CHESAPEAKE, VA -- The Eastern Region\'s best teams are found this fall in the Southeastern District with the Hickory boys, Western Branch girls, and Great Bridge girls all looking to make names for themselves at the VHSL State Cross Country Meet in November at Great Meadows. The Southeastern District Meet will once again be held at Bells Mill in Chesapeake on Wednesday, October 25th. This will also be the first year that the Eastern Region Meet will be hosted at Bells Mill.
Hickory boys returns everyone from a dominant 2005 district champ team
Hickory boys will be the overwhelming favorites for the district team title as they won the 2005 district champions with a low team score of 25 points. Hickory had five finishers in the top ten last year and return their entire team from last year. The Hawks are led by defending district champion Andrew Earehart, who won the 2005 race in a time of 16:47. His teammates quickly followed him to the line with Johnny Hume (16:51) and Andrew Zohorsky (16:56) as Hickory swept the top three places.
Hickory showcased their might over the Eastern Region this fall at the Chesapeake Invitational held at Bells Mill on September 30th as they many of their runners running all-time bests on the course as well as picking up a decisive team victory over the best teams not only in the Southeastern District, but Beach District as well in an almost Eastern Region preview meet. Earehart was fourth in the race with a personal best of 16:28 to lead the team again. Zohorsky was sixth in a 16:33 best, junior Thomas Galle was seventh in 16:36, and Hume was 12th in 16:54 to give Hickory four runners under 17 minutes on the 5K course. Hickory senior Kody Oakes rounded out the team\'s scoring five in 18th palce at 17:15.10.
The closest team from the Southeastern District at the Chesapeake Invite was Great Bridge in fifth place and 73 points behind Hickory. Great Bridge\'s top four is comprised of two seniors and two freshmen. At Chesapeake, seniors Christopher Kust (10th, 16:45) and Brandon Jones (13th, 16:57) led the Wildcats, while Great Bridge showed they have two of the top freshmen runners in the region with Mark Humphrey (20th, 17:20) and Kyle Jacobs (30th, 17:38).
Western Branch finished second to Hickory in last year\'s district meet and will have a tough time trying to repeat the finish with Great Bridge looking strong from 2005. However, Western Branch does have six of the team\'s seven finishers from last year\'s district meet back including three All-District performers in Pat Derdall, John Cristy, and Chris Werner.
Oscar Smith\'s Mills is a late darkhorse
While Oscar Smith senior Geophrey Mills finished well behind the district\'s top finishers at the Chesapeake Invite, he looks to be one of the top individual contenders after posting a 16:30 personal best time in a runner-up performance at the Lee-Davis Invitational on October 14th. The Hickory had competed on the same course at Pole Green Park on September 16th with Earehart and Zohorsky posting the teams top times at 16:55 and 16:56.
Defending district girls\' champions Great Bridge will not have an easy going to win the title again as last year when they tallied 24 points with five runners in the top ten places. The Western Branch girls have already made that apparent this fall with two victories over the defending champions in invitational competition.
Western Branch has represented Eastern Region well this fall
Western Branch surprised many at William & Mary Invitational when they finished only six points away from winning the meet and defeating Colonial Forge, a team currently #6 ranked in Virginia. The Lady Bruins are led by junior Callen Powers and sophomore Kayleigh Lewellyn. Powers in the second fastest returnee from last year\'s district championships as she finished third in 2005 with a time of 19:32. Powers bettered her best time at Bells Mill as she posted a 19:10 to finish third at the Chesapeake Invite. Powers is only one of two upperclassmen among Coach Ryan Carroll\'s top seven girls and their second upperclassmen happens to be another junior in Bonnie Roane, who ran seventh for the team at the Chesapeake Invite.
In between Powers and Roane is nothing but freshmen and sophomores. The margin of victory was considerably closer between Western Branch (44 pts) and Great Bridge (53 pts) at Chesapeake from William & Mary as only nine points separated the two teams at Bells Mill on September 30th. Western Branch had five finishers under 21 minutes and all in the top 15 places with Powers, Lewellyn (5th, 19:44), sophomore Casey Gresham (8th, 20:02), freshmen Nicole Augins (13th, 20:28), and sophomore Katherine Delarosa (15th, 20:56).
Tobin hopes to better course record time
Meanwhile, Great Bridge definitely has the superior front runner over Western Branch with defending 1600 meter champion Kristy Tobin as she returns to defend her district title. Tobin scorched the district field last year to win in a swift course record time of 18:23. Tobin has slowly crept down to that time this season at Bells Mill as she approaches district. The Great Bridge senior won the Chesapeake Invite in 18:44 and then posted an 18:35 in an October 11th dual meet against Western Branch, when Great Bridge scored a big momentum swing five point win over their district rivals.
Powers ran a Bells Mill best of 18:58 to finish second in the race, but the big difference maker for Great Bridge to turn the tables was junior Jayna McGehee stepping it up for a personal best run of 19:14. Great Bridge\'s success could largely be attributed to their strong front two with Tobin and Katherine Telfeyan. Unfortunately, Telfeyan graduated and has moved on to run at Washington & Lee University this fall, so a void was left. However, it seems McGehee may be moving into that role that Telfeyan served last year behind Tobin to make Great Bridge once again a tough team to beat in the district and region.
Great Bridge also has some talented youngseters on their squad to match up with Western Branch\'s underclassmen as sophomore Bettina Callison and freshmen Anna Hawkins as well as junior Amanda Holmes were able to come in between Western Branch\'s third and fourth runners in the dual meet with best times of 20:09, 20:32, and 20:39 respectively at Bells Mill in the race.
While it is still uncertain who really is the favorite with Western Branch having the two invite wins and Great Bridge taking the recent dual meet between the teams, neither team is going to come out as the winner easy for sure.