It should not come as much of a surprise that Battlefield indoor track coach Jeff Michaelis is pretty confident that Battlefield's likely to grab at least one, if not two, Cedar Run district titles this year for indoor track.

After all, two meets into the season, Battlefield's 4x800 meter relay girls team already has the leading time in the state, according to Michaelis.

"(I) don't know how long that's going to last," said Michaelis, adding that his runners will "do anything you ask and they love what they're doing and they give everything they can."

This past Saturday in Richmond at the Green Dragon Relays, the Battlefield girls "A" team (10:05.61) topped host-squad Maggie Walker (10:08.40) by just under three seconds to win the 4x800 meter relay. That came despite Battlefield clocking in more than 10 seconds behind their seed time of 9:55.38 and Maggie Walker shaving almost 6 seconds off its seed time, essentially narrowing the gap by about 16 seconds.

Battlefield's seed time came from the Bobcats' first-place finish Dec. 11 at their own Bobcat Blizzard Invitational run in Haymarket, which started the season.

Michaelis blamed Saturday's performance time on the 145 meter track, which he said is considered rather short.

"It's really hard to run a fast time on," he said.

Regardless, freshman Ellison Grove, sophomore Sarai Arbus, junior Rachel Thompson and senior Marina Capalbo found a way to win, Battlefield's only varsity victory of the day.

"I honestly don't know how to describe them. They're a great group of kids that work hard, put forth every effort," said Michaelis. "They just go out there and run and they want to do what's best for them and best for the team."

As a senior, Capalbo's job is to be the most versatile of the group, able to perform well as a lead, middle or anchor. Michaelis said her strength is in catching up to opponents in the final stretch and blazing by them just out of sheer grit.

"If we need her to go out and get someone, I know she (will)," he said, adding that the "look on her face" as she run suggests a mind set of, "'I'm going to get that girl' and there's no stopping her."

He added, "That's something you can't coach. It's just there."

Junior Virginia Hill could also find herself on the 4x800 squad by the end of the season, according to Michaelis, adding that she already runs on the 300 and 500 meter sprints along with the 4x400 meter relay team.

When it seemed that the 4x800 team might be a member short in Richmond, "she was going to step up and run in the place of somebody if needed. And she would have done well," said the coach. "She has the determination and talent."

He explaining that Hill's role will be to anchor the team's longer spring running, which she's developing by building up her endurance in practice. Naturally speedy, Michaelis said he hopes to have Hill ready to run the 800 meter run by the outdoor season in the spring, which could be an "ideal event for her that she'll excel at."

Neither the boys or girls teams have extreme depth in the field events, which is why Michaelis said he expects to grab district titles more-so than regional ones. Beyond that though, he already has at least one state-bound Bobcat in the field in senior Johnna Dominick, who earned her spot with an opening day leap of 5-foot-3. By the end of the outdoor season in the spring, Michaelis said he's hoping she'll be able to add 1 to 3 inches to her jump.

"She's got a ton of springs in her legs and she can get her body up," he said. "If we can fine tune (her) techniques, then we can get her up a couple extra inches."

While Dominick represents some of the best of Battlefield's present squad for the girls team, freshman sprinter Jasmine Hill may be among the best in the Bobcats' future. She finished only behind fellow freshman Grove for Battlefield's fastest individual time in the 4x400 meter relays.

Grove's performance came as a surprise with her being on the varsity "B" squad, leading to the coaching staff "kicking ourselves in the butt, wishing we had put her on the varsity A team," said Michaelis.

Boys

Meanwhile, the freshman boys 4x400 meter relay team clocked in at 4:10.87 to defeat a strong challenge by Varina (4:12.49). The two teams entered the race registered within 0.24 seconds of each other, meaning the Bobcats actually put slightly more distance between themselves than expected despite both teams clocking in slower than expected, likely a cause of the short track.

Leading all of the youngest runners for Battlefield is Haben Zemichael, the "freshman phenom" as Michaelis likes to say. He ran as Battlefield's only boys runner in the state cross country meet this past fall season and is once again proving to be among the most exciting runners not just on the team, but possibly in the commonwealth.

Zemichael (4:43.93) finished in second place in the boys 1,600 meter run in Richmond, less than four seconds out of first place, while senior teammate Owen Malinowski (5:00.86) clocked in ninth. According to Michaelis, the Ethiopian-born immigrant's desire to help his team actually cost him the gold as he could be seen encouraging Malinowski while still running his own race.

It's a rare trait for a freshman that's carried over from practice. Michaelis recalled an instance during training when he saw Zemichael holding a stick at the end of one particular run. Figuring the freshman, as younger runners may be prone to do, had distracted himself during the run by jotting off into the woods to play, the coach said he asked Zemichael why he was goofing around with the strick.

Zemichael replied that he used it for one of his teammates to clutch on to in order to keep up with him as Zemichael led the way. Michaelis said he initially didn't buy the story ("I'm like, 'No one does that,'" he remembered thinking to himself), but the freshman's teammates soon vouched for him.

"He basically drug him along," said the coach.

On the "freshman phenom," who will likely compete in the one and two mile events throughout the season, Michaelis said what stands out the most is "that he is more concerned about the team that himself. A lot of freshmen want to prove themselves to you. And yes they're team players, but he really is out there. He runs and is out there and he really wants to help."

Zemichael is one of a handful of boys runners Michaelis expects to qualify for states. Two other long-time mainstays of the team, seniors Nate Moyer and Byron Sintim, should also be leading the way for Battlefield, with Moyer being a mid-to-long distance runner and Sintim exceeding in the long jump and 400. Sintim's already broken the 20-foot jump mark this winter, but the winter weather has prevented him from practicing outside more often.

"Hopefully it'll warm up a little bit and he'll get a little more time in the pits," said Michaelis, stressing that Sintim's working on "explosiveness" indoors to keep in shape in lieu of jumping time.

Michaelis said that sophomores Luke Mazzu, Cameron Henken and Connor Lee are also showing a lot of promise this early in the season. They joined Moyer in guiding the boys 4x800 meter relay team to third place over the weekend.

States

Overall, Zemichael, Moyer and Sintim appear most likely to qualify for states for the boys at this point, with Malinowski on the edge in distance running too. For the girls, Dominick, the 4x800 team, Thompson in the 2 mile run and Grove and Capalbo in either the 1,000 meter or 1 mile run are leading the pack at the moment. It's all part of a larger goal for Michaelis to expand the number of his own runners that make it that deep into the post-season.

"I want to go to the state meet and have to take more than one minivan of kids down there," said Michaelis. "I would love to take a bus load but we'll see."