Kaplan takes ISL title Carl Little Oct 28, 2012

CROSS-COUNTRY | Georgetown Visitation sophomore Emily Kaplan breezes to victory at the Independent School League championship. (via Washington Post)

Athlete Spotlight: Kimberley Ficenec Carl Little Mar 05, 2011

 Kimberley Ficenec’s principal never gets her name right. In fact, just about everyone she meets has trouble saying it. One time, someone mispronounced her last name “finance.” “It’s hard,” Ficenec, whose parents are from Czech Republic, says of her last name. “I’m not going to lie. If I met someone with a name like that I’d probably get it wrong, too.” Folks will probably start getting it right now that Ficenec (pronounced fitz-uh-nitz) has made everyone take notice by winning a state title. The Mountain View junior won the 1,000-meter run at the Virginia AAA championships Saturday in Hampton, crossing the line at Boo Williams Sportsplex in 2 minutes 54.47 seconds, the fastest time by a Virginia girl this season.

 

Link to Race Video of Ficenec's surprise 1000 meter state victory

Athlete Spotlight: Shantell Bingham Carl Little Feb 10, 2011


Photo by John Herzog

 

Shantell Bingham, the Virginia leader in the girls’ 55-meter hurdles, doesn’t see drills simply as a way of training her body. They fine-tune her nervous system. At practice, the Episcopal senior slides hurdles closer together, then drags them farther apart. After getting the barriers set, she jumps over them in an all-out sprint. It’s all in an effort to teach her synapses to fire quicker. She’s processing information so fast now, Episcopal assistant coach George Harris says, that it’s almost instinctive Bingham, who says she’s crashed into plenty of hurdles while doing drills, hopes to be smooth over the barriers at the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association Championships Saturday at St. Christopher’s in Richmond.