William & Mary Invitational Coverage

William and Mary Invitational
MileSplit Staff

 

Boys Team Champions - Deep Run

 

Girls Team Champions - Maggie Walker

Photo by Scott Reid

 

Results now posted from the William & Mary Invitational! Molly Breidenbaugh (18:49) of Trinity and Alex Fleckestein (16:01) of Maggie Walker won the varsity A race individual titles. One of the top ranked 5A squads in the Deep Run boys held off their former Colonial District rivals and the new Group 2A favorites Maggie Walker for the boys' team title, while the Maggie Walker girls edged out River Hill High School of Maryland by 3 points for the girls' team title with three runners among the top 7 in Emma Call (5th, 19:42), Daisy Banta (6th, 19:45), and Khloe Pointer (7th, 19:46). Full meet summary by Ryan Webb posted below along with photo gallery by Scott Reid.

 

Meet Summary by Ryan Webb:

In the late 90’s and early 2000’s the William and Mary Invitational was THE invitational of the weekend. Since then with the introduction of other great meets has seen the depth of the William and Mary Invitational slip, but there always seems to be great team and individual battles at the top of this meet. The 2013 edition was no different. The toughness of the course and the surprising temperature (into the 80o’s by the A race start) plagued many runners but the matchups were great. The girl’s race saw the #1 ranked private school girl, the #1 ranked 2A team, and one of Maryland’s top small schools. The boy’s race saw two #1 ranked teams (2A and 5A), with no lack of knowledge of each other as just months ago they were in the same district. Each of those teams had an individual that has hopes of high places at their state meet in November.

In the Girl’s A race, Molly Breidenbaugh (VA Private School #1, Cream of Crop #4) of Trinity ran her first full 5k of the season. A few weeks ago Breidenbaugh opened her season with a 30 second win at Fork Union, and was just as dominant in Williamsburg this past weekend. Taking the lead a few strides into the race, she stretched her lead the entire way leading through the mile in 5:44, 2 mile well under 12:00, and bringing home the win in 18:49. Closing well over the last 2k was Allion Krein (19:01), of Maryland’s River Hill. For those that don’t know in the mid 2000’s River Hill’s athletics program was, simply, dominant in the State of Maryland. This dominance was felt in their Cross Country and Track programs as well. It would seem that there is a resurgence starting as the Lady Hawks ran very well on their first out of state trip this season, averaging 20:42 on the challenging Eastern State Hospital course. Following Krein to the line was Teresa Gregory(19:21) of Forest Park and Rachel Bloxom(19:30) of Grafton. Both of these ladies are enjoying some early season success, as Gregory was actually able to run faster at Eastern State than she was several weeks ago in her 10th place finish at the Great Meadows Invitational, and Bloxom was following up a 3rd place showing at the Newport News Invitational.

In the team title hunt the Maggie Walker girls (VHSL 2A#1, Cream of Crop #9) were trying very hard to play the role of bad host for the visitors from Maryland. Two weeks ago their top three runners finished 5th, 6th, and 7th at the Newport News Invitational to lead the Dragons to the meet championship. With 400 meters to go the Maggie Walker trio of Daisy Banta, Emma Call, and Freshman Khloe Pointer was again lined up only they were in 7th, 8th, and 9th. Call and Banta are both proven over the middle distances with a 2:15 800m PR for the former and a 5:08 1600 PR for the latter, and they both kicked like it. The surprising piece was that Pointer was able to hang right with them. The trio moved up over after 3 miles to match their finishing places from Newport News two weeks ago (Call 5th 19:41, Banta 6th 19:45, Pointer 7th 19:46). The Dragons, as it always seems to be, have benefitted well from their freshman class this year.  If the Dragons are vulnerable, however, it is in their depth and River Hill nearly capitalized on it. There was still a gap of nearly 80 seconds between Pointer their next finisher, another Freshman Archana Shekaran (29th 21:23) and another 30 seconds before their 5th finisher. The Hawks were able to get 6 girls in before Maggie Walker’s 5th and their 7thfollowed only 2 places behind. If the Dragons really want to enjoy the same level of success that they have over the past 5-10 years they will have to work to cut down on these time gaps. In the end however the 2A favorites were able to do just enough to hold off River Hill winning by just 3 points 74-77.

Another important team battle was brewing in the Girls A race, behind the two teams battling for the meet championship. Two of the top 5 Private School teams were squaring off for the first time this season in Trinity Episcopal (Private School #2) and St. Catherine’s School (Private School #3). Even without any runners breaking 20:00 St. Catherine’s was able to use a strong pack to pull the upset over their rivals, and came away 3rd in the overall team score. While Trinity benefitted from individual champ Breidenbaugh, and another top 10 finisher in Sophomore Katie Bowe (8th 19:55) they will need to sure up their next three places before they will challenge the Saints.

In the Boy’s A division a similar scenario was occurring as in the Girls A. Would Deep Run’s  (VHSL 5A#1, Cream of Crop #9) front runners be able to hold off the pack of Maggie Walker (VHSL 2A#1, Cream of Crop #11). Both the individual and team championships would be a dual between these two teams. From the start Deep Run’s All-State hopeful Matthew Novak (5A #5 individual) took the pace out hard leading through the mile in a swift 4:52, but by 2 miles it was no longer a 1 man race as Maggie Walker Senior Alex Fleckenstein (2A #1 individual) had separated from a chase pack of 3 runners to begin to close on Novak. With 1000 meters to go Fleckenstein and Novak were shoulder to shoulder, and over the last 800 meters it was apparent that Novak was paying for the fast early pace in the heat and hills as Fleckenstein was able to pull away for a 10 second win in 16:01 (16:11 for Novak). Finishing strong for 3rd was Veritas Sophomore Miles Clikeman (Private School #2 Individual). Rounding out the top 5 places was Andrew Goldman of Herndon in 4th with a time of 16:30 and Chris Heydrick of River Hill in 5thstopping the clock at 16:35.

While Deep Run had lost the battle up front they were doing all they could to win the war placing two more runners in the top 10. One of those runners was defending W&M Meet champion Grayson Reid running in his season opener. Reid, whose health has been in question early this season, will play a pivotal role in the success for the Wildcats this year as it showed in Williamsburg on Saturday. His 16:36 6th place finish and Alexander Varon’s 16:52 10th place were too much for Maggie Walker to overcome. Deep Run was able to hold on even with Maggie Walker putting 6 runners in before Deep Run’s 5th, to win the meet title with 97 points to Maggie Walkers 103. Depth will be a major issue for Deep Run if any of their top guys run into a problem, as their 6th man finished in 90th with a time over 19:00. However, if the Wildcats can stay healthy up front and continue to progress with their 5th man, they will be a tough team to beat in November.

 

Meet Results:

 

Photo Gallery by Scott Reid - 1,271 photos total