The Virginia men\'s cross country team was a huge treat on Halloween as they captured the ACC Cross Country Championships, their first conference title since 1984, with a 4-5-6-7-8 finish that put them 8 points over second place Florida State. Racing the 8K race at The Greenway in Tallahassee, Fla., the men came into the meet ranked 18th nationally and were the highest ranked team in the conference. Jan Foerster, Andrew Dumm, Soeren Lindner, Ryan Foster, Andy Biladeau, and Alex Tatu all earned All-Conference honors by virtue of their finish. The top five runners for the Cavaliers crossed the finish line in a ten-second span, and all eight runners finished within a minute of each other.

Well this past week was so much fun! It was Homecoming week! I don

The William & Mary men and women\'s cross country teams continued their streak of Colonial Athletic Association conference championships as the men won their sixth consecutive and the women their third consecutive in the conference championship held on the campus of UNC Wilmington. With top runner Christo Landry out due to a minor injury from a biking accident as well as having Adam Tenerowicz not racing, the Tribe\'s depth was still overpowering for the rest of the conference as they placed eight runners in the top 15 places to win by a 20 point margin over James Madison University. Tribe sophomore Ian Fitzgerald won the individual conference crown with a 24:31 clocking on the 8K course. Likewise, the William & Mary women showed their strength in their depth with 11 runners ahead of runner-up James Madison\'s fifth finisher. James Madison University senior Shannon Saunders successfully defended her conference title in a winning time of 21:04 on the 6K course after she got a strong challenge from Hofstra University freshmen Mary Sullivan.

11 shots taken by John Herzog of the championship award ceremony from the 2005 Colonial District Cross Country Meet held at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville, Virginia on Saturday, October 29th.

47 shots taken by John Herzog of the varsity girls race from the 2005 Colonial District Cross Country Meet held at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville, Virginia on Saturday, October 29th.

32 shots taken by John Herzog of the varsity boys race from the 2005 Colonial District Cross Country Meet held at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville, Virginia on Saturday, October 29th.

19 shots taken by John Herzog of the junior varsity girls race from the 2005 Colonial District Cross Country Meet held at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville, Virginia on Saturday, October 29th.

39 shots taken by John Herzog of the junior varsity boys race from the 2005 Colonial District Cross Country Meet held at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville, Virginia on Saturday, October 29th.

14 shots taken by John Herzog of the freshmen boys and girls race from the 2005 Colonial District Cross Country Meet held at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville, Virginia on Saturday, October 29th.

Photos taken by Lee Dick at the CAA Conference Championships held on the campus grounds of UNC Wilmington on Saturday, October 29th.

The Washington and Lee men

The Norfolk State men\'s cross country team extended its own record of consecutive Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference cross country championships to six with a dominating win on Saturday afternoon at SAS Soccer Park. The Spartans women came in second place. The NSU men, who set a new MEAC record by winning their fifth straight title a year ago, tallied a meet record-low 20 points. Each of the Spartans\' top six runners ran a personal-best time on Saturday, led by men\'s Most Outstanding Performer David Kemboi (Eldoret, Kenya). He finished the 8,000-meter course in 23 minutes, 30 seconds to begin a 1-2-4-5-8 finish for the NSU men.

Christopher Newport\'s men\'s and women\'s cross country teams each captured the 2005 USA South Conference Championship Saturday afternoon. Senior Emily Low won the individual title in 23:21, while David Barham was the men\'s top finisher with a time of 26:27 for second place.

Sophomore Donnie Mikels earned All-Big South Conference honors and led VMI to a second-place finish at the 2005 New Balance Big South Conference Men

Freshman Kelsey Stafford became VMI

Burke Lake\'s fastest ever Northern Region runners and their personal bests on the present 2.98 mile course, which was established in 1974. List compiled by Pearl Watts with special thanks to former Northern Virginia Journal sports editor Bill McDowell. Many of the times between 1978-1989 recorded to tenths of a second. All other times officially recorded to the full second.

90 photos taken by Brandon Miles from the 2005 Dominion District Cross Country Meet held at Pocahontas State Park in Chestefield, Virginia on Thursday, October 27th.

