Complete results from the McDonald\'s X-Country Festival at Maymont are now posted. Quick highlights from Maymont include: Mike Spooner of West Springfield (15:35) defeating Griff Graves of Abingdon (15:46) in a classic duel between two Foot Locker Nationals hopefuls. The boys team competition was fierce and close as only 82 point separated the first 11 teams. 2005 Nike Team Nationals representatives from the Southeast region in Chapel Hill of North Carolina rose to the occassion as the SE #6 team knocked off higher ranked SE #3 Thomas Jefferson (4th, 156 pts) and Fork Union (7th, 172 pts). Jamestown was the biggest surprise of the meet though even topping Chapel Hill\'s win in coming in as the #9 ranked team in Virginia, yet finishing second with 130 points and ahead of seven higher ranked teams in the state. SE #1 and US #5 Eleanor Roosevelt girls from Maryland (39 pts) romped the Maymont field as expected, but SE #4 Tatnall of Delaware (77 pts) had a solid run in second. Eleanor Roosevelt was led by race champion Marika Walker with a top time and meet/course record time of 18:25. W.T. Woodson senior Sarrah Hadiji was the top finisher from Virginia in the race taking fourth in 18:41 as six runners (Heritage\'s Laura Rapp dipped under 19 minutes to win bronze race) went under the old course mark of 19:01. Plenty of more to come from Maymont including photos, video, and stories! Meet story by Brandon Miles What if they ran at Maymont? - Adding in other missing top SE teams into the equation at Maymont. Photo Galleries by John Herzog: HS Invitational Division - HS Gold Division - HS Silver Division - HS Copper Division Invitational Photo Gallery by David Fleenor: Boys - Girls Photo Galleries by Brandon Miles: HS Bronze Division Friday Photo Gallery by Brandon Miles & John Herzog Maymont Race Video Clips

Video clips from the 2006 McDonald\'s Festival at Maymont held at Maymont Park in Richmond, Virginia on Friday and Saturday, September 29th and 30th.

While I\'ll be engrossed with coverage at the McDonald\'s X-Country Festival at Maymont in Richmond this weekend, another outstanding meet will be taking place at the Oatlands Plantation in the northwest corner of the state with the Oatlands Invitational. Only in its second year of exisitence, the meet has grown to 62 schools and a total of 2,915 runners for 2006. The meet will feature the #2 ranked team in Virginia and #5 ranked team in the NTN Southeast Region with the Lake Braddock girls among other top ranked individuals and teams. The meet had rave reviews last year by coaches, athletes, and parents alike as the meet is managed by Loudoun County assistant AD Derek Farrey and Heritage head cross country coach Matt Oblas. MileStat.com will have several photographers on hand to contribute photos to the site following the meet.

Nike Team Nationals Southeast Region rankings for Week 3 have been released. Virginia has one new team appearing in this week\'s rankings as the Blacksburg girls have moved up to #8 in the Southeast. The Brentsville girls fall to #10 in the region, while the remaining five teams from Virginia stay in the same positions as last week except for the Lake Braddock girls that move up to #5.

The James Madison University men\'s cross country and track program was announced today to be eliminated effective of July 1st, 2007 thanks to Title IX as the school was forced to comply with NCAA regulations to match athletics particpation rates by gender in relation to the school\'s enrollment. Currently, females make up 50.7% of the athletes at JMU and 61% of the student population, while males make up 49.3% of JMU athletes and only 39% of the student population.

Team lists for each division of the high schools for this weekend\'s McDonald\'s X-Country Festival at Maymont to be held Friday and Saturday, September 29th and 30th. Includes race start times, number of runners in each race, and list of teams represented in each race division. Meet preview will be posted tonight.

As a former cross country runner at the high school and collegiate level, the cross country course found at the McDonald\'s X-Country Festival at Maymont provides many things a runner would like. The scenery is simply amazing at Maymont. The openess of the park allows for multiple points for spectators and coaches to get to on the course. Not to mention the great extras the people at Richmond Sports Backers are bringing to Maymont to make this truly an event rather than another meet such as live bands. In a description of various important points on the course, you\'ll find that the course is not a race track nor is it a mountain climb.

