Monroe Parker Invitational Coverage

Sep 08, 2013

Thomas Edison senior Louis Colson made a big leap onto the Burke Lake Park 2.98 mile course all-time list with his scorching time of 14:43 to win the Monroe Parker Invitational. Colson now finds himself #9 all-time on the historic course between two former Edison greats in George Watts (14:42 - 1974) and Eric Kweder (14:45 - 1996). Colson's time was also 7 seconds faster than the winning time at last year's Monroe Parker Invitational by eventual Foot Locker Nationals runner-up Sean McGorty. Colson and West Springfield senior Caroline Alcorta's winning times (Alcorta tied her #8 all-time 16:58 performance from the 2012 Northern Region Meet) today at the Monroe Parker Invitational are remarkable considering all the times on the all-time list around them are found during championship season meets in late October/early November and not the first Saturday of September. How much faster can they go at season's end when the weather is cooler and they are fitter?

Girls Individual Champion - Caroline Alcorta (West Springfield) 16:58

Boys Individual Champion - Louis Colson (Thomas Edison) 14:43

Girls Team Champions - Lake Braddock 159 pts

Girls Team Runners-up - James Madison 163 pts

Girls 3rd Place Team - Chantilly 171 pts

Boys Team Champions - Chantilly 88 pts

Boys Team Runners-up - Patriot 121 pts

Boys 3rd Place Team - James Robinson 144 pts

Freshmen Girls Race Champion - Rachel McArthur (Patriot) 18:52

Photo by Ed Lull

Freshmen Boys Race Champion - Mitchel Kern (W.T. Woodson) 16:42

Photo by Ed Lull

Meet Summary: Despite suffering significant graduation losses from last year's Group AAA state champion squads, the Chantilly boys and Lake Braddock girls found themselves as winners again in the preview meet for the state's toughest region in the new 6A North Region at the Monroe Parker Invitational on Saturday. The Chantilly boys lost their top three runners from last year's squad including two state champion caliber runners in Sean McGorty and Logan Miller. Their front two this fall may not be as strong as last year's, but its close enough as shown by two great individual races from juniors Ryan McGorty (3rd, 15:11) and Dakota Lange (4th, 15:15). The two runners ahead of them in both Colson and George C. Marshall's MacKenzie Haight (2nd, 15:05) are both in the 5A classification, while McGorty and Lange both finishead ahead of several runners ranked ahead of them in the preseason in the 6A division between the likes of James Madison's Matthew Calem (5th, 15:20), Lake Braddock's Alex Corbett (6th, 15:21), and Osbourn Park's Nick Causey (10th, 15:36) to have them start seriously thinking about not only racing for the team title, but individual state titles as well.

In a meet with 6 of top 11 pre-season ranked boys teams in the state of Virginia with VA #1 James Robinson, VA #4 Osbourn Park, VA #7 Lake Braddock, VA #8 Patriot, and VA #11 Battlefield, the VA #3 ranked Chantilly boys proved to be at another level on this day with their team score of 88 points putting a good amount of distance between themselves and the runners-up from Patriot (2nd, 121 pts) and knocking off the #1 ranked James Robinson squad (3rd, 144 pts). Robinson had one of their top runners in John Tolbert drop out in the race to impact their team finish, but still likely wouldn't have allow them to better Chantilly who had a complete team race from runners #1 thru #5. Chantilly nearly had 4 runners under 16 minutes with Adam Huff breaking into the top 15 with a time of 15:45 (15th place, while Peter Malander appears to be healthy after an injury plagued year as a junior as he ran in the #4 spot at Monroe Parker with a 28th place effort of 16:05. Chantilly coach Matt Gilchrist saw a big time drop and promising development from Mirak Khan as the team's #5 runner in 38th place at 16:19.

The Patriot boys did not have the front running like Chantilly with Huff nearly beating Patriot's #1 runner Nick Bussian (13th, 15:44), but a well packed top five and a tight spread of only 24 seconds separating them with Bussian, Ryan Small (18th, 15:53), Andrew Derstine (29th, 16:07), Joshua Small (30th, 16:07), and Brendan Lavell (31st, 16:08). Their pack allowed them to make a very impressionable debut against the former Northern Region schools which welcome Patriot into their new 6A North Region. The Northern Region schools will certainly have to account for not only Patriot, but other former Northwest Region schools Battlefield (4th, 159 pts) and Osbourn Park (5th, 186 pts) who will be competing for those 6 state auto spots at the regional meet in November back at Burke Lake Park.