No rankings will be posted this week due to the lack of racing as high school teams prepare for their district meets and college teams do likewise for their conference meets.

MileStat.com is beginning to feature on the site online journals from some of the state\'s top runners as site visitors can get a feel for the lifestyles some of them live. Forest Park senior Stefanie Slekis is just one of many more runners who will be contributing to the site with weekly journals.

Forest Park senior Stefanie Slekis has been well known in the state of Virginia since her freshmen year when she burst onto the scene as one of the state\'s top new faces. Since then she has emerged into one of the state\'s elite runners, but has had her share of bumps along the road including a trying junior year. Through it all though, Slekis has risen above the adversity as she is in the middle of an outstanding senior year that may lead her to her first state title.

Saturday morning proved to be a wonderful day of running for the Virginia Intermont College and Club Intermont men\'s and women\'s cross-country teams. Behind a strong 5th and 7th place performances from sophomore Steeve Gabart (Miami, Fla.) and freshman Jeremy Cadle (Charlottesville, Va.), the men\'s team finished with 38 points to win the Southeastern Classic Cross-Country meet, in Rome, Georgia.

West Springfield junior Mike Spooner has set a path of greatness for himself thus far this fall. This past Saturday, Spooner won his fourth consecutive major invitational at the Runnin\' With The Wolves Invitational as he defeated many top ranked runners including Christiansburg\'s John Horst, Northside\'s Zac Edwards, and E.C. Glass\' Patterson Wilhelm. While the three forementioned runners are in their final year of high school, Spooner has one more year of development after this year to become one of the best runners this state has seen in the last few years. Coming from the storied West Springfield program, he sure has great tradition and coaching to guide him down that road of success.

Rankings compiled through tallied polls of rankings sent in by coaches on a weekly basis. If you are a coach and interested in participating in next week\'s rankings, send your rankings into MileStat.com at milestat@yahoo.com

Plenty of movement among individuals thanks to a very active weekend of collegiate races.

Liberty

Fresh off strong finishes at the NCAA Pre-National meet last weekend, the Virginia men\'s and women\'s cross country teams have both been ranked in the top-20 national polls. The men are 18th in the Mondo Poll while the women are 19th in the FinishLynx Poll which represents the first time in school history that both programs have been in the top-20 at the same time. In addition, Virginia\'s Jan Foerster was named the ACC Cross Country Performer of the Week after leading the Cavaliers to a sixth place finish, including upsetting four teams ranked ahead of UVa.

Despite a strong performance at the Brooks Pre-National Invitational last weekend, William and Mary slipped one spot to 16th in the latest MONDO National Poll. The Tribe retained the top ranking in this week

2004 All-American Christo Landry (Falls Church, VA) was named as the final Colonial Athletic Association Runner of the Week for 2005. Landry earned the honor by placing eighth at the Brooks Pre-National Invitational last weekend, leading the Tribe to tie for sixth place.

The Liberty University men

Liberty

At the NCAA Division I Pre-Nationals held at Indiana State University, Liberty sophomore Josh McDougal won the men\'s white race in a time of 23:12.6 by a decisive 20 second margin over many of the nation\'s top individual runners. McDougal\'s time broke the eight kilometer course record set earlier in the day by BYU\'s Josh Rohatinsky in the men\'s blue race as the Liberty sophomore now has to be considered one of the favorites to win the NCAA National Championship crown in November. Meanwhile, the nationally ranked William & Mary men and University of Virgina men and women\'s programs all had strong team finishes to validate their current nationally ranked and even possibly help them move further up in the national polls. The William & Mary men finished sixth (219 pts) in the white race with a 24:32 team average. The #15 ranked Tribe finished one point behind #16 ranked Portland (5th place), while upsetting #8 ranked Iona (9th place). The University of Virginia Men finished sixth (252 pts) as well in the blue division with a 24:36 team average. The #29 ranked Hoos upset four higher ranked teams including #17 Florida State, #21 Indiana, #18 Ohio State, and #10 Cal-Poly SLO. The UVA women finished eighth (313 pts) in the blue division with a 21:29 team average. The #22 ranked Lady Hoos finished ahead of #21 Butler (11th place) and just behind #24 ranked Northern Arizona (7th).

