Millrose Games 2009

MileSplit US has plenty of great photos from the high school events at Friday night's Millrose Games as well as the Wanamaker Mile in which Bernard Lagat (pictured above) won a record tying seventh title . Millrose Games Photo Gallery by Tim Fulton - 799 total photos  

Tim Fulton's gallery from Madison Square Garden in NYC.

NEW YORK – When Michael Jennings split the tape at the finish line at Madison Square Garden he cemented his team in history at Fordham Prep. The history is built on tradition, a tradition that had the Garden sounding like a college basketball game during the CHSAA 4x800 relay.

Photo by Tim Fulton of ArmoryTrack.com The 4x800 meter relay squad from Albemarle High School made quite a statement Friday night at the Millrose Games as they humbled the current US leaders in the event from Morris Hills High School in New Jersey. An expected close showdown between the fastest two 4x800's in the nation this indoor season never came to be. Coach Buz Male's quartet killed any thoughts of late race drama by taking charge from the opening leg and continuing to gap the New Jersey school en route to an 8 second margin of victory with their final time of 7:54.59. In a very strategic high school boys' mile race which came down to a kicker's race, Tyler Stutzman and Bobby Peavey finished in the middle of the pack in fourth (4:21.11) and sixth (4:21.54) places respectively.

An exciting night of high school action took place at the 102nd Millrose Games in New York. It was a big night in particular for the state of New Jersey as the two mile winners both came from the state with Jillian Smith of Southern Regional successfully defending her title from a year ago in 4:51.88, while Manalapan High's Robby Andrew dropped the hammer on the boys' field with a sub 60 second last for a 4:17.43 victory. The clash between the nation's top two 4x800 meter relays never materialized or at least there was not as much drama at the end as the Albemarle boys from Virginia took charge from the opening leg and never looked back as they scored an 8 second victory on the US leaders from Morris Hills in New Jersey (8:03.31) in a near meet record time of 7:54.59, which is an incredible performance on the short track at MSG. New Jersey prep Clayton Parros held his own against the professional runners in the men's 600 yard dash to finish third at 1:12.64. National leading performances are usually not expected at the Millrose Games, but the short track does not hurt the short straightaway races as shown by Devon Smith from Westlake High School in Maryland blazing a US #1 6.65 clocking in the 60 meter dash to win the junior race division.

Jillian Smith (Southern Regional, NJ) wins the girls mile for the 2nd straight year. Her former teammate Danielle Tauro had won the previous two years. Robby Andrews wins the boys mile with a huge last 400m.

Images From Madison Square Garden

The 102nd Millrose Games will be shown live on ESPN2 from 7:00 to 8:30 PM on Friday night with the high school mile races expected to be shown. The mile races are always the premier high school events in the meet, but this year will have other events gaining attention including a showdown between the nation's fastest two 4x800 meter relays in the Morris Hills boys of New Jersey (US #1 7:46) and Albemarle (US #2 7:49) of Virginia. Another event to look forward to is the mens' 600 yard dash which will feature current US 400 leader Clayton Parros competing against older professional athletes. Preview forthcoming.

(Photo by wingedfootphotos.com) Seton Hall Prep (NJ) senior Clayton Parros entered the current indoor season as the nation's fastest returning 400 meter sprinter from last winter. Parros also set himself up to be looked upon as one of the nation's best coming back for 2009 after his 47.20 clocking to make the finals of the 400 meter dash at the USATF Junior Nationals last June. With a recent US #1 performance of 47.58 at the New Balance Games, the UNC recruit Parros appears to be on the right path of reaching some of his big goals this year including breaking the New Jersey state record and qualifying for the World Juniors team in the 400 meter dash. While the Millrose Games will have some exciting high school races, the 12th grader Parros will be competing on the banked track at Madison Square Garden this weekend against professional athletes in the rarely contested 600 yard race. MileSplit US interviewed the nation's top ranked high school athlete at 400 meters prior to his first race against pro competition.

The Millrose Games this upcoming weekend at the Madison Square Garden will feature the nation's fastest two high school boys' 4x800 meter relays. The mile races are typically the highlight of the high school portion of the Millrose Games, but this year's 4x800 meter relay could trump the individual races with a highly anticipated matchup between US #1 Morris Hills of New Jersey and US #2 Albemarle of Virginia.

Due to a decline by one of the nine original selections for the high school boys' mile at the Millrose Games, Thomas Edison senior and Foot Locker All-American Leoule Degfae will now be joining original selections and fellow Virginians Tyler Stutzman of Western Albemarle and Bobby Peavey of Kellam in the prestigous race. The state of Virginia will represent a third of the total field with the top three finishers from the Montgomery Invitational mile race two weeks ago. Stutzman won the race in Landover, Maryland to virtually cement his spot in the Millrose field in a US #4 time of 4:14.91, while Peavey and Degfae had to sweat out their selections as they had to wait to see how others on the East Coast ran on faster banked tracks up north.  Peavey followed up his runner-up finish to Stutzman by posting another swift time this past weekend in the 1600 meter run at the Eastern Challenge with a 4:14.84 win. Peavey and Degfae also have the nation's #1 and #2 fastest times for 3200 meters at 9:08 and 9:13 respectively this season. The mile at Montgomery was Stutzman's only race thus far this season compared to Peavey and Degfae who have already competed in several invitationals, but he will competing at Virginia Tech this weekend as he tunes up for the big race in the Big Apple. He'll be running the 3200 in Blacksburg to see if he can post similar season best times to Peavey and Degfae. The Millrose Games high school boys' mile race will be held Friday, January 30th on the 11 laps to a mile banked track at the Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Duke bound Juliet Bottorff, of Tatnall, DE, who clocked 4:59.60 to win the mile at the Yale Track Classic over the weekend, is one of nine girls named to the prestigious high school mile field for the upcoming Millrose Games. Jillian Smith (NJ) returns to defend her crown.