A Service Of Remembrance

By Beth Robertson
Candlelight danced in the dusk in Constitution Square as Virginia Tech students, alumni and friends gathered Wednesday night to lend their support to all who mourn the murder of 32 Virginia Tech students and professors.
The Service of Remembrance hit home for area students who had lost friends in the Monday massacre.
“I really appreciated it,” said Virginia Tech psychology major Reagan Cannon, who had worked with three of the students killed.
“I went to the vigil the night before at the drill field at Tech, but this was more personal.
“I felt like it was for us. It was real special to know I came home and that was what was going on.”
Cannon worries that students from large cities may not experience anything like the community service held in South Boston, an event sponsored by the Halifax County Mental Health Association and area ministers.
For Cannon, saying the names Leslie Sherman, Mary Read and Ryan Clark was difficult yesterday.. She had worked with all of them at West End Market.
“I am going to miss Leslie and her beautiful smile. She was the sweetest person,” said Cannon.
And Ryan Clark was “just great, funny,” recalled Cannon. “Someone who could put you in a better mood just being around him.”
Mary had not been working at the market as long, so Cannon did not know her as well.”
“It is very tight knit because you see these people every day,” added Cannon.
One of the most difficult times for the Virginia Tech student was when she saw her friends’ time cards still on the wall the next day. “I just lost it,” she said. “They were such good people.”
For the dozen or so Virginia Tech students attending the vigil here Monday night, a spontaneous decision added Virginia Tech University Distinguished Professor Nikki Giovanni’s work to the program.
Walking to the podium as a group, the students each read verses of the poem Giovanni had read at Virginia Tech earlier this week.
The program of scripture, meditation and prayer with area ministers also included comments by Carlyle Wimbish, president of the Halifax County Hokie Club, remarks by Virginia Tech representative Carole Inge and the ringing of the bell.
A Virginia Tech student asked that the program end with the Lord’s Prayer.
Reluctant to talk with the media, Cannon consented yesterday only because “it is Halifax” .
While the student describes herself as “emotionally drained,” she nonetheless repeated her thanks to the community and to all those throughout the nation and world who are e-mailing Virginia Tech students.
“I just can’t believe it,” she said quietly.