The Oakton boys, unranked in the Nike Team Nationals Southeast Region and ranked #5 in the state, scored a huge upset in defeating the previously unbeaten and #1 state ranked Thomas Jefferson boys at the Eastern State Championships held at Van Courtland Park in New York City. On the 2.5 mile course, the Oakton boys (106 pts) won the team title by 35 points over the third place Thomas Jefferson boys (131 pts). Lasalle of Pennsylvania (122 pts) took runner-up honors and fellow PA school and #9 NTN Northeast ranked Cardinal O\'Hara finished fourth (166 pts). Meanwhile, the #2 NTN Southeast ranked Oakton girls (82 pts) were defeated in the \"A\" race division by NTN Northeast unranked Pope John of New Jersey (59 pts).

Photos taken by Lee Dick from the Penn State National Invitational where the Virginia collegiate programs James Madison University and Virginia Tech competed in.

Juniors Mike Spooner of West Springfield and Catherine White of Northside set new course record marks at the Runnin\' With The Wolves Invitational held at Wolf Branch Farm. Spooner knocked one second off the old record with his 16:25 clocking as he beat a field that included some of the state\'s best in Group AA #2 ranked John Horst (2nd, 16:44), Group A #1 ranked Simon Biddle-Snead (3rd, 16:54), Group AA #1 ranked Zac Edwards (4th, 16:58), and Group AAA #4 ranked Patterson Wilhelm (5th, 17:15). White destroyed her own course record by one minute and four seconds with her 18:47 clocking. She won by even a larger margin with Jefferson Forest\'s Lisa MacPherson (20:12) taking runner-up honors on her home course. The Blacksburg girls continued their winning ways that has them posed as a strong threat to Nike Team Nationals ranked Brentsville this season with 38 points. Blacksburg put their entire top five in the top 15 places with Allison Homer (4th, 20:47), Ariel Burbey (5th, 21:02), Laurel MacMillian (6th, 21:06), Cate Berenato (12th, 21:36), and Hannah Barrow (13th, 21:59). The Jamestown boys (73 pts) scored a huge upset over the Nike Team Nationals Southeast Region #9 ranked West Springfield boys (77 pts). A 38 second time gap between the Eagles top five runners helped lead them to victory with Thomas Horley (8th, 17:31), Andrew Mearns (14th, 17:49), Raymond Hutchinson (18th, 18:00), Kirk Aldridge (20th, 18:04), and John Holt (23rd, 18:09).

Originally planned as a subvarsity only meet, the Lee-Davis Invitational opened up a varsity division and a flood of fast times came with them. One time in particular, 18:13, the new course record time set by Oaktree Academy sophomore Aurora Scott as she shattered the old mark of 18:59 held by Christy Ward (James River HS, 2004). Runner-up Anne Barber of Tallwood also dipped under the old record with a 18:56 clocking as she continues to have a breakthrough cross country season. The boys\' race saw an exciting finish with three seconds separating the top three finishers in Alex Bowman of Hermitage (16:26), Richard \"Skeeter\" Morris of Nottoway (16:27), and John Vial of Hermitage (16:29). With only a #10 ranked Western Albemarle girls without four of their top seven in attendance at Pole Green, the #6 state ranked Fairfax girls won easily with a 34 point team total. The Fairfax ladies had an impressive 27 second spread between their top five runners on a course that is fairly comparable to the state course with Jessica Trapeni (4th, 19:50), Liz Kakouris (7th, 20:05), Anne-Marie Duncan (8th, 20:09), Frances Dowd (9th, 20:11), and Natalie Auble (11th, 20:17). The #6 state ranked Hermitage boys (61 pts) won by 24 points over Group AA #5 ranked Fort Defiance (85 pts) with a strong front two in Bowman and Vial as well as a solid three to follow in Nathan Puckett (8th, 16:42), Ben Hendrick (26th, 17:24), and Kieran Lee (31st, 17:29). Fort Defiance finished ahead of #10 state ranked Osbourn Park (3rd, 94 pts) as the lack of a strong fifth man continues to separate the Indians from being one of the state\'s top teams this fall.

