One could argue that Albemarle junior Hari Mix is one of the most underated cross country runners in the state. Little recognition has given to this small framed runner from Charlottesville, but slowly and surely people are beginning to take notice as he consistently has put down some great performances so far this fall. You can\'t find a bad race on Mix this fall, as at the Fork Union Invitational (4th, 15:42), Woodberry Forest Invitational (2nd, 16:43), William & Mary Invitational (2nd \"B\" race, 15:39), and Albemarle Invitational (4th, 15:50), Mix ran strong in each race. Mix then recently added two titles to his credentials by winning the Commonwealth District Meet (16:04) and Northwest Region Meet (15:49). Earning athlete of the week honors, Mix is expected to have a high finish at the state meet as he is currently ranked #7 in AAA.

What a difference a year makes. Last year, James River\'s Linday Traudt won the Dominion District \"sub-varsity\" race. At this year\'s Dominion District Meet, Traudt ran away with the varsity race crown as she set a new course record at Pocahontas State Park with her time of 18:58 to earn athlete of the week honors. The James River junior will be a favorite to win the Central Region Meet this Saturday as well should be an all-state contenders in two weeks at the state meet.

After lots of district meet action this past week, the crystal ball is starting to clear up as to who will be the top contenders for state titles at Great Meadows in a few weeks.

West Springfield\'s Jeff Day has had one exceptional senior cross country season. It began with a win at the Monroe Parker Invitational (15:26) over strong competition in September against some of the top harriers in the Northern Region. Day has raced out of the area since then with high finishes at the Virginia Tech Invitational, William & Mary Invitational, and Manhattan Invitational. Day returned back to Northern Virginia for racing in the Patriot District Meet to defend his district title from a year ago. Day defended that title successfully and impressively as he built a substantial lead on challenger Steve Hoogland of Lake Braddock early on with a 4:43 first mile and kept it to win by 22 seconds with his 16:44 clocking on the Fort Belvoir 3.3 mile course. Day, earning athlete of the week honors for the week, will be a main contender for the Northern Region title on November 7th at Burke Lake, the same place he ran a 15:26 to win Monroe Parker in September.

James Robinson\'s Joanna Rodgers has fell short on a multiple occassions this season to get her first win. She took runner-up honors at Monroe Parker Invitational to Lake Braddock\'s Kelly Swain. At the Great Meadows Invitational and Virginia Tech Invitational, Rodgers was leading well into both races only to see herself be overtaken near the end. However at the Patriot District Meet held at Fort Belvoir\'s 3.3 mile course, Rodgers got that elusive win for the season as she defeated the likes of defending district champion Kelly Swain to come away with the win at a 19:57 clocking and earn athlete of the week honors.

While Rockbridge\'s John Crews and Fork Union\'s Kippy Keino were battling it out the entire race at the Albemarle Invitational over bragging rights for the best harrier in the state, Ryan Foster was winning another battle, over the rest of the field as he took third in the race with a time of 15:45 to earn athlete of the week honors. The rest of the field included some of the state\'s best runners with names such as Hari Mix, Daniel Kane, Todd Somers, Will Williams, and Bryan Buckland. Foster, currently ranked #5 in the state and #2 in AA, will hope he can have the same success at states as he stands a good shot at taking at least runner-up honors in AA.

If there was ever any doubt that Freshman Anna Chase of Martinsville was for real, it was erased last Saturday at the 29th Annual Metro Cross Country Invitational. Chase destroyed the previous course record set just last year by Kelly Zwart of Rockbridge County by 36 seconds! Chase ran the very difficult Elizabeth Campus course in 19:48.64 to earn athlete of the week honors.

Virginia high school cross country rankings for 10/16/02

The fastest track in Virginia just got faster. The track and field facility at Dinwiddie High School, which has produced more regular season Dyestat elite marks than all other state facilities combined in the last four years is nearing completion of

Last fall, little was known about Norfolk Academy\'s Ginna Ellis as the freshmen entered the MileStat.com Invitational. However, many took notice of her after the race in which she finished third in with a new personal cross country best of 18:39 behind t

Photo gallery by Doug McDaniel from the 2002 Metro Invitational held at Roanoke College\'s Elizabeth Campus in Salem, Virginia.

