Virginia Independent Schools State Championships Coverage

Coverage from Friday's Virginia Independent Schools State Cross Country Championships at Woodberry Forest School as complete coverage will include race videos from all 4 races, video interviews from each of the 4 individual state champions, two photo galleries, and a full meet summary.

2013 Virginia Independent Schools State XC Championships:

Division 1 Girls Summary: The state's longest active streak of state team titles is no more. After winning six straight Division 1 state titles at the Virginia Independent School State Cross Country Championships from 2007 thru 2012, the Bishop O'Connell girls had to settle for second place for once. The O'Connell girls tallied a team score of 99 points, which put them 23 points behind the new Division 1 state team champions from St. Catherine's.

The League of Independent Schools champions last Friday, the St. Catherine's girls averaged under 21 minutes on the difficult Woodberry Forest School 5K course led by top 10 finishes from junior Ann Nicholson (3rd, 19:59) and eighth grader Izzy LeBey (7th, 20:20). Rounding out the scoring for a youthful St. Catherine's squad were sophomore Ryley Ogden (17th, 21:07), freshmen Ryan Dotter (22nd, 21:26), and freshmen Riley Alvis (27th, 21:38). 

The Bishop O'Connell program could be back on top next fall though to start a new streak as there is no graduating senior among their current top 9 including three All-State finishers on Friday in Isabell Baltimore (8th, 20:35), Theresa Matula (15th, 20:56), and Briana Broccoli (19th, 21:10). Under the guidance of coach Cindy Walls, BIshop O'Connell will be a steady force to compete for state titles as long as she is running the show. 

The LIS conference dominated the top 5 in the team standings of the Division 1 race with St. Catherine's, Collegiate (3rd, 128 pts), St. Anne's-Belfield School (4th, 131 pts), and Trinity Episcopal (5th, 169 pts).

A short list of girls have ever broken 19 minutes at Woodberry Forest and Molly Breidenbaugh of Trinity Episcopal joined them as a repeat state individual champion in the Division 1 race with a 18:41 victory. It was a 36 second improvement from her 2012 state win at Woodberry, which she followed that race up several weeks later with a 18:01 5K performance at Foot Locker South. Breidenbaugh is hoping for a similar 75 second drop from Woodberry Forest to McAlpine Greenway Park in Charlotte for the Foot Locker South Regional, which would then likely find herself near a top 10 finish in the seeded race and national berth.    

St. Anne's-Belfield sophomore Madison Hunter posted a strong runner-up time of 19:35 as she was one of only four girls on the day to dip under 20 minutes on the hilly course. After finishing third as an 8th grader and freshmen at the state meet, Hunter was able to improve one place and set herself up to be the top returner and early favorite for the 2014 Division 1 state race.

Division 1 Boys Summary: Woodberry Forest coach Ben Hale has been coaching cross country for 21 years. In 7 of those 21 years, Hale's Woodberry Forest boys cross country champions have ended the season as state champions. After last week defeating the defending Division 1 state champions from Trinity Episcopal, the Woodberry Forest boys were certainly feeling good about their chances to come back and win again on Friday while racing on their home course. Robert Singleton paced the Woodberry Forest boys out in front with a 4th place effort of 17:14. Woodberry Forest had a stout top four of All-State finishers in SIngleton, Hines Liles (7th, 17:30), Cameron Finley (15th, 17:51), and Perry Hammond (16th, 17:54). Billy Osterman (34th, 18:24) closed the door on Trinity's hopes of keeping the state championship trophy in their hands as Woodberry's fifth and final scorer for a total team tally of 76 points.

Trinity Episcopal boys finished clear ahead of the rest of the field including third place Paul VI (154 pts) with a team score of 105 points, but Woodberry Forest putting four runners ahead of Trinity's #2 runner was too much for the previously 3-time defending Division 1 state champs (2010-2012) from Trinity to overcome. Jamie Hiegel was one of the few core varsity guys left from those state champion squads and did his part carrying the defending state champion's flag with a third place individual finish of 17:12.

Hiegel once again found himself in a battle in the final stages of the race with Fork Union sophomore Alexander Lomong, who like last week at the Prep League Championships used his 50 second open 400 speed to kick his way ahead of Hiegel, but this time for state runner-up honors in 17:09. His older brother Peter Lomong (17:38) also joined him in the top 10 as both figure to really shine the most in the middle distance events on the track this winter and spring with the good genes in being the siblings of two-time Olympian Lopez Lomong.

Able to break away from both Lomong and Hiegel in the final half of the race to win his first state title by a decisive margin of 29 seconds was Hale Ross of The Potomac School with a 16:40 performance. Ross comes from a family of great runners including 2007 state cross country champion in older brother Johns Ross, while the middle brother Campbell was a top 3 state finisher in 2008. Hale Ross has dipped under 16 minutes for 5K twice this season including a 15:35 personal best run at the Third Battle Invite and is looking forward to run closer to the PR time of 15:14 by his older brother Johns Ross from the 2007 Foot Locker South Regional when he just missed a Foot Locker Nationals berth. Hale will be venturing down to the same PR friendly course at McAlpine for Foot Locker South in three weeks.

