By Duncan Nixon
Correspondent
The Fluvanna County High School indoor track and field squad participated in its first meet of the season on Dec. 11 at Fork Union Military Academy (FUMA). Their first scheduled meet at Liberty was postponed due to bad weather. Coach Melanie Kennedy advised that weather also restricted her teams’ ability to prepare for field events. Nevertheless, the Flucos turned in some good performances in several field events. These indoor meets are quite a scene with hundreds of athletes crammed into all of the open space in the facility. Kennedy took 50 athletes to the meet consisting of 25 girls and 25 boys.
Twelve schools competed in the FUMA Mini-Invite, including most of the Jefferson District schools. There was no official school scoring, Unsurprisingly, the top performer for the Flucos was junior Garrett Jordan, a state champion runner and the leading running back on this year’s successful Fluco football team. Jordan won the 55-meter dash with a time of 6.57, a second faster than the second-place finisher. Jordan also topped the field in the 300-meter dash. He finished in 36.57, again winning by about a second.
The only other winner for the Flucos was long time track and cross-country stand-out Ruby Frazier. Frazier is a senior and has been a top runner for the Flucos since ninth grade. She won the 1000-meter race by an impressive 25.5 seconds, finishing in 3:10.36. The Fluco boys also have a top 1000- meter runner. Jack Jeffries, a senior, finished second in a huge field with a time of 2:52.20.
Another outstanding performance was turned in by sophomore Charlotte Gifford. She finished third in 55-meter hurdles, a track event and tied for second in the pole vault, a field event. Also for the girls, Isabella Campbell, a freshman, was third in the 500 meter.
In three field events, the Fluco boys finished well. Senior Matt Dillon was third in the high jump, junior Ethan McPherson was third in the pole vault and sophomore Jayden Wrigley was third in the shot putt. The Fluco boys took fourth place in 4X200 relay. The team consisted of, Matt Dillon, JoRon Dillon, Zion Cheribin and Jordan.. In addition, Alex Schmidt, a senior, posted a third-place finish in the 3200 meter.
The indoor track and field team competed again at FUMA on Dec.17. They are then off until January and do not have any home meets this season, as the school has no indoor track