If there was ever any doubt that Freshman Anna Chase of Martinsville was for real, it was erased today at the 29th Annual Metro Cross Country Invitational. Chase destroyed the previous course record set just last year by Kelly Zwart of Rockbridge County

Due to the cancellation of the Glory Days Grille Invitational because of the sniper shootings, top state ranked and nationally ranked Thomas Jefferson boys had to look elsewhere to find a race to run this weekend. Well they were able to pull some last second strings and sneak up north to join Jamestown, who make a yearly trip, to make it to the William Tennent Invitational. In last year\'s race, Jamestown (who ended up #1 ranked in the state), had a dominating victory. Well the team from Alexandria surpassed that level of domination with their win this weekend having five in the top 12 for a team score of 32. This group posted some jaw dropping times on the three mile course with Christo Landry (2nd, 15:03), Keith Bechtol (3rd, 15:12), Brian Hanak (5th, 15:39), Tarik Jones (10th, 15:57), Kyle Smith (12th, 15:57). If that five wasn\'t scary enough they are strong through their entire top seven with Chris Mocko (18th, 16:07) and Travis Brier (21st, 16:18). Jamestown\'s Jonna Reinhardt continued the win streak of Jamestown individuals at Tennent as Bryce Ruiz had won it for the past two years with his 15:01 clocking over Landry. Thomas Jefferson and Jamestown girls showed some great individuals performances with Shauneen Garrahan (5th, 18:20) for Thomas Jefferson and Erin Mearns (7th, 18:32) and Monika Henn (10th, 18:57) for Jamestown).

Both the #2 state ranked Midlothian and West Springfield boys\' cross country teams were able to earn second place trophies in their respective race divisions through the mud, rain, cold, and wind they encountered throughout the day at the 30th annual Manhattan College Invitational held at Van Courtland Park\'s historic 2.5 mile course. In the varsity boys \"B\" division, Midlothian (78 pts) led by top five finishes from Ryan Witt (3rd, 13:04) and Brandon Miles (5th, 13:09) helped secure second behind the #2 ranked team in the Northeast Region, Northport (62 pts) of New York who were led by sensational sophomore Kevin Tshirhart (12:42), who was the race winner at 12:42. Midlothian also takes the sixth fastest average time of the day (13:30.0) behind #1 Northeast #1 Shenendehowa NY 13:15.8, Northeast #2 Northport NY 13:22.7, Christian Brothers Academy NJ 13:23.1, Hunterdon Central NJ 13:28.8, and Bishop Hendricken RI 13:29.9. The West Springfield boys also had an impressive duo with Jeff Day (2nd, 13:02) and Steven Tobin (4th, 13:05.3, pictured left) to take second (85 pts) to traditional national powerhouse CBA (46 pts) from New Jersey in the varsity boys \"E\" division. Midlothian girls with four runners in the top 18 in the varsity girls \"E\" division finished third (96 pts), while the West Springfield girls (204 pts) finished seventh in the \"B\" division. Huma Husain of West Springfield (16:13) and Erin Prillaman of Midlothian (16:15) posted the top two Virginia girls times.

The Albemarle Invitational held at the challenging Panorama Farms course pitted the state\'s top two harriers currently in #1 ranked Kippy Keino of Fork Union and #2 ranked John Crews of Rockbridge and it turned out to be a great race as Keino lead Crews going into the later stages of the race, but then was overtaken by Crews (15:13) near the end as Keino had to take runner-up honors (15:24). The meet also brought against each other the two of the best teams in AA with #1 ranked Rockbridge and #2 ranked James Wood and once again #2 was the victor as James Wood\'s depth (90 pts) was far superior to Rockbridge\'s with five runners in the top 24 and an insane 27 second spread between their #1 and #5. The Crews-led Rockbridge (104 pts) actually had a clearly better top four as they were beating James Wood 41-66 through four, but were killed at their #5 spot as it tacted on 63 more points to their team score. An issue they will clearly have to address if they wish to beat James Wood at states. #4 ranked Westfield had an off day and finished third overall (126 pts) behind the two AA teams as they were led by Bryan Buckland (8th, 16:28). The girls\' race was also AA team dominated, with #1 state ranked Western Albemarle (65 pts) being led by the Fannings twins, Jessica (2nd, 19:07) and Tasmin (3rd, 19:24), winning the meet. #2 AA ranked John Handley finished second (103 pts) behind two top ten finishers in Joanna Britland (6th, 19:49) and Erin Bender (7th, 19:51). Warren County\'s Emily Harrison, after a runner-up finish last weekend at W&M, took home first this weekend at Albemarle with her time of 19:02.

