SALEM, VA -- The Blacksburg boys and girls swept the team titles at the Metro Invitational on Thursday afternoon at Green Hill Park. The Blacksburg girls, ranked #3 in the state and #8 in the Nike Team Nationals Southeast region, were big winners with 42 points as they finished 53 points ahead of second-place Patrick Henry. Meanwhile, the Blacksburg boys (66 pts) won by a convincing margin of 36 points over Cave Spring (102 pts). Northside senor Catherine White made her first appearance since dropping out at Great American two weeks ago with a leg cramp with her third consecutive Metro Invite championship in 18:26.05 on the Green Hill Park 5K course. Cave Spring\'s Tim Smith (16:08.61) pulled off a fairly big upset over Blacksburg\'s top runner Peter Dorrell (16:20.71). to win the boys\' individual title.
Coach Demarco\'s boys had three finishers in the top ten for Blacksburg with race runner-up Peter Dorrell, Christian Viehland (8th, 16:59.82), and Matthew Howard (10th, 17:11.92).
Smith led Cave Spring to the second place team finish with 102 points. Smith had finished second to Dorrell three weekends ago at the Knights Crossing Invite hosted on the same course at Green Hill Park by nine seconds, but was able to get the upperhand on Thursday.
The Blacksburg girls have had a streak of outstanding meets this season that have helped them move ahead of Brentsville as the #1 ranked team in AA currently. Blacksburg defeated Brentsville at Great American two Saturdays ago at Great American and took a solid third place at the competitive Maymont Festival this past Saturday against the SE #1 and SE #4 ranked teams in Eleanor Roosevelt of Maryland and Tatnall of Delaware.
With a front three such as Allison Homer, Laurel MacMillan, and Cate Berenato, Blacksburg is a tough team to beat. Homer finished second to race champion White by 13 seconds in a time of 18:39.96. MacMillan (6th, 19:19.63) and Berenato (7th, 19:36.61) gave the Lady Bruins three of the top seven finishers. Hannah Barrow almost gave Blacksburg four top ten finishers with her 11th place run of 20:12.20.
The Norbo sisters, Kate (9th, 20:01.62) and Carter (15th, 20:40.58), led Patrick Henry of Roanoke to a team runner-up finish of 95 points.
The Roanoke Valley area showcased it has become a hot bed for distance running as shown by some of the other individual times.
Jane Gay of North Cross, is one of the top ranked runners in the state among private school ranks at #2 and was #3 at Knights Crossing with a time of 18:47.83.
Glenvar freshmen Megan Marsico is trying to follow in the footsteps of 2006 Glenvar grad Kelly Clark, who was a state champion in cross country and track. Marsico just missed breaking 19 minutes with a time of 19:08.69.
Alisha Royal, a transfer from South Carolina, showed that William Byrd now has a runner that can run with the best in AA as the sophomore defeated two of Blacksburg and AA\'s best in MacMillan and Berenato with a time of 19:15.74 for fifth place.