Former Classmates: Gunman Was Picked On

By MATT APUZZO
The Associated PRess
BLACKSBURG, Va. — Long before he boiled over, Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui was pushed around and laughed at as a schoolboy in suburban Washington because of his shyness and the strange, mumbly way he talked, former classmates say.
Chris Davids, a Virginia Tech senior who graduated from Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., with Cho in 2003, recalled that the South Korean immigrant almost never opened his mouth and would ignore attempts to strike up a conversation.
Once, in English class, the teacher had the students read aloud, and when it was Cho’s turn, he just looked down in silence, Davids recalled. Finally, after the teacher threatened him with an F for participation, Cho started to read in a strange, deep voice that sounded “like he had something in his mouth,” Davids said.
“As soon as he started reading, the whole class started laughing and pointing and saying, ‘Go back to China,’” Davids said.
Cho shot 32 people to death and committed suicide Monday in the deadliest one-man shooting rampage in modern U.S. history. The high school classmates’ accounts add to the psychological portrait that is beginning to take shape, and could shed light on the video rant Cho mailed to NBC in the middle of his rampage at Virginia Tech.
In the often-incoherent video, the 23-year-old Cho portrays himself as persecuted and rants about rich kids.
“Your Mercedes wasn’t enough, you brats,” says Cho, who came to the U.S. at about age 8 in 1992 and whose parents work at a dry cleaners in suburban Washington. “Your golden necklaces weren’t enough, you snobs. Your trust funds wasn’t enough. Your vodka and cognac wasn’t enough. All your debaucheries weren’t enough. Those weren’t enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything.”
In other developments Thursday:
Gov. Timothy Kaine announced the appointment of an independent panel to look into the tragedy and how authorities handled it. Police and university officials have been accused of missing warning signs in Cho’s behavior and failing to safeguard the campus after the gunfire broke out. The panel will be led by former Virginia State Police superintendent Gerald Massengill and will also include former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.
University officials said that all of Cho’s student victims would be awarded degrees posthumously, and that other students terrorized by the shootings might be allowed to end the semester immediately without consequences.
Among the victims of the massacre were two other Westfield High graduates: Reema Samaha and Erin Peterson. Both young women graduated from the high school last year. Police said it is not clear whether Cho singled them out.
Stephanie Roberts, 22, a member of Cho’s graduating class at Westfield High, said she never witnessed anyone picking on Cho in high school.
“I just remember he was a shy kid who didn’t really want to talk to anybody,” she said. “I guess a lot of people felt like maybe there was a language barrier.”
But she said friends of hers who went to middle school with Cho told her they recalled him getting picked on there.
“There were just some people who were really mean to him and they would push him down and laugh at him,” Roberts said. “He didn’t speak English really well and they would really make fun of him.”
Virginia Tech student Alison Heck said a suitemate of hers on campus — Christina Lilick — found a mysterious question mark scrawled on the dry erase board on her door. Lilick went to the same high school as Cho, according to Lilick’s Facebook page. And Cho once scrawled a question mark on the sign-in sheet on the first day of a literature class, and other students came to know him as “the question mark kid.”
“I don’t know if she knew that it was him for sure,” Heck said. “I do remember that that fall that she was being stalked and she had mentioned the question mark. And there was a question mark on her door.”
Heck added: “She just let us know about it just in case there was a strange person walking around our suite.”
Lilick could not immediately be located for comment, via e-mail or telephone.
Regan Wilder, 21, who attended Virginia Tech, high school and middle school with Cho, said she was in several classes with Cho in high school, including advanced-placement calculus and Spanish. She said he walked around with his head down, and almost never spoke. And when he did, it was “a real low mutter, like a whisper.”
As part of an exam in Spanish class, students had to answer questions in Spanish on tape, and other students were so curious to know what Cho sounded like that they waited eagerly for the teacher to play his recording, she said. She said that on the tape, he did not speak confidently but did seem to know Spanish.
Wilder recalled high school teachers trying to get him to participate, but “he would only shrug his shoulders or he’d give like two-word responses, and I think it just got to the point where teachers just gave up because they realized he wasn’t going to come out of the shell he was in, so they just kind of passed him over for the most part as time went on.”
She said she was sure Cho probably was picked on in middle school, but so was everyone else. And it didn’t seem as if English was the problem for him, she said. If he didn’t speak English well, there were several other Korean students he could have reached out to for friendship, but he didn’t, she said.
Wilder said Cho wasn’t any friendlier in college, where “he always had that same damn blank stare, like glare, on his face. And I’d always try to make eye contact with him because I recognized the kid because I’d seen him for six years, but he’d always just look right past you like you weren’t there.”
Nine people hurt in the attack remained hospitalized, at least one in serious condition.
Authorities on Wednesday disclosed that more than a year before the massacre, Cho had been accused of sending unwanted messages to two women and was taken to a psychiatric hospital on a magistrate’s orders and was pronounced a danger to himself. But he was released with orders to undergo outpatient treatment.
Also, Cho’s twisted, violence-filled writings and menacing, uncommunicative demeanor had disturbed professors and students so much that he was removed from one English class and was repeatedly urged to get counseling.
On Wednesday, NBC received a package containing a rambling and often incoherent 23-page written statement from Cho, 28 video clips and 43 photos — many of them showing Cho, in a military-style vest and backward baseball cap, brandishing handguns. A Postal Service time stamp reads 9:01 a.m. — between the two attacks on campus.
The package helps explain one mystery: where the gunman was and what he did during that two-hour window between the first burst of gunfire, at a high-rise dorm, and the second attack, at a classroom building.
“You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today,” a snarling Cho says on video. “But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off.”
Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police, said Thursday that the material contained little they did not already know. Flaherty said he was disappointed that NBC decided to broadcast parts of it.
“I just hate that a lot of people not used to seeing that type of image had to see it,” he said.
“I saw his picture on TV, and when I did I just got chills,” said Kristy Venning, a junior from Franklin County, Va. “There’s really no words. It shows he put so much thought into this and I think it’s sick.”
With a backlash developing against the media, Fox News said it would stop running the pictures, and other networks said they would severely limit their use.
“It has value as breaking news,” said ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider, “but then becomes practically pornographic as it is just repeated ad nauseam.”
Associated Press writers Allen G. Breed, Vicki Smith, Sue Lindsey and Justin Pope in Blacksburg, Va.; Matt Barakat in Richmond, Va.; Colleen Long, Tom Hays and Jake Coyle in New York; and Lara Jakes Jordan, Sarah Karush and Sharon Theimer in Washington contributed to this report.