In its last meet before the Atlantic 10 Championship, the University of Richmond men\'s and women\'s cross country teams competed at the Arkansas Chili Pepper Festival on Saturday. Facing several of the top teams in the nation, the Richmond women\'s team finished 14th in the 33-team field, while the men\'s team took 19th out 29 teams. Richmond senior John Ciccarelli (South Bury, Conn.) finished in 26th out of 241 collegiate runners, completing the 10K in a time of 30:01.9. On the women\'s side, freshman Katie Van Horn (Glendora, N.J.) took 44th out of 299 runners, finishing the 6K in 22:07.2.

The VMI men and sophomore Donnie Mikels were winners at the Winthrop Fall Classic as they beat several Big South conference rivals on the Winthrop University home course. Mikels won his first collegiate cross country race with a 18:54 clocking on the home course. Radford University and Washington & Lee University also competed in the meet in the men\'s 6K and women\'s 4K races.

Rankings compiled through tallied polls of rankings sent in by coaches on a weekly basis. If you are a coach and interested in participating in next week\'s rankings, send your rankings into MileStat.com at milestat@yahoo.com

Little change in this week with the lack of racing action, but plenty of shuffling should happen in next week\'s racing with a full plate of races scheduled this weekend.

Note from meet director and Jefferson Forest coach Jerome Loy: Everything is starting to shape up for this Saturdays event at the Wolf Branch Farm. We have over 20 schools entered and I\'ve unfortunately rejected another 1/2 dozen. Glad that you will be joining us! A few notes in lieu of a \'Coaches Meeting\'...

With the rescheduling of the Albemarle Invitational to Tuesday after the meet was washed out due to rain on Saturday, a meet schedule conflict arised with many of the Fredricksburg area teams obligated to compete in the Free-Lance Star Area Meet on Tuesday as well. Despite losing many solid teams and individuals which would have made for a great meet, the field was still solid nonetheless with some very notable performances at Panorama Farms on Tuesday. E.C. Glass senior Patterson Wilhelm won the boys\' race with ease as he clocked a time of 15:52.14 on the 5 kilometer course. Clarke County junior Simon Biddle-Snead, running as an individual without his Group A #1 ranked team, took runner-up honors in 16:24.69. The Western Albemarle boys won by a convincing margin of 44 points as 54 second gap between top Warriors finisher Will Massie (5th, 16:28.27) and fifth runner Kyle Satterwhite (18th, 17:22.96) helped secure the team title. Albemarle star Rachel Rose was absent from her home meet, so that opened the door for Western Albemarle senior Samantha Stafford to grab the individual glory as she won the girls\' race in a time of 19:13.89. There was no question who was the top girls\' team on Tuesday at Panorama with the Stafford-led Western Albemarle girls as they put up a low team total of 25 points.

Rainy conditions and stiff competition greeted the Virginia schools that made the hike to the Manhattan College Invitiational held at the historic Van Courtland Park in New York City. The Brentsville and Midlothian girls got a taste of how competitive the Northeast Region is as they competed in the Eastern State division. Both teams failed to finish in the top ten in the team scoring of the race division which included six of the top ten teams ranked in the NTN Northeast Region including US #1 Saratoga Springs of New York. Forest Park senior Stefanie Slekis had the best individual run today among the Virginia girls as she clocked a time of 15:17.3 to finish 13th overall in the Eastern State girls\' race.

Pushed back due to heavy rains that flooded the course for the original race date on Saturday, the Glory Days Grill Invitational went ahead with races on Monday with high schoolers out of school for Columbus Day. The top ranked team in the state, Thomas Jefferson boys, won the team title, but not exactly in dominating fashion as they won by 13 points over #8 state ranked Herndon. #4 West Springfield (3rd, 115 pts) and #3 Oakton (4th, 149 pts) fell back on a course still feeling the effects of the wet weather in previous days. Mike Spooner, after posting two convincing victories at Great American and the Salesianum Invitational, proved his legitimacy in his neck of the woods as he defeated Northern region rivals Abreham Daganchew of Herndon (2nd, 16:19) and Brad Siragusa of Chantilly (3rd, 16:20) in a time of 16:15 on the 5 kilometer course at Bull Run Regional Park. While no surprise given her performances in past years, Michael Nelson of The Potomac School has been under the radar this fall due to a lack of racing and was a surprise winner given that in the girls\' race with a 19:19 clocking. The Oakton girls (67 pts) ran away with the team title by a 46 point margin over #6 state ranked Fairfax (113 pts). The Lady Cougars, ranked #2 in the state currently and current favorite for the AAA state crown, placed four runners in the top 15.

