3A State Meet Preview
In the final two races of the 2017 State Cross Country Championships a new era will begin. Due to the realignment of this past year, the four time defending champions Blacksburg have moved on to the 4A classification. That move just years after Loudoun Valley moved has made this championship one of the closest and most exciting battles of them all. These schools represent the widest regions of the state and bring strong squads from all four regions.
Entering the weekend with hopes of bringing home a state title are the Hidden Valley girls and Western Albemarle boys who are the pre-race favorites. Individually the favorites are defending champion Karl Thiessen (Abingdon) and Zoe Clay (Western Albemarle) who have run 15:09 and 18:19 this season.
Up first will be the girls' championship race. Though Hidden Valley enters as the favorite they will have tough competition. Hidden Valley does though have a winning record at the state meet but it has been a few years since their 2009 & 2010 team titles. Those titles are special because they are the only team that was able to defeat the Blacksburg dynasty since 2006.
This year with a very strong team Hidden Valley will look for their third team title in program history. Their biggest challengers are Western Albemarle and Broadway.
Individually things could be just as exciting with Zoe Clay leading and being chased closely by last year's runner-up Parker Albright (Cave Spring). Parker, though a strong runner, is actually a world-class triathlete as well. She doesn't produce fast times during the XC season due to her summer racing but when states come around she is right there. For that reason this race is going to be a close one.
Both of these girls are joined by Mackenzie Gardner (Tabb), Lindsey White (Broadway), Emily Smeds (Fluvanna), Jessica Central (Broadway), Lydia Goetz (Brentsville), and Emma Rogers (Hidden Valley) who all have run 19:00 or faster this season.
In the guys' race things will be very fast if the weather permits, especially with Abindgon's Karl Thiessen out on the course. He boasts a very quick 15:09 to enter the meet as a 30+ second favorite over Peter Smith (Cave Spring). Both are then joined by Joe Hawks (Western Albemarle), Jacob Robeck (Waynesboro), and Noah Wheeling (Abingdon) who have all also broken 16:00 this year.
Karl will be focused on time and team place this weekend so expect him to push close to that sub 15 minute mark.
In the team competition things could be the closest and most exciting we have ever seen. Western Albemarle leads entering the meet in our virtual scoring with 70 points to Christiansburg's 71. Behind them and with the strongest front three is Abingdon at 100. Cave Spring comes in with 109 points in fourth in that scoring as well.
What this means is this race will not only be decided by the first place runners but mainly by the 4th and 5th runners. Keep your eyes on how this race develops because with a field of just 104 athletes it most likely will be run fairly close in packs. The top runners will do their thing but the athletes from 16:20 to 17:20 could be very close in this style of race. That should make for an exciting race where the team places at each mile are different then the final results.
The 3A championship races will be the last on the Great Meadow course at 1:00pm and 1:45pm Saturday.