 

Obituaries

Gracie Mae Carrington
Gracie Mae Carrington, 87, of Nathalie died April 16, 2007 in Nathalie.
Mrs. Carrington was born in Halifax County to the late Richard Jennings and the late Hattie Scott Jennings and was married to the late Eugene Carrington.
Survivors include four daughters, Iona Jennings and husband, Junior, of Nathalie, Irene Jeffress and husband, Thomas, of Bethel, Ct., Jean Carrington and Isabelle Jennings of Alexandria; one son, Henry Carrington and wife, Pattie, of Nathalie; two sisters, a twin, Lacy Drew of Brookneal and Betty Partridge of Philadelphia, Pa.; two sisters-in-law, Mable Walker and Irene Baldwin, both of Philadelphia; 25 grandchildren; 46 great-grandchildren; four great-great-grandchildren; and a devoted friend, Clarine Taylor of Nathalie.
Funeral services for Mrs. Carrington will be held today, April 20, at 11 a.m. at New Shiloh Baptist Church in Nathalie with the Rev. Sylvester Crawley officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery.
Condolences may be emailed to Jeffressfh@aol.com.
Gordon Watt Jennings

Gordon Watt Jennings, 87, of Leesburg, formerly of Halifax County, died April 12, 2007, at Inova Loudoun Hospital.
Mr. Jennings was born in Halifax County on January 10, 1920, to the late Hiram Jennings and Grace Elizabeth Spaggins Jennings and was married to the late Gladys Elizabeth Bennett Jennings.
Survivors include three daughters, Florence Burgess of Washington, D.C., Mary Elizabeth Jennings of Hyattsville, Md. and Regina Jennings of Leesburg; one son, Hiram Jennings of Upper Marlboro, Md; one sister-in-law, Irene Jennings of Nathalie; one daughter-in-law, Patricia Jennings of Upper Marlboro; and seven grandchildren.
Funeral services for Mr. Jennings will be held tomorrow, April 21, at 12:30 p.m. at New Shiloh Baptist Church with the Rev. Sylvester Crawley officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery.
Viewing will be at the church from 11 a.m. until time of the service tomorrow.
Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider Capital Hospice, P.O. Box 1576, Merrifield, VA 22116-1576, in Mr. Jennings memory.
Brook Davis Eley

Brook Davis Eley, 29, of Pulaski died April 17, 2007, in Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
Mr. Eley was born March 14, 1978, in Pulaski to Randolph D. and Donia S. Eley.
His survivors include his parents of Pulaski; a brother and sister-in-law, Hunter R. and Lael S. Eley of Santa Monica, Calif., his infant nephew, Bowden Hunter Eley of Santa Monica; a special person in his life, Bianca Thomas of Perth, Australia; and his grandmother, Mildred Hunter Eley of Colonial Heights.
Mr. Eley graduated from the College of William and Mary. He was an engineer for large vessels, and had earned his 500 ton U.S. Coast Guard Captain’s License.
Funeral services will be held today April 20, at 11 a.m. at the First United Methodist Church in Pulaski with the Revs. Hugh Kilgore, William K. Neely, and J.N. Howard officiating. Burial will follow in Oakwood Cemetery.
Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider the Jason Foundation and to the Pastors Discretionary Fund at the First United Methodist Church, 301 N. Jefferson Avenue, Pulaski, 24301
Mary Chandler Richardson
Mary Chandler Richardson, 89, of German Creek Road, South Boston died April 17, 2007, at Halifax Regional Hospital.
Mrs. Richardson was born in North Carolina September 29, 1917. She was married to the late James Richardson and was a member of Dan River Bethel Baptist Church.
Survivors include one daughter, Virginia Carr of Halifax; one son, James Richardson of South Boston; one sister, Bessie Coleman of South Boston; 12 grandchildren; 17 great-grandchildren; one great-great-grandson; one son-in-law, Wayne Carr of Halifax; one daughter-in-law, Carolyn Richardson of South Boston; and a devoted friend, Raye Simmons of South Boston. One daughter, Mae Emma Crawley, preceded Mrs. Richardson in death.
Funeral services will be held tomorrow, April 21, at 1 p.m. at Dan River Bethel Baptist Church with the Rev. Dwight Wilkerson officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery.
The family will receive friends at the home of James Richardson, 2000 German Creek Road.

