always talking to everyone around him. I have been around many XC and Track Champions over the last few years and never met one that I didn't like.”


Gregg Zelkin has a long history of providing action shots for traditional and emerging media. During college he was a photo journalist and the editor for Penn State’s Daily Collegian. He says, it’s “a 30+ page daily paper. I shot a variety of sporting events as well as news stories. At the time we still shot with film, developed and printed everything.” As a stress reliever for his job at Boeing, he began dabbling in digital photography 3 years ago. In addition to Milestat, he specializes in Lake Braddock athletics and shot a whopping 140,000 pix last year! He competed as a gymnast when he was younger and confesses, “I have really enjoyed shooting track and field as I find the athletes have intense determination and show significant emotion during their victory as well as their defeat. There are some incredible Track and Field athletes, and I often feel I'm shooting some of the future super stars. Although I enjoy shooting the Track events I always look forward to the Field events. Sometimes I feel the Field Events take second stage to the Track events, so I love to showcase the Field Events. I love the challenge of capturing the right moment of Pole Vault, Long/Triple Jump, Discus and Shotput and High jump.” He’s been sharing his skills on Milestat for a little over a year and generally covers NOVA while sometimes travelling to Norfolk and Lynchburg.


Daytime engineer and weekend sports photographer aptly describes Jon Fleming. He covers Southwest Virginia high school sports for a variety of outlets including Milestat. He enjoys covering his kids, Jenn (2015) and Ben (2017), and their teams at Blacksburg High School. He notes the “Blacksburg Boys’ 4 x 800 M Relay teams from 2014 Indoor and Outdoor seasons and Marcellus Fletcher of William Byrd (2015) - what a great triple jumper, and so good in the long jump and hurdles as well” have been highlights for him in recent years. He concludes, “there are many, many other great competitors from the New River Valley and Roanoke as well - I'm very proud of our part of the state!” He uses his experience as a high school 400 and 800 M racer to help him cover track meets and likes shooting cross country meets the most. Jokingly, Fleming says he freelances for Milestat because he gets to wear “the cool red polo shirt and hang out with Nolan...The real answer is I just enjoy the sport and enjoy taking the photos.”


Back in 2003, John Herzog began taking photographs when Milestat was in its infancy. He says, “I've pretty much been with Milestat since the beginning when it was just Brandon Miles and a dream. The sport was under-covered by the mainstream press and Brandon's passion to provide first class press for the sport was contagious. I still feel vested in the sport and love to help bring attention to the fantastic athletes who compete every year despite the fact that track and field generates very little buzz in other media. I want these athletes to have the best coverage possible ... they deserve it.” Over the years he has developed a fondness for the Triple Jump because he “loves the athleticism involved in executing the different phases.” Herzog competed in the 200, 400, and discus. He remembers “winning the Regional Championship and taking second at the State Meet in discus despite the fact that I was about 30 lbs. lighter than the next smallest competitor.” After his kids Brandon (2005) and Chelsea (2007) competed for Maggie Walker he saw “Kristen Wolfe (James River 2008) showed me what courage and determination really mean in an athletics. She was the narrow favorite and leading the field coming in to the final stretch of the 2007 AAA XC State Championship. The grass was long that year and she was clearly exhausted ... barely able to lift her feet. She tripped and went down hard with about 200 meters to go. She went down a total of seven more times before finally stumbling across the finish line. She never thought about giving up - even as scores of runners passed her. It still sends shivers down my spine to think about it - determination and will in the face of what was clearly a disastrous scenario.”


Arnel Gonce also takes pictures for Milestat covering many events in the central Virginia region.


Recap/Tweet

Jim McGrath has been involved in running as either an athlete, high school and for Wagner College, or writer for nearly 40 years. Currently, in addition to Milestat he writes for the Daily Press covering the Hampton Roads area sports. He has also worked in radio and other print media outlets. He says, writing “has been a blast as I have had the opportunity to interview many former and current Olympic medal winners, as well as American and world record holders. Examples include Justin Gatlin, Tommie Smith, Billy Mills, Dee Dee Trotter, Greg Foster, Roger Kingdom, Johnny Gray, and a host of others.” He also enjoys keeping track of Noah and Josephus Lyles (T C Williams 2016) since “they're from my old neighborhood (literally, yards away) in Alexandria.” As a former “middle distance/distance guy, I'd be prone to say [I like covering] the longer events, but any close competition gets my attention.” For example, he lists the 2015 Outdoor 6A Girls 3200 race between McArthur and Murphy as a highlight.


