MECHANICSVILLE, VA -- Everyone in the Capital District will be looking forward to another showdown between two of the state\'s best freshmen runners in Hanover\'s Lauren Hopper and Lee-Davis\' Amanda Lineberry at Wedney\'s Capital District Championships. Hopper and Lineberry have had several clashes already this season with the most recent two Saturdays ago at the Lee-Davis Invitational with a eight second victory over Lineberry in a personal best time of 18:59. Lineberry had defeated Hopper on the same course just three days earlier in a Wendesday meet as she posted a course record time of 18:53 on the new Pole Green course.
The battles between the two goes a lot further than this fall as both were tearing up the sub-varsity circuit last year as an eigth graders. Hopper won the sub-varsity race at last year\'s Capital District Meet in a time of 19:48 with Lineberry in second at 20:24. Their times would have placed them second and sixth respectively in the varsity race.
The Atlee girls have traditionally held a stranglehold on the Capital District. In the 2005 district meet, Atlee posted a low team score of 27 points with six of the top 11 finishers. Only one graduation loss from last year\'s district champions, but a big loss in district champion Rebecca McDowell.
There was possible talk of teams such as Hanover and Lee-Davis giving Atlee stiff challenges for the district title early on heading into the season with the two freshmen stars joining their teams, but Atlee still appears to be the team beat heading into this Wednesday.
Lee-Davis has another solid freshmen in Stephanie Cario, who posted a 20:33 best at Pole Green on October 14th as the team finished third at the Lee-Davis Invitational and 32 points ahead of Hanover.
Hanover was missing one of their top runners in the meet though in Alicia Grove. Both Grove and April Morrissette were expected to make a fairly strong front three for Hanover this season behind the freshmen Hopper, but have had subpar seasons up to this point. Grove has a 20:24 5K best this season and 19:51 career best from last year. Grove qualified for state competition last spring for 800 meters.
Morrissette\'s best race came at last year\'s Capital District Meet in which she posted her personal best time of 19:49. Morrissette has struggled this fall to run close to that time this season and will hope to turn it around as well as her team at the district meet against Atlee and Lee-Davis.
Atlee sophomore Ben Dejarnette is the defending Capital District champion as he won the race last year as a freshmen in 17:07. Dejarnette will be the heavy favorite at Pole Green as he has continued the momentum from his great track season, which saw him run one of the faster freshmen mile times in the state with a 4:27 1600 meter best. Dejarnette is coming off his strongest cross country race yet at the Glory Days Grill Invitational to break 16 minutes for 5K in a PR time of 15:57 to break into the top ten in a tough invite field.
Only three seniors comprised last year\'s top 15 boys at the Capital District Meet, so it will be tough for any new faces to break into this year\'s top 15. That also bodes well for the top three teams in last year\'s district meet as only five points separated defending champs Lee-Davis (41 pts), runner-up Atlee (43 pts), and third-place Hanover (46 pts).
Atlee has a solid front three in Dejarnette, senior Zach Ganey, and junior Will Kirk. All are returning All-District performers. Ganey and Kirk also recently posted 5K personal bests at Glory Days with times of 16:40 and 17:20 respectively.
The defending team champions from Lee-Davis are led by the 2006 Capital District indoor and outdoor 3200 meter champion Robert Reynolds. Reynolds has posted a 17:06 best this season on the Pole Green, but struggled in his last showing (18:03) on the course at the Lee-Davis Invitational on October 14th with junior Brett Meade stepping up as the team\'s top finisher with a personal best of 17:12. If Reynolds can return to top form with Meade starting to come on, Lee-Davis definitely can put up a formidable front two to face Atlee.