As the summerlike weather seems to be finally slipping away, the second weekend in October once again brings together most of the top area teams to the Eleventh Annual Glory Days Grill Invitational. With the setting once again the extremely specta

After being ranked as the top harrier in the state in the pre-season rankings, C.D. Hylton\'s Jemissa Hess was defeated at the Great Meadows Invitational in mid September by Potomac Senior\'s Jill Porto. Well almost a month later on the same course at Great Meadows, Hess got her vengeance as she not only defeated Porto (4th, 19:16), but also defeated the top ranked runner in AA in Fauquier\'s Sarah Bowman (2nd, 19:09) with her impressive clocking of 18:56 to earn athlete of the week honors. With Hess and Hickory\'s Jennifer Boyd (W&M Invitational) both having strong wins over competitive field this past weekend, it looks like there may be an exciting foot race between the two in November at Great Meadows.

Derrick Robbins may have put himself in position to win his first state title after his performance at the William & Mary Invitational. Although #1 ranked Kippy Keino of Fork Union won in impressive fashion with his time of 14:50, Robbins also had an exceptional run as well in overtaking defending AAA state cross country champion Alex Tatu in the last quarter mile to pull away from Tatu for second in a time of 15:09 as his efforts were good enough to be awarded athlete of the week honors.

Photo gallery from the 2002 William & Mary Invitational held at Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg, Virginia.

#1 state ranked Fork Union senior Kippy Keino blazes the course from the gun as he set a quick pace as no one was willing to go with him en route to his near course record time of 14:50. Denbigh sophomore Derrick Robbins overtakes Alex Tatu of Thomas

The defending Group A boys\' state champions, Page County asserted themselves as still a team to reckon with this year as they won the Stonewall Jackson Invitational at New Market Battlefield by taking the first three places with the first place b

Massaponax High School went on the road to Pennsylvania for the Red Flash Invitational at St Francis University this weekend. Driving up the seven mile climb west of Altoona to Loretto to an altitude of nearly 2500 feet, this is one of the most

After being ranked as the top harrier in the state in the pre-season rankings, C.D. Hylton\'s Jemissa Hess was defeated at the Great Meadows Invitational in mid September by Potomac Senior\'s Jill Porto. Well almost a month later on the same course at

At last year\'s AAA State Cross Country Meet, little attention was given to Central Region girls\' champion team, James River. Much of the attention was focused on the traditionally dominant cross country teams from the big schools of the Northern

An overwhelming 120 teams are set to compete at this weekend\'s William & Mary Invitational held on the Eastern State Hosptial grounds in Williamsburg.

With the course conditions and difficulty at this Great American Cross Country Festival held at the Ballatyne Resort in Charlotte, many runners faltered and had sub-par races dealing with the course. However, Lake Braddock senior Steve Hoogland had a far

Kellam junior Natalie Sherbak earned athlete of the week honors by blowing away the field at the first annual Lee-Davis Invitational at Pole Green Park in Richmond. Sherbak won the race by a good margin with her sensational time of 19:29. Known primarily

Quite a few major changes to this week\'s rankings due to the Great American results.

Cary Chaffee has long boasted of being the nephew of Suzy Chaffee, the Olympic ski captain who became more famous as \"Suzy Chapstick\" in television lip-balm ads. But the momentum of the family pecking order is changing. The way things are going, maybe