On Wednesday morning, MileStat.com's first stop on our 2013 preseason cross country practice tour will bring us to Forest, Virginia (a suburban community outside of the city of Lynchburg) to visit the Jefferson Forest High School cross country squad. Their girls team looks to be one of the top contending teams in the new 4A classification as on paper, it appears the Lady Cavaliers will be the top returning team along with perennial Group AAA powers Midlothian. Their team has not won a state team title in cross country since 2001 when their team featured the great twin sister duo of Shannon and Kristen Saunders, but this year's Jefferson Forest squad is poised to make a run for the title as they are led by another distance star from the Saunders household in the baby sister Erin Saunders who is the team's top returning runner along with fellow All-State caliber junior Alyssa Shupe. Both runners are looking to make that next step in their running individually.
Erin Saunders is looking to run out of the shadows of her older sisters and make a bigger name for herself on the state level as last year was the first time that she ran year around and participated in indoor track, while Shupe had a lot of success in the middle distance events on the track in both indoor and outdoor, but now has shift to 5000 meters being her primary event for the fall. Saunders made up for a disappointing debut as a freshmen in the state cross country championships at Great Meadow with strong sophomore showing as she posted a 5K PR time of 19:05 for fifth place in last year's Group AA race. She earned All-State honors again indoors with a fifth place finish in the Group AA State Indoor Championships in Lynchburg. Meanwhile, Shupe was arguably Jefferson Forest's top performer during the track season as a Group AA All-State performer in both indoors at 1000 meters (5th) and outdoors at 800 meters (3rd). Shupe, who was the team's #2 finisher in the state cross country race last fall in 29th place, lowered her track PR's down to 2:18 in the 800, 3:01 in the 1000, and 5:14 in the 1600.
A state meet podium team last fall as the Jefferson Forest girls were just nudged out of second place by Grafton with a 1 point difference separating the two squads, Jefferson Forest will be a force to be reckoned with this year and next fall as six of their top 7 runners from last year's state meet squad are only juniors entering this fall. With Saunders and Shupe, Jefferson Forest has two legitimate front runners to compete well inside the top 15 in the new 4A classification. Behind them, Jefferson Forest should have a pack of runners coming in with 5K bests in the 20 minute range between their lone senior in Carsen Wilkerson (20:11) and then more juniors in Jesse Englund (20:14), Abby May (20:23), Laci Sorrell (20:30), and Marie Abowd (21:00). Other runners who made improvements during the track season to put themselves in position to challenge for varsity spots include junior Elizabeth Ruhland (5:36 1600) and sophomore Kaitlyn McCauley (12:32 3200).
The Jefferson Forest boys do not have nearly as high of expectations placed on them entering this season as their female counterparts, but could surprise and compete for a state meet berth out of the 4A North Region. The top 6 teams advance out of the new regional setup onto the state meet and the Jefferson Forest boys appear to be at least among the top 10 best teams coming back based on last fall's times. They will need to close the gap on several formidable squads from the no longer existing Region II that are looking to be the dominant crop of schools in the new 4A North Region. Cooper Tedford is the team's top returnee from last fall as he is coming off a very solid freshmen year. Tedford looked to be just a year away from being an individual state qualifier in both cross country (19th at the regional meet) and track (9th in 3200 at indoor regional meet and 8th in 3200 at outdoor regional meet) as he can certainly build and improve upon his freshmen year best times of 17:31 in the 5K, 4:45 in the 1600, and 10:32 in the 3200. A sophomore in Tedford and senior in Eric Abowd should lead the boys' squad at JF this fall. Abowd was unable to get in the 17 minute range last fall in cross country, but showed his greater potential on the track by posting times of 4:44 in the 1600 and 10:45 in the 3200.
Our visit on Wednesday will not be a strenous workout or difficult run that we will see on the vast majority on our stops and will be more of a fun and relaxed team chemistry building practice as the Jefferson Forest squad does a maintenance run to a neighborhood pool where they will be greeted with a refreshing swim and pancakes to feed their appetite. Later on in the day, the squad will also have a round robin kickball tournament. Its important to see how some of these top teams train and what makes them successful with their performances, but also great to see how these teams become so close knit and develop strong friendships to work hard together as a team. Should be a nice way to easy into our own busy stretch of travel and visits over the next month checking in with many of the state's top teams, individuals, and coaches preparing for the long haul and great finishes in November.