Another weekend of cross country and excitement is in the books.  This week saw Zach Wills dipping under 15 minutes for the first time in his career at the Culver Academis Invitational.  St. Ignatius and Magnificat both won their respective Championship races at the All Ohio Catholic Championship in Kettering, Ohio.

While the Blacksburg girls and boys became the first school ever to sweep the invitational team titles in meet history at Maymont on Saturday, the Hidden Valley girls (pictured by Hetzal Hartley) appear to be making up ground on their River Ridge district rival as shown with their impressive showing at the Greensboro Invitational. Meanwhile, the Osbourn Park girls and Oakton boys strengthened their Group AAA state title hopes with team titles at the largest meet in the state of Virginia, the Oatlands Invitational, with a total of 3,047 finishers. More coverage to come from this past weekend's meets. Meet summaries now posted from Maymont, Oatlands, Chesapeake, Greensboro, Bristol Cross, and Carlisle.

Matt Cecala, Bobby Bishop and Dennis Logan lead Baldwin (Photo by John Herzog for MileStat.com)

While the Blacksburg boys have gained respect within the state of Virginia this fall as the top ranked team in the state. The respect in the region and national level appears to be lacking. They look to their upcoming race at Maymont to get more attention. Meanwhile, there is an abundance of studs who will be contending for the boys individual title.

The Tatnall girls are back to defend their Maymont title from a year ago as the top ranked team within the Southeast region. In the invitational girls division with Tatnall will be many of Virginia’s top ranked teams as well as strong squads from California, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, and North Carolina. Virginia's #1 ranked team Blacksburg will hope to gain a victory at Maymont as a springboard to a Nike Cross Nationals berth, which has been the season end result for many past champions at Maymont.

Race assignments for this weekend's the U.S. Army X-Country Festival at Maymont.

The invitational division for the 2009 U.S. Army X-Country Festival at Maymont is shaping up to be the most competitive field to date for the meet in Richmond, VA.  There are currently ten schools that placed in the Top 10 of their respective state meets last year, including three Division 2 Champions, running at Maymont on September 26^th. Note: A reminder that the deadline for Maymont is on September 6th.

With the high school team entry period now closed, it is clear that the September 25-26, 2009 U.S. Army X-Country Festival at Maymont is once again a must-do meet for many of the country’s most competitive programs.  “This is as good an invitational field as we’ve ever had, and that’s saying a lot,” meet director Dan Ward says.  “This is the strongest multi-state cross country field in the U.S. to date this year.” Over two hundred and fifty teams representing almost 90 schools from 12 states and the District of Columbia have registered over 2,300 runners.