Plantar fasciitis is one of the most common injuries in runners, recreational and competitive alike. Although it can be frustrating to experience, there is good news for plantar fasciitis sufferers: it gets better! This frustration is perhaps best illustrated by the bumper sticker available at the Ragged Mountain Running Shop that reads, \"I survived plantar fasciitis!\" Mark and Cynthia don

So far both the Glory Days Grill Invitational and Albemarle Invitational, set to go on this Saturday, have been postponed due to unsafe course conditions from the heavy rain and flooding from the past few days. The Glory Days Grill at Bull Run Park, will use the original race schedule and be run on Monday, October 10th. The Albemarle Invitational at Panorama Farms, has been rescheduled to Tuesday, October 11th.

Oaktree Academy sophomore Aurora Scott scorched yet another swift 5K against college competition as she dropped her previous state season leader best of 17:36 with a 17:32 win at the Norfolk State College Invitational. Scott had clocked her previous season best of 17:36 at Great American in the Nike Race of Champions college women race where she finished 13th overall. In wet conditions at Mount Trashmore in Virginia Beach and little of any competition as she won by 53 seconds, Scott outdid her Great American performance by four seconds.

Coming off an impressive run at the Paul Short Run last week, the Cobras came four points short of winning the Furman Invitational Saturday morning. Leading Virginia Intermont College (VIC) was freshman Steeve Gabart (Miami, Florida), covering the 8 Kilometer race in a time of 26:23.47 (4th place). Finishing 6th place overall was sophomore Ondrej Puskar (Trnava, Slovakia) with a time of 26:27.13.

We are pleased to welcome once again all the competitors, coaches, parents and relatives of the runners and all other interested followers of cross country to the 13th Annual Glory Days Grill Invitational here at Bull Run Regional Park. Everyone concerned with the meet are again looking forward to an exciting afternoon of racing with approximately 1,500 runners representing almost 60 schools, scheduled to compete in one of the nine races on Bull Run\'s 5,000 meter (3.1 mile) layout.

VMI

The annual \"Runnin\' With the Wolves\" cross country invitational, scheduled for October 15th at the Wolf Branch Farm, is now closed to all high schools. No more entries will be accepted. We have received entree fees from 20 schools, the limit. There is still room for middle school entries, however.

The Charles Lauck Invitational, which was to be held on Saturday, October 15th at the Virginia Horse Center in Lexington has been cancelled.

Rankings compiled through tallied polls of rankings sent in by coaches on a weekly basis. If you are a coach and interested in participating in next week\'s rankings, send your rankings into MileStat.com at milestat@yahoo.com

Ondrej Puskar, a Virginia Intermont College sophomore from Trnvava, Slovakia is the AAC men\'s cross country Athlete of the Week. Puskar covered the Lehigh Paul Short Invitational 8K course in a blazing 24:44.20. This strong run gives Ondrej the fastest 8K time in the AAC so far this season, and helps solidify his teams number #1 NAIA national ranking.

In a week of many teams gaining or losing spots, William and Mary held steady in the national and regional polls during a bye week. The top of the MONDO rankings saw Arkansas grab the No. 1 ranking away from Wisconsin, who had held it all season to this point. The Tribe also maintained their grip on the top of the regional poll this week. The men continue their mid-season training break for another weekend before traveling to the Brooks Pre-National Invitational on October 15.

The Virginia men\'s cross country team has moved into the national rankings following a strong second-place finish at the Great American Cross Country Festival, held Saturday (Sep 24) in Cary, NC. The men are ranked 27th and join the Virginia women\'s team in the national poll this week, who came in at #23.

University of Richmond freshman Katie Van Horn (Glendora, N.J.) was named the Atlantic 10 Women\'s Cross Country Rookie of the Week after finishing 41st out of 307 runners at the Paul Short Invitational on Oct. 1. Van Horn crossed the finish line in 21:35.8 to finish with the same time as Richmond junior Amanda Russell (North Bay, Ontario). This is Van Horn\'s second Altantic 10 Rookie of the Week honor.

