For the second consecutive year, Mocorunning is sponsoring an all-star distance medley relay to compete at the Milestat.com Elite Track Gala in Richmond, Virginia on June 6. The Milestat.com Track Gala, now in its fourth year, has grown into one of the top high school post-season meets on the east coast. The feature event of the meet is a distance medley relay that teams up many of the best athletes in Virginia to compete for regional glory. With permission from the meet director and coordination by myself, Montgomery County Maryland is now in the mix.

If you are not ready for track season to be over, consider joining us on June 6 by competing in one of the many events, or just come down to watch with us. More information can be found at Milestat.com on this page. Register by Thursday, May 28 to compete in the meet.

You can read about our trip last year in this article.

There will be no girls' team from Montgomery County this year as all of the top distance runners had other obligations that day, but our boys team will be just as good if not better than last year.

Leading off for the Mocorunning All-Stars on the 1200 meter leg will be Andrew Palmer of Whitman High School. Only a junior, Andrew has a 1600-meter PR of 4:19.75. He is the 2009 Montgomery County champion in the 1600-meter run and is coming off runner-up performances in the 1600 and 3200 at the state championship meet.

Receiving the baton from Andrew Palmer for the 400 meter leg will be Antonio Palmer of Gaithersburg High School. Antonio was the 2008 4A state champion in the 800-meter run and has a personal best time of 1:53.66, but when summer-time comes, he starts focusing on speed. Last summer with the Gaithersburg Firebirds, he clocked an automatically timed 48.42 in the 400-meter run.

Montgomery County track fans have enjoyed watching the rivalry between Antonio Palmer and Wayne Bartholomew this year. Now for one race they will work together as teammates after so many races of trying to beat one another. This winter, Wayne won the 4A state title in the 500-meter run with a time of 1:04.92 and broke the Maryland state record in the 800 with a winning time of 1:55.98. He is coming off a runner-up performance at the outdoor state championship where he ran a personal best time of 1:55.30.

Anchoring the Mocorunning all-stars on the 1600 meter leg will be the best distance runner to ever come through Montgomery County. Solomon Haile of Sherwood now owns six state titles and five national titles in the 1600, 3200 and 5k. He has a personal best 1600 time of 4:17.86 and a personal best two mile time of 9:02.67 (converts to 8:59.5 for 3200m). As good as he is, he will still have his work cut out for him as Virginia has 11 runners under 4:17 so far this season and one or two of them are bound to show up. We won't know our competition until later, but our guys are set to take on anyone Virginia puts on the track.