Girls Summary: West Springfield's Caroline Alcorta and the Blacksburg girls cross country further legitimized themselves to be considered as part of the nation's best with their runaway victories at the adidas XC Challenge on Saturday in Cary, North Carolina.
Racing for the first-time on the WakeMed Soccer Complex and her first 5K race of the season, the MileSplit US #15 ranked Alcorta was able to beat her 5K PR from last fall (17:19 at Foot Locker South) and win by a 35 second margin of victory in a 17:18.7 state best clocking. The time is the 5th fastest time in the nation currently at the 5K distance for the 2013 cross country season and certainly indicates that Alcorta is capable of joining a short list of past Virginia high school female runners to have broken 17 minutes for 5K by season's end. Her best opportunity will come in late November at the Foot Locker South Regional in Charlotte, North Carolina on the another speedway at McAlpine Greenway Park.
The VA #1 ranked Blacksburg girls won their second major invitational in consecutive weekends in a dominant fashion by averaging 18:46 on the home course for the NXN Southeast Regional and creating a 45 point buffer between them and the runner-up squad Cardinal Gibbons of North Carolina with 6 runners among the top 20 and nearly all under 19 minutes in Bonnie Angermeier (8th, 18:09), Claire Ewing-Nelson (13th, 18:44), Jennifer Fleming (15th, 18:52), Emily Beatty (18th, 19:00), Annie Kay Combs (19th, 19:03), and Samantha Murin (20th, 19:03). The team was overlooked in the initial national team rankings by MileSplit and not include among the top 25, but expect the Blacksburg girls to make their national rankings debut after winning two major invitationals at Knights Crossing and adidas Challenge. The two freshmen Combs and Murin dropped over 20 seconds from their times at Knights Crossing to catch-up with their top four to make Blacksburg an even more formidable team in a week's time.
Despite having clear depth issues with their top 5 time spread of nearly 3 minutes and 20 seconds, the West Springfield girls managed to be the second highest finishing Virginian squad in the meet with a fourth place team showing as they benefited from stellar races from their top two in race winner Alcorta and Katie Kennedy (7th, 18:08). As their spread continues to decrease, their chances of making it out of a very difficult 6A North Region will increase, but having nearly two sub 18 minute 5K runners up front in Alcorta and Kennedy will not hurt their team's cause either.
Two Midlothian area runners had strong individual races down in Cary with Midlothian senior Brittney Whitt taking over as her team's front runner this fall in 11th place and a new 5K PR of 18:39, while Cosby senior Kate Birnbaum trailed in right behind her in 12th place at 18:41 to follow up a 5th place finish (18:22 3 mile) at the Fork Union Invite last weekend. In last year's classification system, Whitt and Birnbaum would be competing for the Dominion District title later this season, but find themselves with a classification in between as buffer with Whitt in the 4A Conference 20 and Birnbaum in the 6A Conference 3.
Boys Summary: No Virginia winners in the championship boys' race on this day in North Carolina, but the state had 3 of the top 6 finishing teams in the championship boys race with Blacksburg (2nd, 197 pts), Midlothian (4th, 235 pts), and Ocean Lakes (6th, 293 pts).
For the second weekend in a row, the Blacksburg boys were second in an invitational meet to arguably the best team in the Southeast region this fall in the Brought boys from Raleigh, North Carolina. The reigning four-time Group AA state champions and now top ranked favorites in the new Group 3A Blacksburg boys had a solid spread of just over a minute ranging from top runner Noah Combs at 15:46 to fifth runner Matthew Connor at 16:48. Blacksburg still has areas of improvement to be a stronger team down the stretch with two of their middle distance minded runners in Michael Carter (40th, 16:25) and Jacob McCoy (86th, 17:00) in particular have yet to show their full potential at the 5K distance based on their track talent and times.
The Midlothian boys showed much better than their season opener at Great Meadow with three guys rolling to times under 16 minutes in Evan Benjamin (8th, 15:40), Tommy Mulroy (9th, 15:42), and Collin Hahn (15th, 15:53) to elevate them a fourth place team showing with 235 points and 16:20 team average. Midlothian is currently missing Collin's younger brother Randy Hahn due to injury, which his return would likely return Midlothian to near the top of the state rankings as one of the Virginia's top squads for this fall, but the Trojans will still need to be stronger on the back end of their top five and develop more depth as sophomore Zach Wilson (10th, 16:45) seems to be the only runner beyond their top group that has stepped up this fall. The 4A state title right now is looking to be a two race between Glen Allen and Midlothian with Millbrook (8th at Oatlands Invite) also in the picture.
Ocean Lakes boys are certainly looking better than in recent seasons in regards to lack of front running as shown by Daniel Read posting a swift time of 16:11 for 9th place, but a tight pack is still their strength and helped them finish 6th out of 40 schools in the championship race and appear to be legitimate contender for that 6A South region title. Joining Read under 17 minutes at WakeMed Soccer Complex were teammates Max Fulmer (48th, 16:35), John Will (48th, 16:35), and Calhoun Stirling (65th, 16:46) to help give them at a 16:41 team average and team score of 293 points.
In the invitational division races, the Cosby boys were the team champions with 94 points to edge out a Maryland school in Reservoir by a mere one point. Cosby had two sub 17 minute performances from Sam Murch (3rd, 16:27) and Tim Young (12th, 16:59). Coming off his runner-up finish at the Maroon Tide Invite on Wednesday, Galax's Cliff Conley ran his second sub 17 minute 5K of the week in 5th place in the invitational race at 16:45. There two top 10 individual finishers in the invitational girls' race from Virginia in Hanover senior Annie Sadler (5th, 20:19) and Monticello junior Isabelle Hermsmeier (8th, 20:32).
Four Virginians went under 16 minutes in the championship boys race with Blacksburg's #1 runner Combs and the Midlo trio of Benjamin, Mulroy, and Hahn as well as Lee-Davis senior Paul Adam, who virtually matched his time from Great Meadow Invite victory earlier in the season with 14th place effort of 15:52. Adam is looking to be a major player in the 5A classification this fall when the state meet rolls around at Great Meadow in November.
Check out below for results and photo galleries from the adidas XC Challenge!
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