Leaping Into the Record Book

The Fourth Annual Patriot’s Invitational, the first stop of the Empire State Liberty Tour Track & Field Series, was everything it was expected to be. The weather was near perfect, with temperatures in the high 60’s and the sun shining most of the day. For those athletes that broke more than 75 Patriot’s Invitational meet records, it was just a day at the park, as it was for Robbie Gillich (Pictured Above) from the Country Mills Eagles Athletic Club. Although he did not quite break the record for the Midget Boys High Jump for the Country Mills Eagles, Robbie did set the Midget Boys High Jump record for the Patriot’s Invitational. Not satisfied with one record, Robbie did set the Country Mills Eagles record for the Midget Boys 80m Hurdles. More than 75 records were broken for this meet, and 40 of those were also Liberty Tour series records. More than 50 records were set in the Youth Divisions, 10 in the Open Men’s & Women’s Divisions, and the rest in the Master’s Divisions. Almost 25 records were broken by the Girl’s and Women’s Divisions, which is a big improvement over the first threee (3) years of the Tour.

When asked for his reaction to so many records being broken on the day, Executive Producer of the Empire State Liberty Tour and Head Coach for the Country Mills Eagles, Anthony Mills simply said, “There is no surprise having this many records broken and set, when you realize that the number of athlete registrations for the 2008 Patriot’s Invitational grossly obliterated the previous record by nearly double, as just a couple shy of 200 were in attendance. Even better was the large number of spectators in the stands to watch and cheer the competitors. In addition to that, the Liberty Tour also set a record for the most teams competing with nearly 12 teams from all over the Northeast.”

There were even a couple of new additions to the Liberty Tour for everyone to take advantage of. Fine Design Sportswear was on site to make available a large selection of Sportswear, geared strictly for the Patriot’s Invitational, and they will be offering similar items for each meet with a specific meet logo designed just for the Empire State Liberty Tour Track & Field Series. Also on hand was Capital District Sports Photos, which took more than 1,400 Action Shots for athletes and parents to purchase at a very inexpensive price, starting at $3.00 for a 4 x 6 memory. To purchase pictures, just click on their Banner Ad at the top of the page.

Be sure to check out all the new Records for this meet and the entire series of meets by clicking the “Records” link. To check out the full list of Results, click on the “Results” link on this page. For more action from the Patriot’s Invitational please scroll down for our our new 2008 Photo Album from the meet.