The Lake Braddock girls not only graduated several runners from their top 7 last fall including state champion Sophie Chase, but also were missing several runners projected in their top 7 this fall at the Monroe Parker Invitational with the most notable athlete missing in action being 2013 Group AAA state indoor 1000 meter champion Katie Roche. Roche was held out as a precaution and could be racing next weekend when the Lake Braddock team travels out to a meet in Arizona.

Despite not being close to full strength, Lake Braddock was still able to find a way to come away as meet winners which felt like half dozen teams could have maybe won it following the race in a hotly contested team battle. The Washington-Lee girls looked like they had the meet won thru 4 runners with Sarah Angell (7th, 18:10), Sarah Sears (21st, 18:57), Donia Nichols (24th, 19:01), and Jordan Grimaldi (29th, 19:21), but missing Jordan Selby (18:57 3mi, 11:30 3200, 5:11 1600) and Kathryn Eng (19:33 3mi, 11:59 3200, 5:32) hurt them as their fifth finisher on Saturday buried them back to a sixth team standings.

Lake Braddock had enough depth to overcome being short handed as the Lady Bruins were led by a strong individual run from Hannah Christen as her time of 17:28 would be fast enough to win the Monroe Parker Invite most years, but the 30 second margin of victory by West Springfield's Alcorta minimalized a great time produced by Christen. Braddock has a #3 runner in Katy Kunc, who runs like a #1 as she nearly broke 18 minutes for the first time at Burke Lake Park with a 5th place showing of 18:03. A total of four girls went under Burke Lake Park with Alcorta, Christen, Kunc and swift times by Robert E. Lee's Bailey Kolonich (3rd, 17:55) and James Madison's Amanda Swaak (4th, 17:57).

Rounding out the scoring five for the Lake Braddock girls were new names and faces to their varsity lineup from last fall in Sonya Butseva (25th, 19:10), Katie Voetglin (52nd, 20:00), and Macy Trump (83rd, 20:34) to allow them to hold off a surprising second place team finish from James Robinson (163 pts) with a grand team score of 159 points. Going at least 10 deep in varsity girls team standings at the Monroe Parker Invite is virtually all schools with state meet experience last year or recent years and with strong aspirations of a state meet berth this fall and the pecking order certainly is not set in stone for the 6A North Region schools as some of the traditional powers like West Springfield (9th, 250 pts) and West Potomac (7th, 245 pts) finished back in the field and always seem to come on strong at season's end, while James Robinson raced without #1 runner Macey Schweikert. Teams like James Madison, Chantilly, South Lakes, and Washington-Lee are ready to seize the moment and qualify to make rare state meet team appearances in the state's new toughest region in cross country in the 6A North.

Results:

Race Videos

Varsity Boys
Varsity Girls
JV Boys #2
JV Boys #1
JV Girls #2
JV Girls #1 (Finish Line Cam from Ed Lull)
Freshmen Boys (Finish Line Cam from Ed Lull)
Freshmen Girls (Finish Line Cam from Ed Lull)

Video Interviews

Photo Gallery by Brandon Miles - Over 1,000 photos from varsity races

Updated Burke Lake Park (2.98 mile) All-Time Course List

Burke Lake's fastest ever Northern Region runners and their personal bests on the present 2.98 mile course, which was established in 1974.

BOYS:

1. Alan Webb (South Lakes) 13:57 (10-25-2000)

2. Sharif Karie (West Springfield) 14:19 (10-31-1996)

2. Sean McGorty (Chantilly) 14:19 (11- 2- 2012)

4. Jim Hill (Oakton) 14:26.4 (11- 2- 1978)

5. Dwight Stephens (T.C. Williams) 14:29.8 (11- 1- 1979)

6. Mike Mansy (T.C. Williams) 14:30.1 (11- 2- 1978)

7. Ahmed Bile (Annandale) 14:38 (11- 3- 2011)

8. George Watts (Edison) 14:42 (11- 1- 1974)

9. Louis Colson (Edison) 14:43 (9-7-2013)

10. Eric Kweder (Edison) 14:45 (1996)

11. Eric Post (Chantilly) 14:48 (10-31-1996)

12. Bob Murray (Fort Hunt) 14:49 (1981)

13. Dennis Kappeler (Mount Vernon) 14:49 (1981)

14. Jeff Pajak (Annandale) 14:49.2 (10-31-1985)

15. Steve Halsey (Langley) 14:50 (11- 4- 1976)

15. Chris Foley (Chantilly) 14:50 (c) (11- 5- 2009)

15. Andrew McCullen (Oakton) 14:50 (c) (11- 5- 2009)

18. Mike Stafford (Wakefield) 14:51 (11- 3- 1977)

18. Mike Spooner (West Springfield) 14:51 (10-26-2006)

20. Andrew Macleod (Oakton) 14:52 (10-30-1997)

20. Pat Conway (West Springfield) 14:52 (10-30-1997)

22. Pete Tatro (Fort Hunt) 14:53 (1975)

23. Jim Martin (West Springfield) 14:53.2 (10-30-1986)

24. Marc Anderson (Washington-Lee) 14:53.9 (1979)

25. John Babcock (Langley) 14:54 (11- 2- 1978)

25. Ibrahim Aden (W.T. Woodson) 14:54 (11- 2- 1989)

27. Kevin Dowd (Fairfax) 14.55 (c) (11- 5- 2009)

28. Christo Landry (Jefferson) 14:56 (10-24-2003)

29. Cliff Holtz (Annandale) 14:57 (1983)

30. Chuck Wimberly (Edison) 14:58 (1977)

31. Rasheed Thompson (Herndon) 14:58 (11- 7- 2002)

32. Roy Borden (Hayfield) 14:59 (1991)

33. David Iverson (Robinson) 14:59.2 (1986)

34. Mark Lambert (Robinson) 14:59.7 (1984)

GIRLS:

1. Erin Keogh (Langley) 16:09.7 (10-31-1985)

2. Aimee Harms (Annandale) 16:30.7 (10-31-1985)

3. Melissa Dewey (Hayfield) 16:42 (11- 4- 2004)

3. Sophie Chase (Lake Braddock) 16:42 (11- 2- 2012)

5. Laura Heiner (Centreville) 16:47 (10-30-1997)

6. Wendy Neely (Lake Braddock) 16:49.2 (10-30-1986)

7. Jackie Kerr (Jefferson) 16:56 (1995)

8. Caroline Alcorta (West Springfield) 16:58 (9-7-2013) & (11- 2- 2012)

9. Andrea Volpe (Lake Braddock) 16:59.6 (1982)

10. Sarah Colvin (Chantilly) 17:02.6 (9-10-86)

11. Meghan McCarthy (Robinson) 17:03 (11- 1- 1990)

12. Amy Colvin (Chantilly) 17:05.9 (10-31-1985)

13. Erin Swain (Lake Braddock) 17:06 (11- 4- 1999)

14. Hannah Christen (Lake Braddock) 17:08 (11- 2- 2012)

15. Liz Awtrey (Robinson) 17:10 (11- 5- 1998)

16. Libby Williams (Annandale) 17:13.9 (10-31-1985)

17. Vicki Verinder (Langley) 17:14.1 (11- 3- 1983)

18. Allie Klimkiewicz (Oakton) 17:16 (11- 2- 2012)

19. Alexa Lange (Herndon) 17:20 (1988)

19. Kelley Otstott (Jefferson) 17:20 (1997)

21. Jackie Concaugh (Annandale) 17:22 (11- 2- 1989)

22. Alisa Harvey (Jefferson) 17:23.9 (1982)

23. Anne Evans (South Lakes) 17:24.9 (10-29-1987)

24. Paige Kvartunas (West Springfield) 17:25 (c) (11- 5- 2009)

25. Sharon Poole (Langley) 17:25.4 (1986)

26. Shannon Sarabyn (Centreville) 17:26 (1996)

27. Karen Sanfacon (W.T. Woodson) 17:26.4 (10-31-1985)

28. Linda Portasik (Fort Hunt) 17:26.8 (1978)

29. Andrea Lengi (Madison) 17:27 (1988)

29. Macey Schweikert (Robinson) 17:27 (11- 2- 2012)

31. Nicole Snider (Jefferson) 17:28 (1997)

32. Bailey Kolonich (R.E. Lee) 17:30 (11- 3- 2011)

33. Kristi Cassell (Lake Braddock) 17:30.5 (1982)

Notes:

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.
Times with a (c) next to them from the 2009 regional meet have been adjusted to reflect the course length that year of 3.01 miles.
Performances through the Monroe Parker Invitational on September 7th, 2013.