Randy Bungard, the Director of the Track and Field/Cross Country program at the University of Virginia, has announced the hiring of Brad Hunt as an assistant coach. Hunt will work with Head Cross Country Coach Jason Dunn in the continued development of the middle distance and distance athletes. Hunt joins Virginia after seven years at Kent State, where he served as coach for the middle distance runners and long sprinters as well as an assistant cross country coach.

Sunday morning, Club Intermont\'s Fernando Cabada (Fresno, California), a senior at Virginia Intermont College, ran to a 7th place finish at the Syracuse Festival of Races. His time of 14:20 was three seconds behind 6th place finisher Ian Connor (Blowing Rock, North Carolina), and 15 seconds better than Abraha Hadush Asefa (Ethiopia).

Georgetown Prep\'s Steven Duplinsky destroyed the course record of 14:44 held by Matt Keally and set in 2001 with a winning time of 14:30 on the Eastern State Hospital 3.05 mile course as the William & Mary Invitational returned to the original course layout after two years with an altered shorter course. The performance bodes well for the Marylander Duplinsky as many Foot Locker finalists could not post as fast of a time on this course in years past. Duplinsky went through the mile mark in 4:28 and two miles in 9:18 as he distanced himself far ahead of Virginia\'s top finisher in E.C. Glass junior Patterson Wilhelm in 15:32. Maryland took the team title as well as Duplinsky\'s Georgetown Prep squad won with a team score of 115 points as they narrowly held off a suprise runner-up finish by Osbourn Park with 117 points. A team battle within the team scoring for Group AA bragging rights was found with #5 AA ranked Western Albemarle (4th, 131 pts) taking down #3 AA ranked Jamestown (5th, 140) on Jamestown\'s home course as Will Massie (4th, 15:42) led the way for the Warriors of Western. The girls\' individual and team crowns stayed in the state as James River sophomore Kristin Wolfe continued her momentum from her great run at Great American with a victory at William & Mary with a 18:19 clocking. Great Bridge\'s Kristine Tobin was a close second in 18:24, while fourth place Kaylan Comer (18:29) led the #9 AAA ranked Colonial Forge girls (90 pts) to the team title over the #8 state ranked Western Albemarle girls (115 pts).

The Octoberfest Invitational saw some heavyweight matchups with some of the state\'s best racing against one another. The Thomas Jefferson boys proved their legitimacy as the top ranked team in the state with a convincing win by 55 points over second place Herndon with five runners under 16:50 on the Great Meadows hill course for 5,000 meters. Chantilly senior Brad Siragusa proved just why many are considering him the best runner in the state this year by getting revenge on Herndon\'s Abe Daganchew and beating Group AA\'s best in John Horst of Christiansburg and Zac Edwards of Northside in a time of 15:44.10. Horst finished a strong second in 15:48.09 for his second consecutive victory over a Group AA #1 ranked runner in Edwards (3rd, 16:01.43) this week and Abingdon\'s Griff Graves at Bristol Cross last weekend. Dagnachew, a race leader and with the lead pack for most of the race, faltered badly in the latter portion of the race to a 20th place finish. Another upset in the AA ranks was the Sherando boys (216 pts) knocking off Fort Defiance (247 pts) for fourth place honors. On the girls\' side, the individual and team winners were probably surprises to most, but no shocker for those who have seen Albemarle\'s Rachel Rose and the Blacksburg girls race all season. Albemarle junior Rachel Rose took a convincing victory over Group AAA #1 ranked Stefanie Slekis (18:16.41) with a winning time of 17:58.96. Rose had previously been ranked #2 in Group AAA behind Slekis. Meanwhile, the Group AA #3 and #9 state ranked Blacksburg girls defeated four higher ranked teams in #4 Westfield (2nd, 161 pts), #5 Fairfax (3rd, 185 pts), #6 Lake Braddock (4th, 206 pts), and #7 Brooke Point (5th, 209 pts) with a team score of 150 points. With a strong top four that all finished in the top 20 places in Ariel Burbey (7th, 18:56.64), Allison Homer (15th, 19:36.83), Laurel MacMillan (19th, 19:41.84), and Cate Berenato (20th, 19:42.06), the Blacksburg girls were able to negate a weak fifth runner to take it to the larger Group AAA schools from northern Virginia.

