Albemarle boys get a win in the Garden

NEW YORK — The Albemarle boys 4x800-meter relay team added another victory to its triumphant season on Friday night at the 102nd Millrose Games.

The quartet of Zach Vrhovac, Luke Noble, Garrett Bradley and Anthony Kostelac took first place in the nation’s top indoor track showcase with a time of 7 minutes, 54.59 seconds, nearly nine seconds faster than second-place Morris Hills (N.J) High. The Patriots team finished just 1 1/2 seconds off the meet record pace.

Western Albemarle senior Tyler Stutzman finished fourth in the high school mile with a time of 4:21.11. He finished just under four seconds behind champion Robby Andrews of Manalapan (N.J.) High. Bobby Peavey of Floyd Kellam High in Virginia Beach was sixth.

Adam Nelson, a two-time Olympic medalist and a graduate student at UVa’s Darden Graduate School of Business, won the men’s shot put with a throw of 68 feet, 2 1/2 inches in the final.

Olympic gold medalist Steven Hooker of Australia came up short of breaking the world indoor record in the pole vault.

Hooker missed on three attempts at 20 feet, 2 1/2 inches. Pole vault great Sergei Bubka has held the mark of 20-2 since 1993.

Hooker still set a personal best by clearing 19-8 1/2, and he accomplished it despite doing just one complete pole vault in preparation for the meet. He bruised the side of his knee when he broke a pole at a practice competition about four weeks ago.

“He’s the benchmark in pole vault, and that’s the first time I’ve ever put the bar up to his world record,” Hooker said of Bubka.