MileStates is Here! Complete State Meet Program Preview


2016 VHSL State Cross Country Championships Preview


There is truly no bigger race than a state championship race. It is a race an athlete works their entire career for and it has the perfect combination of happiness, excitement, sadness, and hardship.

States is what everyone works for.

This year is no different and will feature twelve competitive races over the 5K course at Great Meadow event park. It will mark the 22nd time this event has been run on this historic course that opened in the early 1990's. Each field will be comprised of a maximum of 104 athletes with 52 hailing from each classification's region. Those individuals will be from twelve full teams and the 20 individual spots that allowed athletes to advance from the regionals. After this weekend's action is done, Great Meadow will have hosted 156 state championship races.

Headlining the weekend's action will be athletes who are not only the best in their classification or Virginia but the entire nation as well. The biggest of these athletes is Lake Braddock Secondary's Kate Murphy.


The Oregon-bound senior who ran in the U.S. Olympic Trials this summer will be attempting to defend both Lake Braddock's team title hopes and her own 6A State title. She finished second as a sophomore and won as a junior. This year she enters as the favorite but will face very tough competition from Rachel Northcutt and another defending champion, Rachel McArthur who was sidelined last year.

Northcutt, who is a sophomore at Cosby, capitalized last year on that absence and finished as the runner-up and currently ranks fourth in the state with her 17:35 performance. She is the 6A South Region Champion as well.

McArthur on the other hand enters as the runner-up from the 6A Northern Region and has proven that she is the only high school girl in the entire nation who has been able to beat Murphy in the past 10 months. Both girls will go down as some of the most talented athletes to ever run in Virginia regardless of how this weekend ends.


The other two huge stars on the girls' side are George C. Marshall's Heather Holt who currently leads the state this season and state meet record holder Libby Davidson of E.C. Glass. Both girls have ran extremely fast and will be strong favorites for the 5A and 4A races respectively.

On the boys' side of competition there is an unbelievably deep group of talented runners at the top of the state rankings. This high level of competition will make for fast races across the board and very competitive races as well.


One athlete who has proven to currently be on another level is Douglas Freeman senior and defending 5A State Champion Waleed Suliman. He enters the meet having run 14:49 already this season to rank #7 all-time in the state. This time also ranks over 12 seconds ahead of any other performance this year in Virginia.

With good weather on the forecast, he will have a serious shot at taking down Andrew Hunter's course and meet record of 14:40 this Saturday. He will look to go after that record from the start and will need to split 4:33 for the opening mile, come through the two mile in 9:13 and bring it home in 5:26 the final 1800m.

Though it is not as likely, both Kate Murphy and Libby Davidson also have strong chances at breaking course and meet records. Libby currently holds that record at 17:14.

On the team front Blacksburg's girls team enters the weekend as the stars of the show. They have competed in numerous meets against some of the best teams in the entire nation and continuously proven they are the team to beat. Their closest competitors for the spotlight are also the Bruins but hail from Lake Braddock Secondary.

On the boys' side of things Loudoun Valley, the defending 4A state team champions, enter the weekend with a flawless resume as well. They have shown no weakness and made quick work of the 4A West Region. They will no doubt have to perform to take home the title this weekend but they are with out a doubt the strongest boys team in the entire state of Virginia.

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