MileStat.com/Virginia State XC Rankings sponsored by the McDonald\'s Maymont X-Country Festival for September 27th have been released. These rankings are generated by poll votes from coaches around the state. Any coaches interested in participating in next week\'s poll please send in your rankings via email to milestat@gmail.com by noon next Wednesday, October 4th.

Performance list for the 2006 Maymont Cross Country Festival to be held Friday and Saturday, September 29th and 30th at Maymont Park in Richmond, Virginia.

Featuring no fewer than 13 teams that have been ranked among the top 10 high school cross country teams in the Southeast so far this season, this weekend

Weekend review for meets held on September 23rd. Include meet summaries from Great American, William & Mary Invite, Spiked Shoe Invite, Iolani Invite, Embry-Riddle/Smoothie King Invite, Penn State Altoona Lion Invite, and Hilltopper Invite.

Video clips from the 2006 Great American Cross Country Festival held at Spain Park in Hoover, Alabama on Saturday, September 23rd.

Important information for high school coaches for this weekend\'s Maymont Cross Country Festival to be held at Maymont Park in Richmond, Virginia. Information on directions, parking, packet pick-up, open races, and course previewing included.

The Midlothian boys and girls came away with top three finishes at the Great American Cross Country Festival held at Spain Park in Hoover, Alabama. The challenging course layout and a humid day tested all teams and individuals competing at the new venue for one of the largest and most competitive cross country invitationals in the country. The Midlothian boys validated their preseason #1 ranking in the Southeast region by finishing third overall in the Nike Race of Champions as the Southeast\'s top finishing team with 123 points. Finishing ahead of the US #15 Midlothian squad were two top ranked teams from the Northeast region in US #11 and NE #2 Collegiate of New York and US #21 and NE #4 Shenandoah of New York. Meanwhile, the SE #2 and US #16 Brentsville boys equally helped their cause in paving a road to Portland, Oregon for Nike Team Nationals finishing fourth (152 pts) in the Nike ROC as the region\'s second best squad at Great American. The Midlothian girls finished second to returning 2005 NTN squad and US #20 Episcopal of Florida in one of the closest team races of the day in the Nike ROC with Episcopal winning by 15 points over US #11 Midlothian. It was the first time ever that the Southeast region has had a ROC girls\' winner at Great American, much less the top two teams in the highly competitive race. Much more to come from Hoover (including more from The Road To Hoover...Brentsville boys pictured to the left with the Hoover High School cheerleaders at their football game on Friday night) as well as coverage of other weekend meets in Virginia.

The team from Westfield will be competing in the Iolani Invitational at the Kualoa Ranch in Iolani, Hawaii this Saturday. This is the eighth annual event and Westfield is the first Virginia school to make the trip to Hawaii since Midlothian and Lake Braddock did in 2004.

Brentsville and Thomas Jefferson S&T joined the Midlothian boys in the latest Harrier Super 25 national rankings done by Marc Bloom. The Midlothian boys, ranked US #17 in the preseason, moved up two places to #15. Meanwhile, the Brentsville made their first appearance in the rankings of the season at US #16 right behind Midlothian. Thomas Jefferson slipped in as the third Virginia team at #23. The Midlothian girls maintained their preseason US #11 ranking. Complete top 25 list can be found here.

The Midlothian team awaited the arrival of the Brentsville team and the charter bus that would be transporting them down to the Great American Cross Country Festival on the sidewalk of the bus loop of Midlothian High School. As the regular student body filtered out at 1:45 pm, some walked by in curiousity of where the large group of Midlothian students with plenty of bags packed was going, while current team members that would not be make the trip to the team came to wish them good luck before their trip. Some kids were probably wishing they should have joined the cross country team in getiing out of school early on Thursday and missing class on Friday. Too bad for them as these Hoover-bound runners earned this trip.

While the move of the Great American Cross Country Festival from border state North Carolina to the Deep South in Alabama affected the quantity of Virginia individuals and teams that usually compete in the event. The quality of the Virginians that will be at a very high level with teams from Midlothian, Brentsville, Oakton, and Blacksburg all having teams competing in the Nike Race of Champions, while Northside senior and returning Foot Locker All-American Catherine White will be competing as an individual as one of the race favorites in the Nike ROC.

