The 26th annual Albemarle Invitational could be one of the best yet as many of the state's individual stars will be racing at Panorama Farms this Saturday. The meet features more than its share of runners considered as the top class of runners within the state of Virginia. Anthony Kostelac, Ted Richardson, Drew Paisley, and Josh Morris for the boys as a preview for looming Group AAA state title battle between Kostelac and Richardson. Ariel Karabinus, Katherine Walker, Hannah Lowery, Courtney Dobbs, Clarissa Schick, Madalyn Nuckols, and Paige Kvartunas for the girls in a nice mix of Northwest and Central Region runners.
Brentsville Relays and Oatlands Invitational champions Osbourn Park girls look to score another victory on the home course for the Northwest Region Championships against a field with several formidable challengers in West Springfield, Maggie Walker, Western Albemarle, and Deep Run. The outlook for the boys teams at Albemarle Invite lacks the firepower of the state's top ranked like the five Virginia top 10 ranked girls squads, but will be very competitive with a half dozen squads in the hunt for the team title.
Boys Individual Preview
Back in early July at the High Performance Distance Academy in Blacksburg, campers Anthony Kostelac of Albemarle and Ted Richardson of James River (both pictured right by Ted Plunkett) were on opposite ends of the spectrum. Richardson was crushing the runs and looking fitter than ever as the "King of the Mountain", while Kostelac was not allowed to do any running at the time while healing his stress fracture of the femur suffered at the end of the outdoor season. Different paths were taken by each runner in arriving to this weekend in their first matchup of the year, but expect a competitive and close race between two of the state's best runners.
Richardson opened his cross country season two weeks ago at Maymont with a solid 15:46 performance to place 6th in the loaded invitational division field. Kostelac ran on the same Maymont Park 5K course that weekend albeit under the radar in the Friday open race with a time of 16:56. A week later at Great American, Kostelac chopped 56 seconds off that time to move up throughout his race for a 16:00 performance to place 23rd overall in the Race of Champions. It is clear Kostelac will only be getting stronger each week with another week of training and racing under his belt.
Both have taken conservative racing approaches to their season, so whatever happens on Saturday in the Albemarle Invitational is only a preview of two runners who will be racing at their best come November at Great Meadow. Richardson is the state's top returnee from Foot Locker South last fall, while Kostelac is known nationally for his great anchor legs for Albemarle's national record breaking 4x800 meter relays last year.
Not to be forgotten in the race are several other high quality runners including Drew Paisley of Ocean Lakes, Josh Morris of Fork Union, Thomas Curtin of Loudoun County, and Kyle King of Grafton.
Paisley has the state's third fastest time of the season at 5000 meters with a 15:36 run in early September at the Newport News Invite. Paisley is considered a threat to win the Eastern Region title this fall.
Morris is coming off a course record breaking race at VMI last Saturday in which he became the first runner to ever break 16 minutes in meet history with a 15:53 victory against one of Group AA's top ranked runners in Andy Eddleton of Christiansburg.
Speaking of top ranked Group AA runners, Loudoun Couty's Curtin and Grafton's King are considered in that class of runners and two juniors will be underdogs this fall to win a state crown, but may be positioning themselves for serious state title runs in 2010. Curtin placed third last week at Great American with a new personal best time of 16:02 and has finished no worse than 9th (Oatlands Invitational) in several competitive major invitationals this season.
Curtin has been a surprise this season, while King was expected to be one of Group AA's best after earning All-State honors in cross country and 3200 meters outdoor as a sophomore last year. King put together a strong race at Maymont to place 8th with a time of 16:10.
Also in the race is Jordan White of Great Bridge, the top returnee from the 2008 Albemarle Invitational with his fifth place finish of 16:12. Kostelac is the next returnee from last year's race (12th place, 16:29).
Boys Team Preview
A majority of Northwest Region schools will be at the Albemarle Invitational as a preview for the regional championships course at Panorama. With the exception of the region's top ranked Mountain View boys, all of the other teams figuring to contend for the region's four state meet berths will be present and ready to clash with one another including Battlefield, Riverbend, Colonial Forge, Stafford, and Albemarle.
Battlefield asserted itself as the next best team in the region two weeks ago at Oatlands after Riverbend had title in early season contests against Mountain View. Albemarle, last year's state runners-up, have received a boost in the return of their ace Kostelac, but still need their younger runners to step up even more to strengthen their chances at a team return to state competition. Colonial Forge, the 2008 Albemarle Invitational champions, have competed in several meets away from their local and regional competition fairing well at the Knights Cross Invitational in Salem and Bull Run Invitational in Maryland. Stafford has been a surprise this season and finishing within striking distance of the other top teams within the Northwest Region.