50 total photos taken by John Herzog of the varsity A girls race from the 2005 Octoberfest Cross Country Invitational held at Great Meadows in The Plains, Virginia on Saturday, October 1st.

119 total photos taken by John Herzog of the varsity A girls race from the 2005 Octoberfest Cross Country Invitational held at Great Meadows in The Plains, Virginia on Saturday, October 1st.

57 total photos taken by John Herzog of the varsity B boys race from the 2005 Octoberfest Cross Country Invitational held at Great Meadows in The Plains, Virginia on Saturday, October 1st.

19 total shots taken by John Herzog of the junior varsity boys race from the 2005 Octoberfest Cross Country Invitational held at Great Meadows in The Plains, Virginia on Saturday, October 1st.

26 miscellaneous shots taken by John Herzog from the 2005 Octoberfest Cross Country Invitational held at Great Meadows in The Plains, Virginia on Saturday, October 1st.

Photo gallery by Lee Dick from the George Mason University Collegiate Invitational held at Bull Run Regional Park in Manassas, Virginia on Saturday, October 1st.

The West Springfield boys and junior Mike Spooner continue to look stronger each week of racing as the Spartans and their star runner took home first place honors for the second consecutive weekend at the Salesianum Invitational held at Brandywine Creek in Wilmington, Delaware. Spooner, who won the red invitational division race last weekend at Great American in 15:53, posted the third fastest clocking all-time at the Brandywine Creek 5K course with a winning time of 16:22. Only two runners have ran faster and Spooner finds himself in an elite class behind the two fastest in Alan Webb (2000) and Sharif Karie (1999). Meanwhile, three other teammates of Spooner\'s finished in the top 15 to secure the team victory with senior Chris Benton (10th, 17:20), junior Alex Martis (13th, 17:32) and junior Leo Walker (15th, 17:38). West Springfield\'s fifth man, sophomore Loring Ross, ran injured, but still managed a 34th place effort of 18:21. The next race up for Coach Kelbaugh\'s squad is at the Glory Days Invitational where they may get a crack at the state\'s top two programs in Thomas Jefferson and Brentsville.

Culpeper senior and #1 state ranked Devin Cornwall posted the state\'s fastest 5K time thus far this season with a fourth place finishing effort of 15:31 at the Paul Short Invitational held at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. The invitational included many of the state of Pennsylvania\'s best. Cornwall has found strong competition in the past two weeks at the Great American Race of Champions as well as Paul Short this weekend to better prepare him for what should be a highly competitive state meet in November.

Thanks to perfect racing weather conditions and dry, racetrack-like course, lightning fast times were recorded in the college races at the Paul Short Run with many of the state\'s programs in attendance. The short-handed Virginia Intermont College men (16th) and University of Richmond women (13th) were the top Virginia schools in the invitational divisions, while Richmond\'s John Ciccarelli (24:09.9), Amanda Russell (21:35.8), and Katie Van Horn (21:35.8) had the top individual performances of the day. The CNU women were the sole Virginia school to win a team title as they won the 6K open division. VMI (23rd) and U of R (29th) men have strong team performances in invitiational division.

Battlefield\'s Jason Driscoll had a fine showing at the Wendy\'s Invitational as he dipped under 16 minutes for the first time for 5,000 meters with a 15:53 clocking in the open boys\' race. Driscoll\'s time placed him second overall in the race. The Battlefield star is currently ranked 12th in the state. Abingdon\'s Griff Graves, ranked #9 in the state, led his squad to a fourth place finish (123 pts) in the 3A race with a time of 16:08 as he finished fourth individually himself. The #2 Group A ranked Patrick Henry boys (225 pts) finished sixth in the same race as Charlie Counts was the team\'s top finisher with a 16:45 clocking for 11th place honors. Female teammate Maggie Lester, ranked #6 in Group A, finished fourth in the girls\' 3A race with a time of 19:29.