MileStat.com/Virginia State XC Rankings sponsored by the McDonald\'s Maymont X-Country Festival for September 20th have been released. These rankings are generated by poll votes from coaches around the state. Any coaches interested in participating in next week\'s poll please send in your rankings via email to milestat@gmail.com by noon next Wednesday, September 27th.

Video clips from the 2006 Knights Crossing Invitational held Saturday, September 16th at Green Hill Park in Salem, Virginia. Video clips from the Black \"B\" Division races and Developmental race to be posted soon.

MileStat.com\'s Brandon Miles will be en route and chronicling the long 12 hour journey that the Midlothian High School and Brentsville High School cross country teams will be making together on a bus down to Hoover, Alabama for this year\'s Great American Cross Country Festival. The meet has great Nike Team Nationals implications for both boys and girls\' squads on each team with the Midlothian boys ranked #1 in the Southeast Region currently and Brentsville boys right behind them in the #2 spot, while the Midlothian girls are ranked #2 in the latest Southeast region rankings with the Brentsville girls at #5. A preview article on the trip and meet is forthcoming as well as a wrapup from last weekend\'s racing action with more photos, videos, and meet summaries prior to Thursday\'s 1:30 PM deparature time from Midlothian to Hoover.

Video clips from the \"A\" boys, \"A\" girls, and \"B\" girls are now posted from Brentsville. \"B\" boys video clips are coming!

As of September 14th, a list of schools that have entered teams in the 48th annual W&M High School Invitational, which will be run on Saturday, September 23rd.

Weekend highlights from NTN Southeast Region in week ending 9/16: SE #2 Brentsville VA boys taking close and exciting 2 second victory over SE #1 Midlothian VA in 5x2500m relay. SE #3 Trinity KY takes crushing defeats from MW #8 LaSalle OH and MW #9 Carmel IN and narrow loss to unranked Woodford KY. Without #1 runner Lockhart, SE #1 Eleanor Roosevelt MD girls still win big at Brentsville Relays against SE #2 Midlo.

MileStat.com was on-site at three meet this weekend with Brandon Miles pulling double coverage from one end of the state to the other (8 1/2 hours driving total) in the morning at the Knights Cross Invitational in Salem (first race starting at 9:30 am) to the Brentsville Relays in Nokesville (last race finishing close to 10 pm), while John Herzog was on-site with photo coverage at the Lee-Davis Invite. Results are now posted from Brentsville, Knights Crossing, Lee-Davis, Woodberry, and Judges Classic. Photos to come from Knights Crossing, Brentsville, and Lee-Davis. Summaries to come from all. Sunday will be a day of plenty work! Coaches w/ teams at Brentsville...Email me milestat@gmail.com your \"A\" team splits and \"B\" and \"C\" team splits (if \"B\" or \"C\" team finished in top 3). Weekend Highlights: Abingdon jr Griff Graves runs an impressive 14:41 for 3 miles on the Illinois state course to finish second against great competition Catherine White opens with a 18:06 meet record 5K at Knights Crossing Brentsville boys win classic battle by 3 seconds with Midlo boys at Brentsville Relays, ER girls show they are still team to beat in SE Hermitage boys put on a dominant team performance on new Pole Green course at Lee-Davis Handley boys continue to impress early on with home win at Judges Classic West Springfield travels to compete against tough competition in Ohio, Spooner finishes 2nd individually with 16:01 5K

Who said relay meets are suppose to be fun and relaxed? With a total of seven teams ranked in the latest Nike Team Southeast Region Rankings, the 5x2500 meter Brentsville Relays is turning into an early barometer gauge for some of the best teams in the Southeast Region. The meet will feature the top two ranked boys and girls teams in the region with SE #1 Midlothian boys, SE #2 Brentsville boys, SE #1 Eleanor Roosevelt girls, and SE #2 Midlothian girls. Also competing will be SE #4 Thomas Jefferson boys, SE #5 Brentsville girls, and SE #8 Lake Braddock girls. The event is held under the lights at night and begins with the first race of the day at 4:45 PM and ends with the last race of the day, \"A\" division girls, at 8:45 PM.