Katherine Hundley Greer
Katherine Hundley Greer, 80, of South Boston died April 18, 2007. She was preceded in death by her parents, Dr. John T.T. Hundley Jr. and Katherine Swann Hundley. Mrs. Greer was born in Lynchburg on July 29, 1926.
Survivors include her husband of over 59 years, James Willard Greer; four children, Katherine Walker Greer, James Willard Greer II, John Hundley Greer and Elizabeth Willson Greer Caldwell and her husband, David Caldwell; one brother, John T.T. Hundley III and her sister-in-law, Patricia Hundley; 10 grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
Mrs. Greer graduated from Longwood College and received a Master’s degree in Reading from the University of Virginia. She taught at C.H. Friend Elementary school for 17 years. She was an active member of First Presbyterian Church.
A memorial service will be held tomorrow, April 21, at 11 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church conducted by the Rev. Elizabeth Greer Caldwell.
Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider the Katherine H. Greer and J. Willard Greer Scholarship Fund at W&L University, Lexington, 24450, or Halifax County Humane Society, P.O. Box 969, South Boston, 24592.

James Henry Simmons

James Henry ‘Jim’ Simmons, 82, of Chase City died April 18.
Mr. Simmons was owner/operator of Jim’s Supply Inc. of Chase City. He was a Navy Veteran of WWII, serving both in the Atlantic and the Pacific; member of Concord Baptist Church, VAPSA, the American Legion Post #43 and VFW #8228.
His survivors include his wife: Elizabeth Chadwick Simmons; one daughter and son-in-law, Sandra and Victor Crump of South Boston; one son and daughter-in-law, Charles and Ruth Simmons of Chase City; two sisters, Mildred S. Colgate of Chase City and Edna S. Wilbourne of Skipwith; one granddaughter, Karen Simmons of Chase City; two great-grandchildren, Michael Johnson Jr. and Starr Simmons.
One granddaughter, Cheryl Rae Simmons Johnson; one sister, Shirley Wood; and one brother, W.L. ‘Bill’ Simmons, preceded Mr. Simmons in death.
The family will receive friends this evening, April 20, from 7:00 until 8:30, at Newcomb Allgood Davis Funeral Home in Chase City.
Funeral services for Mr. Simmons will be conducted by the Rev. David Blakely at 2 p.m. tomorrow, April 21, at Concord Baptist Church. Burial with Military Honors will follow in the church cemetery.
Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider the Educational Fund of Concord Baptist Church, c/o Phyllis and Bill Williams, 266330 Highway 49, Chase City, 23924.

