Moment #11 - J.R. Tucker Gets Upset For the Second Straight Year (2004)
The J.R. Tucker Tigers of 2004 were a prime example of dominant talent and ability with either unfortunate luck or horrible timing. In 2003, Tucker headed into the State Meet ranked #1 in AAA and had the blow up of the year finishing in 8th, 119 points behind the champions. The 2004 team lost only Jay Wyss to graduation and were once again top dogs throughout most of the season.
The frighteningly dominant squad led by front runner Michael Chapa took second that year at the Great American Race of Champions. They had the ROC all but in the bag except for a weak 5th man that finished in 113th. Even with Michael Peterson’s 17:42, the Tigers still averaged an amazing 16:17 on the course thanks to big contributions from Mason McElroy and Thuom Mathiang as #2 and #3 runners. During the 2004 season, Mathaing was always considered the X factor as no one knew which Mathaing would show up on any given day; the strictly 800 meter specialist or the blossoming long distance runner. After Great American they were ranked as high as #13 in the nation and seemed to be unstoppable. Tucker was the Southeast #1 ranked NTN squad in its first year as late as October 22 and Virginia’\'s #1 ranked team before everything crumbled before their eyes.
They first faltered at their Colonial District meet without running Mathaing in a loss 36-48 loss to the Richard Andrew’s led Douglas Freeman. Prior to rebounding at the Central Region meet to gain their #1 Virginia ranking before States, Tucker fell down to #5 in AAA. They narrowly beat Freeman at the Central Region by 8 points while running Mathaing. It would seem as though an NTN bid would be unlikely unless they could put on a dominant performance at the State Meet. While Chapa lived up to his end of the deal with a victory in the nasty conditions, his teammates did anything but follow suit. Ben Rickey\'’s solid #3-4 running all season fell through at the wrong time as he finished 74th, and Tucker nearly missed the podium, finishing 3rd once again only 8 points ahead of district and regional rival Douglas Freeman. Matt Ryan\'’s Thomas Jefferson dynasty added another state championship to the trophy case for the second time in three years with a solid 74 points. The surprise of the day was West Potomac\'’s second place finish, a team that had narrowly made it out of the region by 1 point over Herndon.
Moment #10 - Lady Trojans Make a Name for Themselves, Crush #4 Southeast Oakton (2005)
After running for years in the shadows of their male counterparts, the girls of Midlothian finally captured a state championship of their own. They had come close in the past with a 3rd place finish in 2003 behind Herndon and Forest Park, but they could never all pull together at the same time at regionals and states. As a result many of their former teams were labeled as underachievers. This image would soon be erased.
The Midlo girls began the season ranked #1 in the state and continued at that position until post Great American. There the Lady Trojans finished a disappointing 11th in the ROC, over 50 points behind Brentsville and Oakton. The girls were missing freshman phenom Paige Johnston due to soccer commitments that weekend and questions started to formulate on how consistent a team of underclassmen could be as they were led by one junior, three sophomores, and three freshman.
Another average performance at the Eastern States girls\' race at the Manhattan Invitational kept Midlothian ranked #4 behind Oakton, Brentsville, and Blacksburg. However, after a dominating performance at the Dominion District Meet it looked like the pieces may be coming together to give Oakton a run for their money at states. The following week the Lady Trojans sent out a message to any doubters in perhaps the most unexpected dominating performance of the year at the Central Region Meet. The girls scored just 24 points crushing Douglas Freeman by 61.
This really should have been an indicator worth putting the Midlo girls at #1 going into the next weekend, but perhaps the fact they were still ranked behind AA Brentsville and Oakton going into the VHSL State Meet left enough of a chip on their shoulder to absolutely demolish the competition. They finished with 63 points, the lowest in AAA in the MileStat.com Era and beat NTN #4 Oakton by 52. The girls were hoping such a strong performance would warrant a NTN bid, however, they finished ranked 4th in the Southeast. The scary thing is, this year they\'’re even better.
Moment #9 - Melissa Dewey Crushes Everyone, Blazes Fast Time in Horrible Conditions (2004)
Three weeks after Hayfield\'’s Melissa Dewey won states in 2004, she would qualify for Footlocker Nationals by finishing 4th with a time of 17:38. Her fellow AAA opponent Aurora Scott would qualify as well, finishing 7th. However, by the beating Dewey gave her at States, no one would have guessed.
After the mile, Dewey opened up a lead that she would continue to build. She ended up victorious by a minute and eleven seconds, the largest margin of victory at States in who knows how many years.
Dewey’\'s 18:10 on the old Great Meadows course is the fastest in the MileStat.com era, 8 seconds faster than Oakton’\'s dominant Kiera Carlstrom back in 2001. Even with the fast conditions and course change in 2005, only Catherine White and Rachel Rose ran faster. So to put it in perspective, just how slow were the muddy conditions of 2004? Well, in the guy\'s race, only 3 people broke 16:30 compared for 24 in 2003. Only 4 girls were sub 19:30 in 2004 compared to 21 in 2003.
Dewey would go on to garner All-American status as the South’\'s #2 finisher at FLN with 13th place.
This kind of dominating performance makes me wonder if putting Dewey 2004 at #9 is a wise decision. I\'’ve concluded that I\'’m either completely confused or there are some really good moments still to come.
Moment #8 - The Year of AA Dominance (2001)
Since the MileStat.com Era, only two boys from AA have had the overall best time of the day. That occurred in 2002 with John Crews and in 2001 with Bobby Lockhart. Group AA Virginia has always had a knock as being weaker than AAA, especially in recent years. However, in 2001 Group AA was just flat out better than Group AAA both with individuals and with teams.
Five out of the top seven times in 2001 were from AA runners led by Lockhart\'’s #2 fastest all time in 15:10, Fleet Hower second, Danny Kane third, John Crews fifth, and Bryce Ruiz seventh. Both the depth and front runners in AA that year were unbelievable and have since not come close to being matched. All-State for AA in 2001 ended with young Justin Hatch’\'s 16:30 while All-State for AAA ended with Tony D’\'Amato\'’s time of 16:37.
Lockhart would continue to win the South Region and place 2nd to Tim Moore at FLN. Hower would earn All-American honors.
As far as team performances go, in the combined boys results, Group AA\'’s Jamestown came away on top of AAA champion Maggie Walker and AAA runner-up Midlothian. Furthermore, if one were to look at team time averages, Group AA’\'s Rockbridge was also faster than both Maggie Walker and Midlothian. The top 10 teams were split equally between the groups with AA taking 1,4,6,7,and 9 and AAA taking 2,3,5,8,10. That’s 27 to 28 in favor of Group AA if you want to cross country format score the meet between the two group classifications.
Needless to say I\'’ve made my point. While Group AA puts up great performances year in and year out, never was there a year where they not only equaled but flat out bettered AAA in both individual and team front running and depth.