FORK UNION, VA -- This year\'s second Tuesday night meet at Fork Union\'s Estes Athletic Center turned into the first and a much larger one as the first scheduled Tuesday meet was cancelled due to inclement winter weather last week. With 20 teams on hand for the meet, the Estes Athleti Center was packed for great competition. The Hardy Invitational is named after long-time retired head track coach at Fred Hardy Jr. Later in the week on Friday afternoon, Hardy\'s father, long-time University of Richmond coach Fred Hardy Sr. passed away. Our condolences go out to the Hardy family.
However at Fork Union, there were several outstanding performances throughout the evening.
Western Albemarle senior Ashley Early stole the show though in winning the pole vault competition with one of her better clearances of 12 feet. A solid early season performance for Early, who cleared 12 feet at the same meet one year ago in the same season she would later become the indoor and outdoor state record holder in the event.
Huguenot\'s Wynette Kirby won two events on the evening with a 5-2 win in the high jump and a 8.78 clocking in the 55 meter hurdles.
Brittany Copeland of Brooke Point won the 1600 meter run over a stacked field that included the likes of Western Albemarle\'s Samantha Stafford (2nd, 5:31.4) and North Stafford\'s Brittany Lussier (4th, 5:35.7) in a time of 5:25.7. Douglas Freeman sophomore Casey Fowler finished third in a time of 5:33.1.
Lussier and twin sister Amber helped the North Stafford girls run away with the 4x800 meter relay race in a solid time of 10:23.04 on the 160 meter indoor track.
Amber finished second in the 1000 meter run (3:12.4) in a race that was a bit of coming out party for Douglas Freeman senior Christi Harsha. Harsha, the state champion at 800 meters last outdoor season, had been injured much of the cross country season, but she showed at Fork Union on Tuesday night that she is coming back to form as she won the 1000 in a time of 3:10.1.
On the boys\' side, there were a few multiple event winners including Brooke Point\'s Mike Garel as he took first place finishes in both the 55 meter hurdles (7.66) and triple jump (43-9).
Prince Edward County\'s DeAngelo Wilson also won two events apiece in the 55 meter dash (6.55) and 300 meter dash (37.7).
The Polish distance studs from Fork Union picked up first place finishes in the sole individual event each competed in as Szymon Rolla won the 1000 meter run in 2:40.1 and Axel Mostrag (9:53.3) won an exciting 3200 meter race over Western Albemarle\'s Will Massie (10:02.8).
The 1600 meter run saw a more exciting race with an almost too close to call finish between Fluvanna County\'s Jeremy Haney (4:42.1) and Atlee star freshmen Ben Dejarnette (4:42.3).
Huguenot won two of the three relay events with the 4x200 (1:36.3) and 4x400 (3:38.6) meter relays, while the North Stafford boys (8:50.6) made it a sweep for the school in the 4x800 meter relays with a narrow win over Charlottesville (8:50.8).
The boys\' high jump saw an excellent duel between Anthony Bryant of Albemarle and Jonathan Foote of Fork Union with both athletes clearing 6-4, but Bryant getting the final nod for victory.
Atlee had a very impressive showing as a team in the pole vault with three of the top four vaulters in Justin Varner (1st, 13-6), Cameron Sovick (2nd, 13-0), and Jordan Cole (4th, 12-6). Breaking up the Atlee sweep was Charlottesville\'s John Intollube-Chmil (3rd, 13-0), who also won the shot put competition (45-3).