Comets, GW Set For Showdown

By Joe Chandler
Sports Editor
A Halifax County-GW showdown always has a big impact on the chase for the Western Valley District baseball title.
It will be that way again tonight when the two arch-rivals square off at 7 p.m. at Danville’s Dan Daniel Park.
The Comets enter tonight’s contest with an 8-4 record after having scored a come-from-behind 7-5 win over E.C. Glass here Tuesday night in the team’s Western Valley District opener.
GW comes into tonight’s game with a 10-1 record after having scored an 11-4 road win Tuesday night over Patrick Henry in Roanoke in its Western Valley District opener.
“When Halifax County and GW get together it’s a showdown,” said Comets coach Kelvin Davis.
“I don’t care where we play, it’s going to a heck of a ballgame.”
Davis said that while tonight’s game is only the second district game for both teams, it is an important game in terms of the race for the regular-season Western Valley District title.
The regular-season championship takes on added importance this season in that the regular-season champion will get the district’s top seed for the Northwest Region Tournament while the tournament winner gets the district’s second seed.
“Each game is important,” Davis said.
“This district is going to be tight. I think it’s going to be the closest district race that we’ve had since I’ve been here.”
The Comets’ coach said he feels defense will be the key tonight.
“Defense is going to be key for both teams,” Davis pointed out.
“We have to make plays. I don’t think there is a pitcher in our district that is really overpowering, so defense will be a key for both us and GW.”
The Comets will enter tonight’s game with a boost of confidence in the wake of Tuesday night’s win over E.C. Glass. Despite committing five defensive errors in the first three innings of the game and falling three runs down to the Hilltoppers at one point, the Comets rallied to pull out the win.
“We didn’t play well in the last two games of last week’s Heritage Invitational,” Davis said.
“We needed to take a win into GW and we got it. The confidence level now is extremely high going into GW. I just hope we can play defense behind our pitcher and that our offense steps in like we have been hitting the baseball.”
While the Comets got off to a shaky start against E.C. Glass, they finished strong.
Halifax County generated a good measure of offense with 12 hits in the game, five of which came in the team’s last two trips to the plate.
Justin Bagbey led the Comets with a big 3-4 night at the plate that included a two-out solo homer in the bottom of the first inning and two RBIs. Billy Joe Garrett, Justin Jacobs and Kaleb Long chipped in a pair of hits and Tony Barbour, Allen Stephens and hurler Kyle Long had a hit each.
“Offensively I thought we did a heck of a job in facing (Nathan) Gillespie,” Davis said.
“He (Gillespie) did a wonderful job as far as keeping the ball outside. We hit the ball well tonight.”
Three Comets errors in the top of the second inning opened the door for the Hilltoppers to score twice and break the 1-1 deadlock to take a 3-1 lead. Two more Comets errors in the top of the third inning gave Glass another run and a 4-1 lead.
The Comets got one run back in the bottom of the inning when Stephens reached base on a fielder’s choice and scored on a hit by Jacobs to make the score 4-2 after three innings.
A leadoff double to start the top of the fourth inning and a one-out single produced another run for Glass to give the Hilltoppers a 5-2 lead.
The Comets held Glass in check after that and produced eight hits in their final three trips to the plate to rally for the win.
Patrick Currie scored the first of two runs for the Comets in the bottom of the fourth inning on a passed ball. A two-out double by Barbour in the bottom of the fourth inning followed by a run-scoring double by Garrett allowed the Comets to cut the Glass lead to one run at 5-4.
Halifax County plated three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to go over the top.
Garrett opened things up with a one-out double and Bagbey backed it up with a double of his own to tie the game at 5-5.
Glass intentionally walked Stephens to put runners on first base and second base, prompting Davis to put Eric Brandon in as a pinch runner for Bagbey. Jacobs followed with a single that scored Brandon to put the Comets up 6-5, putting Stephens and second base.
Both runners advanced a base on a passed ball and a walk to Kaleb Long loaded the bases.
Stephens scored when Kyle Long hit into a fielder’s choice and the Hilltoppers went for the easy force-out at second base for the second out of the inning.
The inning ended with Joey Rogers grounding out to second base but the Comets had gotten what they needed with the three runs that gave them the win.

Lady Comets Rout Glass

By Doug Ford
G-V Staff Writer
Lashunda Davis hit a grand slam home run and Paige Rickman tossed a no-hitter, as the Comets varsity softball team won its Western Valley District opener here Tuesday over E.C. Glass 16-0.
The game was called under the mercy rule after four and a half innings of play.
Davis finished with a single, home run and four RBI’s, and Heather Hudson a single and two-run double to lead a nine-hit attack for Halifax.
Ally Thompson had an RBI triple, Betty Rose an RBI double, and Rickman and Emily New RBI base hits, while Stephanie Clark added a single for the Comets, who benefited from 16 Glass errors in the win.
Six Glass miscues came in the first inning, when Halifax jumped to a 4-0 advantage.
Rose’s RBI single was the only hit of the inning, which saw Clark, Thompson, Davis, Rickman and New reach base on errors to help score the runs.
Halifax scored five more runs on three hits and four Glass miscues in the second frame to make it 9-0.
Clark reached base on an error before Thompson plated her with a triple. Rose, Davis and New reached base on Glass miscues, Hudson hit a two-run double, Shayna Oakes walked and Clark singled in the inning.
Davis singled and later scored on Rickman’s single to make it 10-0 after three innings, and the Comets added six runs on three hits an inning later to help end the game.
Hudson singled and Liz Trickey and Rose reached on errors to load the bases, before Davis hit a fence-clearing grand slam for a 14-0 lead.
New had her RBI single and two more errors helped produce the final runs of the game.
Rickman went the distance on the mound for the Comets, finishing with 10 strikeouts and no walks. Only two Glass batters reached base during the game.
The Comets varsity softball team travels to Danville today for a meeting with archrival GW, the game scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.

