On Saturday, February 20th, the Falls Church girls' and boys' track teams competed at the Northern Region Championships at George Mason University.  Senior and captain, Riley Louden, qualified for region competition in not only the pole vault event, but the 55m Dash, 1000m run and 300m Dash.  Going into the pole vault competition, Riley was seeded with a 1st place ranking with a jump of 10 feet just 3 inches over 2nd place seed Katy Bannon from Centreville.  Riley had not competed in a pole vault competition since January 23rd at the Dickinson College Invite in Pennsylvania where she placed 3rd.  Due to all the snow, Riley had not been able to practice for pole vault, but with the snow break, she tried her best to stay in shape with all the shoveling and trying some pole runs in her driveway to be ready for Regionals after the district meet was cancelled several times. On Saturday, Riley played it safe and came into the competition when the bar was set at 9 feet.  Opening height was 7 feet 6 inches with the bar raised 6 inches to 9'6" and then 3" thereafter.  Riley cleared 9 feet on the first jump and then went on to clear 9'6" and 9'9" as well with no faults.  Katy could not clear 9'9", so Riley was then able to choose her next height to clear after being the sole competitor left.  Having jumped 10 feet 3 inches last spring at the Outdoor State championships, Riley wanted to set a new school record so the bar was set at 10 feet 6 inches.  She cleared it with no problem. She then went for 10 feet 9 inches, but unfortunately just barely missed it on the last attempt.  This did not matter as Riley walked away with not only a new school record with 10 feet 6 inches, but she is now your Northern Region Champion in the pole vault event. No one has cleared near this height in regional competition since 2007.  Riley who was already state-qualified, will now advance to the VHSL State Championships on Friday, February 26th at Boo Williams Sportsplex in Hampton, VA.  Riley has also qualified for Nationals.

Another notable performance from the girls' team came from senior and captain, Kim Bruyette in the 3200m run.  Kim qualified for both the 1600m and 3200m for regionals, but Coach Larson scratched her from the 1600m run so that Kim could focus on the 3200m.  Kim ran an indoor personal best of 12:13.44 at the region meet. At the 1600m split, she ran a 5:50 which helped her knock almost 10 seconds off her seed time.  This is a great time headed into the outdoor season. Charlotte Louden also competed in the pole vault and Rebecca Robinson competed in the triple jump.