Jennie Hodge believes she’s finally using her undergrad and master’s degrees appropriately when recapping for Milestat. Although she writes some for her day job as director of a weekend feeding program for kids, the “Milestat pieces are more fun and I love getting to speak with athletes from across the state who put in so much time and effort to be the best they can be whether they finish first, in the middle, or back of the pack.” Hodge covers any meet where Blacksburg competes since she’s on site to cheer on her kids, Olivia (2016) and David (2020) and their teammates. She also live tweeted for Milestat from the 3A/4A Indoor and Outdoor State Meets this year. She says, “Live tweeting is exciting though stressful since I don’t want to miss any performances and it’s impossible to be everywhere at once.” She loves covering cross country meets although she thinks “getting to hang out on the infield at track meets is pretty cool. It’s an honor to get to chat with competitors after an impressive performance.” Hodge returns to the Virginia high school cross country and track scene 27ish years after competing for cross 3A West regional rival Western Albemarle. She says, “it’s a great joy to reconnect with the coaches from my alma mater who’ve been mentoring kids since I was there!” She continues, “I can remember watching Erin Keogh [Langley 1987] at Piedmont for the State XC meet in awe.” Hodge says, “Nowadays I’m impressed by the usual top performers and more especially across all the 3A/4A classifications and of course Blacksburg athletes hold a special place since I see on a daily basis how much they give to the sport, their school, and community in general.”



Video

When Rob Fleenor isn’t working as the Director of Audio Visual Services at Norfolk Academy, he can be found behind the video camera providing Milestat coverage. For the past two years he’s covered a variety of meets from Norfolk to Charlottesville. Although he didn’t compete in high school, he has worked with three All-Americans and two Olympians when he made tapes at Old Dominion University before moving to Norfolk Academy. While videoing for Milestat he’s enjoyed “seeing the entire Western Branch Team gather at the end of each meet….great team unity.” He loves covering the 55 M Hurdles since the race is “fast and full of good shots!”


As a member of the University of Virginia Running Club, Cody Stancil still discovers opportunities to compete. When he isn’t racing or studying, he can be found behind a video camera at central Virginia events. Stancil enjoys filming the 800 and 1600 M races. However, he particularly enjoyed watching Grant Holloway compete this past spring. “He's just so fun to watch because you can tell he comes to compete” in every event whether the hurdles, the long jump, or high jump.


Another college student, Tommy Faigle, shoots video of 3A/4A events and others as needed. Faigle competed for Blacksburg High School before getting behind the video camera for Milestat.


Advice


Has reading about these freelancers piqued your interest to help capture some awesome coverage for Milestat? It’s a great team to be part of! Feel free to take Mary Ann Magnant’s advice, “Do your homework and know who the favorites are for each event. Take advantage of working with some of the amazing photographers that MileStat employs and ask them questions. I’ve learned so much from them, especially John Herzog! Dress for the weather, especially footwear! Lastly, have fun with it!”


Herzog suggests, “Spend time thinking about the various events and what it is that makes each of them special. If you are a photographer, anticipate those special moments and try to capture them. Know who the key athletes are, and focus your attention on them, but don't forget that amazing moments can happen away from the stars.”


Dillstin advises, “try to get pictures of everyone, not just the ones running up front. It is sometimes tough to do, but it is really appreciated by these kids and their families. All these athletes train hard and give all they have at every race, even the kids that finish last. I think it is disrespectful to our great sport to not recognize the efforts made by all the competitors.”


Fleenor says, “Freelancers should experiment with shots that give the viewer a different perspective on the athlete and the competition. I want to develop a method of using quadcopter at meets to film from angles that can’t be see on the ground or from the stands.”


McGrath adds not to “wait for someone to find you. Get your work out there...blog site, letters to the editor, freelance, anything! Opportunities come, but you have to have material to show.”


Hodge and Fleming concur on their advice and urge potential free lancers to “just do it!” Hodge continues, “Use your skills or passion so Nolan offers the best coverage for the state on Milestat. It’s a lot of fun and there are great people to meet along the way.”