Northside senior and defending AA state champion Catherine White opens her season tomorrow at the Knights Cross Invitational held at Green Hill Park in Salem. High expections are placed upon White this season as she was a three-time All-American last year in cross country and track including a national runner-up finish for two miles last indoor season at Nike Indoor Nationals. White has had some great performances at Green Hill in the past including a 17:57 5K at the Fab 5K last month. The meet will also feature one of the state\'s top girls teams in Blacksburg. A great individual battle should be waged between one of A\'s best in Nathan Brame of Radford and the #3 ranked individual in AA in Peter Dorrell of Blacksburg.

Week 1 rankings for the Nike Team Nationals have been posted with a total of eight schools (4 boys, 3 girls) from Virginia found ranked in the Southeast region. Fork Union boys (SE #5) and Lake Braddock girls (SE #8) make their first appearances in the rankings. The Midlothian boys maintain their #1 position in the region, while Brentsville at #2 and Thomas Jefferson at #4 edge closer. West Springfield drops one spot to #8, while Midlothian girls move up one to #2. Brentsville girls maintain at #5.

The John Handley boys pulled off a shocker last week in upsetting defending A state champions and Nike Team Nationals Southeast Region #3 ranked team in Clarke County. Handley, a team projected to the qualify for the state meet out of AA\'s toughest region in Region II in the preseason, has projected themselves even further than previously predicted as a team that can run with the state\'s best. At Saturday\'s Judges Classic, the Handley boys will get another chance in front of the home crowd to show last weekend\'s performance was no fluke as they will be a team to be reckoned with this fall.

The modified Pole Green Park will be debuted on Saturday at the Lee-Davis Invite with 23 teams in attendance. The top team coming into the meet will be the Hermitage boys as last year\'s Central Region champions return to the venue of their 2005 regional championship. Meanwhile, the Maggie Walker girls will be aiming to win their second consecutive invitational of the season as their opened their cross country season with a win at last weekend\'s Fork Union Invitational.

Octoberfest may ADD a C Race (if so this will be done by Oct 1 and posted on MileStat.com. Coaches may still only enter 20 varsity athletes but may choose 2 of the 3 races to enter. Coaches do not have to declare.

MileStat.com/Virginia State XC Rankings sponsored by the McDonald\'s Maymont X-Country Festival for September 13th have been released. These rankings are generated by poll votes from coaches around the state. Any coaches interested in participating in next week\'s poll please send in your rankings via email to milestat@gmail.com by noon next Wednesday, September 20th.

When Tom Graves set the Class AA state cross country meet record as a Sandburg senior in 1977 at Peoria\'s Detweiller Park, he never could have dreamed his son would try to chase that mark on the same course 29 years later. Especially since the Graves family no longer calls Illinois home. Dr. Tom Graves, who is the assistant superintendent of the Washington County Public School District in Abingdon, Va., will accompany his son, Griff, to Detweiller Park on Saturday for the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational. Griff, a junior at Abingdon High School and a Virginia state cross country champion himself, will participate in the meet unattached in an effort to see just how close he can come to his father\'s still-standing 3-mile mark of 13 minutes, 56.6 seconds.

The season opener for Northern Region schools in Virginia pitted two NTN Southeast ranked squads against each other in SE #5 Thomas Jefferson Science & Tech and SE #8 West Springfield. There was no surprise in Thomas Jefferson coming out as the winner by a 35 point margin of victory as their superior depth was shown by placing seven runners ahead of West Springfield\'s #5. Meanwhile, the Lake Braddock girls started off their 2006 season in impressive fashion at the Monroe Parker Invite as they won by a 45 point margin over Westfield with four runners in the top 14 places.

Plenty of action from this weekend through the Nike Team Nationals Southeast Region: SE #1 Midlothian VA boys survive a scare from SE #6 Brentsville VA boys. SE #3 Midlothian VA girls overcome 2 dropouts to win big over SE #5 Brentsville VA girls & SE #8 Morgantown WV girls. SE #4 and 2005 NTN qualifiers Episcopal FL girls open with a 15 perfect and 12 second #1-5 spread. Several other upsets with teams rising and falling found from meets through the Southeast this past weekend.

Video clips from the 2006 Fork Union Cross Country Invitational held at FUMA\'s Hardy National 3 mile course in Fork Union, Virginia on Saturday, September 9th.

