Great American (VA) Highlights

In the first and likely only head-to-head matchup before the state meet between Virginia's top two ranked boys' cross country teams in Midlothian and Albemarle, Albemarle got the better out of the defending Group AAA state champions from Midlothian. Led by a stellar individual performance by Adam Visokay, who ran a state best 5K time of 15:16 to place fifth in the Race of Champions, Albemarle finished seventh and 13 points ahead of a ninth place Midlothian squad in a national caliber field in Cary, North Carolina. Albemarle's superior front running with Visokay, Ryan Thomas (35th, 15:54), and Ben Deal (37th, 15:55) outweighed Midlothian's better depth and tighter spread of 20 seconds. Midlothian had five runners from 16:10 to 16:30 with Sean Willard (16:10), Andrew Gorsuch (16:12), Ryan Peterson (16:18), Collin Hahn (16:22), and Kyle Dow (16:30), but had no individual finishers among the top 50 compared to Albemarle's three including the single digit score card from Visokay. Albemarle almost let Midlothian back in though on the backside of their top five until Aaron Elder (114th, 16:49) and Joe Krohn (119th, 16:54) came across the finish line for the Patriots.

Of the top 15 individual finishers in the Race of Champions, five were from Virginia including Visokay, Colonial Forge senior Brian O'Loughlin (6th, 15:21), Warren County seniour Seumas O'Reilly (9th, 15:33), Cave Spring senior Cody Seymour (11th, 15:34), and Skyline junior Thomas Madden (13th, 15:40). Visokay and O'Loughlin will be competing hard against each other during championship season for the Commonwealth District and Northwest Region titles, while three of the best Group AA runners were featured at Great American between O'Reilly, Seymour, and Madden. Madden helped the Skyline boys to a 15th place finish ahead of other higher ranked Virginia squads Colonial Forge and Stafford, which should gain them more respect in next rankings revision.

In a loaded field for the Race of Champions girls, two of the top three individual finishers were from Virginia. Nationally ranked runner Haley Pierce of one of the nation's top programs at Tatnall (Delaware) won the race in a time of 17:32, but not before being chased late in the race by Virginia's own in Cave Spring sophomore Katie Fortner (2nd, 17:35) and Cosby senior Megan Moye (3rd, 17:42). Group AAA #2 ranked Moye had defeated Group AA #1 ranked Fortner two weeks ago at the Oatlands Invitational in a comfortable looking course record victory, but the younger Fortner turned the tables on the defending Group AAA 1600 meter indoor and outdoor champion this weekend in Carolina. Both Fortner and Moye ran under the previous state leading 5K time of the fall, which was a 17:43 clocking by Lake Braddock junior Sophie Chase last Saturday in Florida.

Also placing high in the ROC from Virginia among the top 20 and posting swift times were Stafford junior Hannah Lowery (13th, 18:06), Midlothian junior Kara Dickerson (15th, 18:14), and Colonial Forge sophomore Frances Morales (17th, 18:22). Morales' performance was particularly significant as the Colonial Forge girls have definitely shown themselves to be one of the deeper teams in the state, but the one question has been if they can have a front runner or two to pick up low score cards against other state title contending teams with front runners. Dickerson has definitely stepped up in that role for Midlothian as she was only 8 seconds behind last year's AAA state champion Lowery with her second PR race in three weeks at WakeMed SoccerPark. 

The Midlothian and Colonial Forge girls finished right next to each other in the final team standings, but 37 points separated the two teams which the gap could be attributed to Midlothian's front loaded lineup. After Dickerson, Midlo had three other girls run faster than 18:50 and finish inside the top 40 with Skylar Evans (36th, 18:45), Marie Johnston (38th, 18:47), and Kari Johnston (39th, 18:47) coming in together almost simultaneously. Meghan Mulroy moved up as their fifth runner from two weeks ago with a 19:15 clocking for 55th place. Colonial Forge had another sub 19 minute performer in Megan Rebholz actually running ahead of Midlo's #2 with her time of 18:37, but Midlo moved ahead in the next three scoring places.

The Oakton boys placed third in the second most competitive division in the seeded invitational race despite still racing out with their top runner Michael McNamee as well as missing two other varsity runners, who were taking S.A.T.'s back home and raced at the Glory Days Grill Invitational. A testament to their depth with four runners running 16:45 or faster in Cary without three of their top seven runners. An impressive run by Marquis Worsley of Norview, who is becoming one of the greatest distance runners ever from the Eastern District, as he broke 16 minutes in the 5K for the first time taking third place honors in the seeded invite race with a time of 15:53.

It would have been interesting to see what Hidden Valley junior Carolyn Bethel might have done with more competition in the Race of Champions as she was a runaway individual winner in the seeded invitational division with a new personal best time of 18:08. Bethel is becoming a darkhourse contender in Group AA and will press top ranked Katie Fortner for district and regional titles in the coming weeks. Finishing 23 seconds after Bethel was one of Virginia's bright young distance stars in Oakton freshmen Allie Klimkiewicz, who chopped off considerable time from her previous season best with her 18:31 5K performance. The 9th grader Klimkiewicz also led the charge for the Oakton girls to take the team title over Bethel's Hidden Valley girls with 107 points in a division dominated by Virginia schools with the top 6 finishing squads all from north of the Carolina border.

Manchester sophomore Cody Wellons won the invitational white division race over another sophomore from Virginia in Brady Guertin (16:20) of Stonebridge with a personal best performance of 16:08.

Meet Coverage & Results