The lights were turned on the track midway through the first heat of the women's 5000 meter run Thursday night, and for the four athletes who competed all turned in PR's. In the Women's 5000, Lauren Bishop of Pinecrest was the lone female runner from the state competing, and she ended up running a smart strategic race. She started back in the middle of the pack at the onset of the race and soon began picking off other runners starting on the 6th lap. She clocked her first mile time around 5:49, and by the 6th lap she had moved up into 6th place. She had moved up another spot by the next lap and hit her two mile time around the 11:50 mark. On the tenth lap she was fourth in the heat and was closing in on the third place girl. From my vantage point on the last curve she really hit up the last 200 meters and tried to close ground on the runner in front of her. She hit three miles at 17:41 and finished in a time of 18:16.94, which would turn out to be 14th overall in the Women's 5000. It was a significant PR for Lauren as she ran the 5000 at Nike Indoor Nationals in a time of 18:58, and her best 5k on a Cross Country course was 19:11. As a graduating senior this was Lauren's last high school race and she went out in style.

The Men's 5000 saw all three competitors from North Carolina, Dakota Peachee, Dillon Hawley, and Zach Brantley running in the same heat. Unlike in the women's race where a noticeable gap was established in the first lap, this race saw most of the pack tightly bunched in together through 800 meters. For their first mile they hit the following split (I was a little ways off on the side so they may not be completely accurate) Dakota 4:52, Dillon 4:55, Zach 4:56. By the 5th lap Dakota was in 4th place and had put a sizeable gap on the other two runners from North Carolina. After the first mile Zach was just behind Dillon nipping on his heels and it wasn't until the second mile were he edged in front of him. The two mile times for the three were Dakota 9:48, Zach 9:57, and Dillon 9:57.

Dakota Peachee 15:25.84 12th overall a 8 second PR from Nike Indoors

Dakota was running mostly by himself in third place, he had passed one runner after the second mile but could not gain any ground of the two runners in front of him. He later told me that he kind of got a little fatigued during this point. It was at this point in the race where Zach and Dillon started to move, and Zach really opened it up on his bell lap, looking like he was full of momentum coming onto the final lap. Dakota hit the 3 mile at 14:52, Zach at 15:00, and Dillon 15:03. The final times for each runner were:

Photos by Tim Fulton

Zach Brantley 15:33.09 18th a PR by 11 seconds

Dillon Hawley 15:38.93. The first time Dillon has run in the 15's

A couple side notes: In the Women's second heat of the 5000 Ashley Brasovan ran a meet record 16:18.91. It was truly one of the most dominating perfomance's I have ever witnessed on a track. Just some of my observations that I wrote down...a stride without strain, look of determination, flying down the track...mile splits 5:09/5:15/5:16

Being new to the position the inexperienced showed a little when we were talking to Dakota after the race, he didn't know what he had finished and I read my notes wrong and told him a different time, bumming him out. Sorry about that I'm still learning on the job.