SALEM, VA -- Region III has started to step up as a very competitive region in Group AA and part of the reason is the talent and coaching that is found in the River Ridge District within the region. The district features the current top ranked AA girls\' team in Blacksburg and a handful of top ranked individuals and teams among both the boys and girls. The River Ridge District Championships will be hosted on Thursday, October 26th at the home of the Region III Meet at Green Hill Park in Salem.
Blacksburg girls expected to dominate again
The Blacksburg girls are expected to come up with another decisive win at the River Ridge District Meet and possibly match or exceed their 2005 meet performance as they had seven of the top ten finishers. Blacksburg may not have the depth to put seven in the top ten again this year as there are some solid individuals from the other four teams in the district to break them up.
Blacksburg sophomore Allison Homer leads Coach James Demarco\'s girls as she will be battling with top returnee from last year\'s district meet in Sabrina Hall of Pulaski County for the individual district title. Homer has been competing at a high level all season and has a 18:39 5K best performance to her credit this season on the Green Hill Park course from the Metro Invitational.
Meanwhile, Hall has been competing with her Pulaski County girls in meets mainly out of the state as they have competed in three invitationals in Tennessee and one in North Carolina. Hall ran a 5K personal best of 19:06 at Hagan Stone Park in Greensboro, North Carolina. She finished third overall in the race and 41 seconds behind one Group A\'s best in Brittany Killough. Hall finished second in last year\'s district meet with a time of 19:13 behind race champion Ariel Burbey, who now runs at William & Mary.
Homer\'s teammates in Laurel MacMillan and Cate Berenato are talented enough to give Blacksburg the top three finishers in the meet. MacMillan finished second to Homer at the VMI Invitational, but had her best of the season at Maymont Festival in which she was only four seconds behind her teammate in a time of 19:14 on a challenging 5K layout.
Berenato has a 19:36 best on the Green Hill Park course from the Metro Invitational a few weeks ago. Blacksburg\'s top three has been well documented at being very strong, but questions have surrounded their depth after their being very suspect and especially going into the state championship with team such as defending champs Brentsville, who definitely have some depth beyond five of runners who have produced in the past.
Blacksburg senior Hannah Barrow has certainly strengthened their standings as the team\'s fourth runner as her time of 20:24 at the VMI Invitational was very noteworthy considering the difficulty of the Virginia Horse Center course. However, the fifth runner question still lingers as junior Avery Mattingly came up big at Maymont with a 20:46 5K best, but other than Maymont there really has not been one performance from a runner to give any great confidence of how the team will fair when they come to the state meet against Brentsville. A great personal best course such as Green Hill Park could definitely bolster some confidence with at least five runners under 21 minutes if not more for Blacksburg.
Cave Spring finished second to Blacksburg last year and 40 points behind them with 60 points, but finishing second again this year will be a great feat considering the improvements made by last year\'s third place team in Pulaski County. The Pulaski County girls are currently ranked #3 in AA as earlier season wins over traditional Region III power Jefferson Forest had elevated them in the state rankings.
Pulaski girls vastly improved team in 2006
After winning the Blue Demon Invitational at Christiansburg High School by a narrow one point margin over Jefferson Forest and 27 points ahead of Cave Spring, Pulaski County has yet to face any district or regional competition in weekend meets. However, Coach Jamie McCarty\'s girls have faired well at all the meets they have went to since then. Pulaski County won the Tusculum Invite in Tennessee with three of the top finishers in the race with Hall, Cierra Millen, and Mindy Hall. At the Bristol Cross on September 30th, Pulaski County took second to the top ranked team in Tennesse and current Nike Team Nationals Southeast #8 ranked Morristown West. Pulaski County will be competing against their second Nike Team Nationals Southeast ranked team this Thursday with Blacksburg currently ranked #10 in the region.
Cave Spring girls, ranked #8 in AA currently, finished third recently at the VMI Invitational and 70 points off of Blacksburg, who won with a resounding 21 point total. Top runner for the Lady Black Knights is senior Rachel Travitz, who posted a 5K personal best of 19:49 at Green Hill Park at the Metro Invitational earlier this month.
Talented juniors Dorrell & Smith to face off once again
The boys\' race will feature two of the better cross country runners in AA this fall in Blacksburg junior Peter Dorrell and Cave Spring junior Tim Smith. They have had several battles this season that will continue to be revisited the next three weekends and as well as next year with both being juniors. Dorrell is currently ranked #4 in AA, while Smith finds himself at #10. Dorrell has had Smith\'s number in every race this season with the exception of the Metro Invitational in which Smith ran a 16:08 5K best at Green Hill Park. Dorrell has the faster time at Green Hill from his 16:03 at the Knights Crossing Invite in September and also has the more recent victory at the VMI Invitational in 16:19.
Dorrell will also be looking to lead his team to the district team title as they are currently ranked #10 in AA and have the momentum coming in after finishing third at the VMI Invitational and well ahead of district rivals Christiansburg and Cave Spring.
Christiansburg looked strong at the Runnin\' With The Wolves Invitational this past Saturday as they took a one point victory over Jefferson Forest, who happens to be ranked one place higher than Blacksburg at #9 in AA. Christiansburg is led by Caleb Hughes, who will be one of the top individuals in the race as he took a heartbreaking one second loss to Jefferson Forest\'s Matt Kadak this past weekend. However, he still ran a solid time on a tough Wolf Branch Farm 5K course in 16:57 and looks ready to run a big personal best this Thursday.