Girls Team Champions
Peninsula Catholic 23 pts (21:59 average)
Boys Team Champions
Peninsula Catholic 26 pts (17:56 average)
Girls Individual Champion
Molly McKenna (Peninsula Catholic) 19:59
Boys Individual Champion
Philip Harpen (Peninsula Catholic) 17:01
Photos by Mary Ann Magnant
Just under 20 schools competed locally at the Riverview Park in Newport News for the Peninsula Catholic School hosted Bill McGough Invitational. The Peninsula Catholic cross country team greeted the rest of the schools which they hosted by winning all four major titles in the meet with a clean sweep of the individual and team titles for both the varsity boys and girls races.
The Peninsula Catholic boys inserted 5 among the top 10 with a 1-2 finish from Philip Harpen as the champion at 17:01 and teammate Max Weidman as the runner-up at 17:20. Rounding out their scoring top 5 for the team champions from Peninsula Catholic were Eric Taleghani (6th, 18:19), Collin White (7th, 18:22), and Ryan Duregger (10th, 18:39). Only the Menchville pair of Daniel Gerlach (3rd, 17:44) and David Brakman (5th, 17:51) along with Poquoson's Makinnley Casey (4th, 17:45) were able to break up the top four for Peninsula Catholic.
After running a 19:10 5K PR to finish as a runner-up at last week's Newport News Invitational against many top tier public school runners, Peninsula Catholic senior Molly McKenna had an equally impressive second race of the season to decisively beat last year's Group AA state 3200 indoor champion Carley Shannon of Bruton (2nd, 20:48) averaging 6:26 per mile on the Riverview Farms Park 5K course for a 19:59 winning performance. Following Shannon and Walsingham's Reilly Pieri (3rd, 21:10), the Peninsula Catholic girls packed it up with the next four finishers in Martine Hunnicutt (4th, 21:24), Becky Aungst (5th, 22:22), Abby Tanko (6th, 22:58), and Gracie Miner (7th, 23:13) to complete their team scoring at a low score of 23 points for the defending Virginia Independent Schools Division 2 state champions. The Walsingham Academy girls, paced by third place finisher Pieri, edged out other Tidewater area private schools Nansemond-Suffolk (3rd, 105 pts) and Bishop Sullivan (4th, 113 pts) for the runner-up team trophy.
Photo Gallery by Mary Ann Magnant - 2,320 photos total
Meet Results:
Results by Team