Last week at the Octoberfest Invitational, Battlefield was the top finishing team among all teams who will be competing at Albemarle with a fifth place. Only two points behind them at Octoberfest and racing against Battlefield again this Saturday was the Herndon boys, who are running strong as a team this fall and emerging as a potential team to qualify out of the Northern Region despite not having a true front runner on their team.
Grafton and Western Albemarle are also two teams who had little point separation in their last meeting with one another at Maymont. Grafton and Western Albemarle are considered to be two squads with serious chances of making it onto the state meet podium in Group AA. Both were missing a key runner among their top two runners at Maymont, yet still ran well overall as a team each. Along with Herndon, these teams could steal the team title at Panorama Farms away from the Northwest Region schools.
Girls Individual Preview
If you want to finish among the top 10 in the varsity girls race on Saturday, you better to be ready to roll out a sub 19 minute performance on the hills of Panorama Farms in race featuring many girls who have already ran under the time or close to it on hilly courses. Leading the field is Oatlands Invitational champion Ariel Karabinus, who has been on a roll this season and emerging as a Group AAA state title contender. She'll have to run at the level of a state champion on Saturday to win against a stacked field.
In the race with Karabinus will be several of her Northwest Region challengers later in the season at Panorama Farms in Brooke Point's Katherine Walker and Stafford's Hannah Lowery. Both raced last weekend at Octoberfest while Karabinus was off and dropped their season best times considerably with Walker as the runner-up at 18:11 and Lowery in third place at 18:26.
Karabinus raced against Walker and Lowery and was able to beat both decisively at the Oatlands Invitational. On the same weekend, Deep Run's Courtney Dobbs and Madalyn Nuckols, West Springfield's Paige Kvartunas, and Maggie Walker's Clarissa Schick were racing at Maymont and all finished in close proximity to one another. Kvartunas and Schick have raced often this season with Schick winning two invitationals earlier at the Newport News and William & Mary invites, while Kvartunas has been a runner-up twice in major invites this fall at Monroe Parker and Salesianum.
The Deep Run duo on the other hand ran their first 5K race of the season at Maymont and showed little effects of race rust with top 10 finishes in the invitational division. Courtney Dobbs was the next in-state finisher in the race behind the Stevens twins of Blacksburg with her sixth place 18:42 PR performance.
Other top individuals in the meet include Erica Dobbs of Deep Run, Alex Watt of West Springfield, Ashley Wybersky of Osbourn Park, Julie Strange of Loudoun County, and Anna Spiers of Maggie Walker. Dobbs joined her sister and teammate Nuckols under 19 minutes for 5K in a recent Wednesday meet, while Wybersky and Watt are two of the state's better #2 runners on any time.
Girls Team Preview
The Osbourn Park girls have been one of the top team surprises so far this season as it was expected for coach Mike Schuster's squad to be the team to beat among the Northwest Region schools returning virtually all of their 2008 regional champion team. However, the Lady Jackets have shown they will be a force to be reckoned with at the state meet after defeating four-time AAA state champions Midlothian at the Brentsville Relays and following up with a big win at the Oatlands Invitational. The Osbourn Park girls have aspirations of being one of the three teams on the state meet podiuma at Great Meadow. Also competing at Albemarle Invitational with the same state meet goals are West Springfield, Maggie Walker, and Deep Run.
The West Springfield girls were the Northern Region's third best team early in the season at the Monroe Parker Invitational, but have looked stronger each week since then including a runner-up finish last week at the Salesianum Invite with the meet's fastest team average and a third place finish two weeks ago at Maymont.
Maggie Walker is looking to the Albemarle Invitationl as a redemption meet against two schools who have recently defeated them in West Springfield at Maymont and Deep Run in a Wednesday meet this week. The Maggie Walker girls started the season off well with invitational wins at Newport News and William & Mary. Last year's AAA state runner-ups will need at least a second place finish at the Albemarle Invitational to feel confident about another top 3 state meet finish this fall. At the 2008 Albemarle Invite, Maggie Walker finished second as a team and one point ahead of a third place Osbourn Park squad.
The Deep Run girls have one of the state's best front three in sub 19 minute 5K runners Courtney Dobbs, Madalyn Nuckols, and Erica Dobbs. It was an impressive feat at Maymont for all of them to place among the top 15 in a deep and competitive race, but their #4 and #5 were far back in the field for the team to finish well. Much has improved since then including sub 21 performers in those positions in their recent Wednesday meet. The gap will need to continue to close more on Saturday though for the team to stay in the mix.
A team which does not have the front runners like Deep Run, but has much more depth and tighter pack to make up for it is the Western Albemarle girls. The Western Albemarle girls, Group AA #2 ranked, were distance runners-up to Osbourn Park two weeks ago at Oatlands Invite and another second place finish would be a great achievement with some of Group AAA's better squads in the meet.