The state\'s top ranked boys and girls teams from Midlothian both survived scares at the Great Meadows Invitational in their opening races. The Nike Team Nationals Southeast #1 ranked squad in Midlothian ran well as shown by their low team total of 55 points in the competitive meet, but the NTN SE #6 ranked and two-time defending AA state champions Brentsville proved to be just as good as they finished two points shy of them in second place with 57 points. Midlothian junior Jason Witt took the individual title in a time of 16:03.15. Meanwhile, the Midlothian girls had two of their seven runners drop out of the race including top returnee and 4:53 miler M.C. Miller yet their amazing depth and talent was showcased still in dominating the #2 ranked team in the state and #5 ranked team in the NTN Southeast region in Brentsville by a 65 point margin of victory. The Lady Trojans were led by the Lautzenheiser twins, Kathleen (1st, 19:20.92) and Leia (3rd, 19:46.59), as the freshmen pair finished first and third respectively. More to come from Great Meadows...

Fork Union boys won their second big invite of the week over one of AA\'s top programs in Western Albemarle at the Fork Union Invitational. Coach Winston Brown\'s squad awarded him with an early 41 year old birthday present (turns 41 on Sunday) with their Fork Union Invite championship ever. The Blue Devils were led by race winner Axel Mostrag, who covered the Hardy National 3 mile course in 15:39 as he held off a strong challenge to the end from Manchester\'s Andrew Duty (15:40). Fork Union had four more finishers in the top 22 places with Szymon Rola (5th, 15:49), Jeremy Haney (9th, 16:00), David Johnson (12th, 16:14), and Jamie Reichlen (22nd, 16:47) to finish with a team score of 49 points as Western Albemarle took second with 77 points and gave FUMA a stronger challenge the second time around, especially in the early and mid-stages of the race. Rachel Rose of Albemarle led from the gun and never looked back for a 17:43 win and teammate Liz Barclay had a strong runner-up run in 18:35. However, the strong 1-2 punch was not strong enough for Albemarle (71 pts) to defeat Maggie Walker (66 pts). Complete results are posted. Photos, videos to come from Fork Union later! Meet summaries and photos to come from Great Meadows, Monroe Parker, Blue Demon, and Virginia Tech also!

The 2006 Great Meadows Invitational to be held this Saturday in The Plains, Virginia, will have early season Nike Team Nationals implications. The meet with feature a total of six Nike Team Nationals Southeast region ranked squads including preseason SE #1 Midlothian boys. The meet will serve as an early measuring stick of some of Virginia\'s and the Southeast\'s best teams with SE #1 Midlothian, SE #6 Brentsville, SE #7 Hermitage for the boys, while the NTN teams for the girls consist of SE #3 Midlothian, SE #5 Brentsville, and SE #8 Morgantown of West Virginia. The meet will also feature an early season showdown between two of the state\'s best returning cross country runners in Mountain View sophomore Thomas Porter and Midlothian junior Jason Witt.

At this weekend\'s Fork Union Invitational, another great battle is expected between the homestanding Blue Devils of Fork Union and Warriors of Western Albemarle, after FUMA came on top in the first of several head-to-head this season at Tuesday\'s Ragged Mountain Cup 4x2 mile relay. Cup runners-up Western Albemarle will be looking to take advantage of the longer distance on the Hardy National three mile course layout at FUMA along with the traditional meet scoring of five runners deep being used. Last year at FUMA, Albemarle senior Rachel Rose finished third in a time of 17:35.27 as she finished under the course record, but behind two eventual Foot Locker Nationals All-Americans last fall in Aurora Scott (16:46.97) and Catherine White (17:08.91). With Scott and White not returning for this year\'s race, Rose will be the heavy favorite and look to improve upon her 2005 time.

Nike Team Nationals Southeast Region Week 2 Report (week ending 9/2) from NTN SE Region editor Brandon Miles. Highlights include upsets at Clara Bowl with SE #10 Scottsboro AL girls and unranked South Forsyth GA girls beating SE #7 Mountain Brook girls. Near upset in boys race with unranked Parkview GA boys finishing 1 point behind SE #4 Smiths Station AL. SE #2 Trinity KY boys win big in first 5K race. Holy Trinity FL boys and girls and Pinecrest NC boys look to be back in the fray again this year.