HCHS Track Teams Down GW

By Joe Chandler
Sports Editor
Halifax County High School’s girls and boys track teams had a big day Wednesday, picking up wins over GW in a dual meet.
The Comets girls team had the easier time of it, downing GW 71.5 to 45.5. The boys meet was a nail-biter throughout with the Comets pulling out a narrow 65-63 win.
In the girls meet, the Comets picked up only four wins in the 12 individual events but came through big in winning all three of the relay races.
Amey Totherow won both the 1,600-meter race and the 800-meter race, turning in a time of six minutes and 50 seconds in the 1,600-meter event and posting a mark of 2:53 in the 800-meter race.
Stacey Hamlett won the 100-meter race with a time of 12.8 seconds. She also placed third in the 200-meter race with a time of 26.9 seconds.
Brittany Foster won the long jump with a leap of 17 feet. She also placed third in the triple jump with a mark of 32-4 and placed third in the high jump with a leap of five feet.
The Comets won the 4x100-meter relay event with the tandem of Janis Dunn, Felicia Bowman, Foster and Hamlett turning in a time of 50.61 seconds.
Halifax County also won the 4x400-meter relay with the team of Tanisha Evans, Shauna Harris, Bowman and Foster turning in a time of 4:37.7. In addition, the Comets’ 4x800-meter relay team consisting of Delisha Singleton, Erica Muse, Aurora Wright and Totherow won that event with a time of 12:54.4.
The Comets girls used consistency in picking up points, taking two of the top three spots in the long jump, triple jump, discus, shot put, the 100-meter hurdles and the 200-meter race. Also, the Comets took three of the top four spots in the 100-meter race.
One of the team members that played a role in that consistency was Marteia Ferrell. Ferrell placed second in the long jump with a mark of 15-11, placed second on the triple jump with a leap of 34-2 and placed second in then 100-meter race with a time of 13.2 seconds.
Boys Meet
The Comets boys track team pulled out a close decision in the boys meet, edging GW by a slim two-point margin.
Halifax County won eight individual events with Erik Mosley, Clyde Scott and Urik Coleman picking up two wins each to lead the Comets’ effort.
Mosley kept his unbeaten streak in the 400-meter race alive with his win in that event. His time of 53.7 seconds was almost six seconds better than the second-place finisher from GW.
In addition, Mosley won the 800-meter race in his first time at running the event this season, His winning time of 2:33 was four seconds better than the runner-up finisher from GW.
Scott dominated the two hurdles events, winning the 100-meter hurdles in a time of 15.7 seconds, a mark that was three and a half seconds better than the time posted by the runner-up from GW. He also won the 300-meter hurdles, turning in a time of 43.5 seconds.
Coleman won the 1,600-meter race with a time of 5:39.6 and took the top spot in the 3,200-meter race with a time of 14:57.7.
Corey Jackson won the shot put with a throw of 42-10 and Travis Stevens won the 100-meter race with a time of 11.1 seconds.
Stevens, in addition to his win, placed second in the long jump with a mark of 20-1.25, placed second in the high jump with a leap of 5-8 and placed second in the 200-meter race with a time of 23 seconds.
The Comets won two of the meet’s three relay events, taking the win in the 4x100-meter race and the 4x400-meter race.
Halifax County’s team won the 4x100-meter race in a time of 46.2 seconds and took the top spot in the 4x400-meter race with a time of 3:57.5.
Next up for the Comets track teams is the Appomattox High School Invitational meet which is scheduled for Saturday.