The Mountain View pair of senior Thomas Porter and junior transfer Kaitlyn Davis (previously from Jacksonville, NC) swept the individual titles for their team at the 20th annual Chancellor Invitational held on Saturday, August 30th at Loriella Park in Fredericksburg, VA.
Porter dominated the varsity boys race from the gun as the Group AAA state title contender for this fall won the title for the second time in three years at Loriella after finishing first in the 2006 Chancellor Invite. His winning time of 16:40 was nearly identical to his sophomore year victory of 16:39 two years ago. Davis, a North Carolina All-State performer at 1600 and 3200 meters this past spring, made a strong first impression in her first race in Virginia and for her new team at Mountain View as she dipped just under 20 minutes in a 19:59 victory after holding onto the lead for good after a move to front around the mile mark.
Porter led a quickly rebuilt Mountain View squad to a surprising and convincing win over Commonwealth District rival Colonial Forge as last year's state podium team lost many key members for its top three finishing state meet lineup. The Wildcats had five runners including race winner Porter among the top 25 individuals to compile a team score of 74 points with Bradley Shultis (8th, 17:47), Logan O'Baker (20th, 18:07), Jared Elly (22nd, 18:11), and Grant Shoope (23rd, 18:12). None of the top five runners besides Porter were running on the varsity team last fall, but effects of dedication to their summer training was shown at Loriella Park on Saturday.
Porter's older brother, Michael Porter, is now coaching at Colonial Forge High School and his girls team showed great discipline running as a pack for the first two miles of the race before letting loose in the final mile. Their top finisher Colleen Wade could have likely ran with the top girls in the field if she was not helping bring along her teammates through two miles together, but still managed to move up to 10th place in 21:56. Only 34 seconds separated Wade from the Colonial Forge's fifth finisher in Rachel Poock (24th, 22:30) as the team's entire top five, similar to the Mountain View boys, all finished among the top 25 individuals to secure a first place trophy in their first race of the season. The Colonial Forge girls well out in front with 69 points, while Mountain View placed second with 130 points despite running without two of their top three runners in Lauren Braney and Liz Reinwald.
The next individual finishers after Kaitlyn Davis were Millbrook senior Sullivan Parkes (2nd, 20:13) and Potomac Senior sophomore Debra Baner (3rd, 20:27). This is the second year in a row that a Parkes sister from Millbrook has finished at the Chancellor as younger sister Presley Parkes had the runner-up honor in 2007. Darin Longerbeam of James Wood had a solid individual run to garner fourth place behind Porter and two runners from Dematha Catholic of Maryland in a time of 17:23. Griff Ashooh led Colonial Forge to their second place finish to Mountain View as the fifth place finisher overall in 17:30.
While the rain from the remnants of Hurricane Faye had passed by the previous day, the humidity left from the tropical system did not as the weather certainly did takes its toll on many of the runners and affected times on an already challenging 5K layout (especially in the later developmental races). Nonetheless, another exciting opener put on by long-time Chancellor coach Dennis Bane in the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the longest running meet in the Fredericksburg area. Coach Bane has been a part of 16 of those 20 meets.
Chancellor Invitational Results: Varsity Boys - Varsity Girls - Developmental Boys - Developmental Girls
Chancellor Invitational Photo Gallery - 1,259 total photos by Brandon Miles. A few more to be added from awards ceremony.
Chancellor Invitational Race Videos: Varsity Boys - Varsity Girls - Developmental Boys - Developmental Girls
Chancellor Invitational Video Interviews: Coach Bane (Meet Director) - Kaitlyn Davis (Girls Race Winner) - Thomas Porter (Boys Race Winner)