Video clips from the 2006 Ragged Mountain Cup held at Panorama Farms in Charlottesville, Virginia on Tuesday, September 5th.

MileStat.com/Virginia State XC Rankings sponsored by the McDonald\'s Maymont X-Country Festival for September 6th have been released. These rankings are generated by poll votes from coaches around the state.

As of this morning (9/6), 117 teams, 70 schools, and 1295 athletes have been registered for this year\'s McDonald\'s Maymont Cross Country Festival to be held on September 29th and 30th in Richmond, Virginia. There is still time to register with final entries still being accepted until noon on Friday, September 8th. More meet information can be found at http://www.sportsbackers.org/xcountry_festival_team_info.htm.

The Fork Union boys proved their legitimacy as one of the state\'s best cross country teams this fall by simply running away from the competition at the Ragged Mountain Cup including a very strong Western Albemarle squad. In the 4x2 mile relay opener for Charlottesville area schools, Fork Union won by a considerable margin and new course record time as all of top three finishing teams in Fork Union, Western Albemarle, and Louisa County went under the record time. Fork Union\'s unofficial splits (complete results with official times will be posted sometime Wednesday) were 10:11 for opening leg Jeremy Haney, 10:15 for second leg Szymon Rola, 10:58 for third leg David Johnson, and 10:20 for anchor leg Axel Mostrag. Coming into this season, Fork Union had a question mark with fifth runner Jamie Reichlen, but he showed he did his work over the summer in running a 10:52 opening leg on FUMA\'s \"B\" relay team. Liz Barclay with a 12:29 opening leg and defending AAA state champion Rachel Rose with a 11:41 anchor leg carried the Albemarle girls and Coach Lance Weisand to their first Cup title ever.

Ask anyone in Virginia who laces up their cross country spikes for a living where the toughest harrier zone in the state is, and fall after fall they

Oaktree Academy junior Aurora Scott continues to amaze heading into this fall\'s cross country season as it is very apparent that while she was not racing during the track season, she was clearly preparing for this fall\'s cross country season as shown by her recent performance this past weekend at the Rock \'n\' Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach. Scott was the top finishing runner in her age group, 14th among all females, and 65th overall with a mind boggling time of 1:18.15.

High quality video clips from the 2006 Chancellor Invitational are now available for download. Varsity boys and varsity girls races are now posted. Developmental boys and developmental girls will be posted soon.

The high school cross country season in Virginia opened today at the Chancellor Invitational held at Loriella Park in Fredricksburg. The remnants of Ernesto soaked much of Virginia on Friday and rain continued to persist for Saturday morning races. However, the conditions did not stop the runners from performing at a high level. Mountain View sophomore Thomas Porter cruised to a 16:39 win in the boys race as he also led his squad (83 pts) to a seven point victory over Jamestown (90 pts). Meanwhile, the Colonial Forge girls (73 pts) were convincing winners by 48 points over Brooke Point (121 pts). The Lady Eagles were led by race winner Kaylan Comer, who came out on top in a time of 20:04 in a race which many lead changes occurred.

The Run Fer Da Hills Invitational course was lengthened from its traditional 3 mile course to a 5K distance at South Holston Dam in Bristol, Tennessee as two of Virginia\'s top returning runners in Abingdon junior Griff Graves and J.J. Kelly senior Brittany Killough hope to have set new course records in their 2006 wins that will stand for a while. Graves won by over a minute in a time of 16:13, while Killough (19:48) finished a decent margin ahead of runner-up Sabrina Hall of Pulaski County (20:21), who helped her squad to a team title at Run Fer Da Hills.

With such a loaded year for the state of Virginia expected with the number of elite female distance runners returning for this fall\'s cross country season, W.T. Woodson senior Sarrah Hadiji can easily be overlooked. After all, the state returns two Foot Locker Nationals All-Americans in Aurora Scott and Catherine White. Another pre-season favorite to qualify for Foot Locker Nationals in defending AAA state champion Rachel Rose of Albemarle comes back as well. However, the argument could be made that Hadiji has the greatest upside among the four as the defending AAA 3200 meter indoor state champion is only entering her second season of cross country. While her junior year had some misfortunes including a fall at Foot Locker South and dog attack prior to championship season in outdoors, the Woodson star has shown in past races just a sneak peak of what she is capable of.