Division 2 Girls Summary: Martine Hunnicutt was helping lead the Peninsula Catholic girls to a state title two years ago, while also winning the Division 2 individual state title in 2011 at Woodberry Forest. It was only fitting that after conceding the #1 runner position on her team this season to a vastly improved and late blooming runner in teammate Molly McKenna, Hunnicutt had arguably her best race of her junior season to help make for a dominant team title for the Pensinula Catholic girls. McKenna was 11th (21:39) in that 2011 state race which Hunnicutt won in 20:12.

Two years later, McKenna is over 2 minutes faster and a state champion as she crossed the line 19:34. Also running faster than the 2011 meet was Hunnicutt who was able to move ahead of Morgan Lewis of Veritas in the final half mile to allow Peninsula Catholic to have the top two finishers with Hunnicutt timed at 20:01 in second place. Those two single digit score cards along with a third All-State finisher in Becky Aungst (14th, 21:41) allowed the Peninsula Catholic girls to win easily by 36 points as they averaged 21:12 as a squad.

Heading into the season, the Division 2 state title favorite would have been Veritas School freshmen Morgan Lewis, who was coming off an amazing spring season of track including a sub 11 minute 3200. However, a back injury kept Lewis out of races and from training until two weeks ago. She tried her best despite limited training to keep McKenna in sight and striking distance for the majority of the race, but still showed is a few weeks if not months away from being close to her best fitness and finished 3rd with a time of 20:16. It was a gutsy effort for Lewis, whose return had a significant impact on her Veritas School squad as the girls earned their highest state meet finish ever as Division 2 state runners-up with 88 points.

Division 2 Boys Summary: Friday was the first race for Miles Clikeman in over a month as the Veritas sophomore had been out during that time due to a stress fracture. His body seemed to handle the stress well on the state meet stage as the lanky runner moved well in the last mile after his teammates Tripp Fitch (3rd, 16:46) and Cameron Francis (4th, 16:47) pushed the pace early on along with Peninsula Catholic's Philip Harpen (2nd, 16:38) to win with the fastest time of the day in 16:34. A remarkable race for Clikeman after missing so much time in the final half of the season.

With three runners among the top four places, the Veritas boys were successful in achieving the 3-peat (2013, 2012, 2011) as the Virginia Independent Schools Division 2 team champions in cross country. Their squad also came out on top in the results merge between the two division races over the Division 1 champs from Woodberry Forest (72 pts to 115 pts) to showcase how strong and competitive that the 2013 Veritas squad is despite being a smaller Division 2 school. Completing the team scoring for Veritas was David Heide (7th, 17:46) and Nicholas Kontopanos (13th, 18:20), while Alex Franck (14th, 18:23) made for a total of six All-State individuals for the team.

The next two teams were Catholic Schools from the TCIS in Peninsula Catholic (2nd, 58 pts) and Walsingham Academy (3rd, 159 pts). Peninsula Catholic was well represented near the front of the field like Veritas with Harpen (2nd, 16:38), Max Weidman (6th, 17:37), and Collin White (9th, 17:58), while Jack Grimson broke well inside the top 10 as Walsingham's leader in 5th place (17:20). 

 

Virginia Independent Schools Division 1
Boys Team State Champions

Woodberry Forest School 76 pts (17:47 avg, 1:10 spread)

 

Virginia Independent Schools Division 1
Boys Team State Runners-up
Trinity Episcopal 105 pts (17:58 avg, 1:02 spread)

 

Division 1 Boys - Top 5 Teams

Team Scores
Place Team Points Scorers Times
1 Woodberry Forest 76 4+7+15+16+34 (46+83) 1:10 1-5 Split | 17:47 Avg
2 Trinity Episcopal School 105 3+21+25+26+30 (36+38) 1:02 1-5 Split | 17:58 Avg
3 Paul VI Catholic 154 9+28+33+41+43 (44+47) 1:05 1-5 Split | 18:18 Avg
4 Bishop O'Connell 174 6+11+31+58+68 (74+75) 1:53 1-5 Split | 18:24 Avg
5 The Potomac School 180 1+14+32+37+96 (99+102) 3:30 1-5 Split | 18:18 Avg

 

Virginia Independent Schools Division 1
Boys Individual State Champion

Hale Ross (The Potomac School) 16:40

Division 1 Boys - Top 20 All-State Individuals

Place Athlete Team Result Points
1 Ross, Hale The Potomac School 16:40.10 1
2 Lomong, Alexander Fork Union 17:09.51 2
3 Hiegel, Jamie Trinity Episcopal School 17:12.75 3
4 Singleton, Robert Woodberry Forest 17:14.32 4
5 Wiggins, Grant Norfolk Academy 17:18.00 5
6 Speier, Josh Bishop O'Connell 17:29.49 6
7 Liles, Hines Woodberry Forest 17:30.62 7
8 Folger, Nate Flint Hill School 17:34.70 8
9 Stepka, Andrew Paul VI Catholic 17:35.67 9
10 Lomong, Peter Fork Union 17:38.33 10
11 Brough, Joseph Bishop O'Connell 17:45.98 11
12 Decker, Petey Norfolk Academy 17:48.03 12
13 Morgan, Greg Episcopal 17:48.92 13
14 Terrones, Glanmarco The Potomac School 17:50.62 14
15 Finley, Cameron Woodberry Forest 17:51.53 15
16 Hammond, Perry Woodberry Forest 17:54.54 16
17 Cuevas, Joey Saint Christopher`s 17:59.14 17
18 Gallant, Andre Pope John Paul the Great Catholic High School 18:00.67 18
19 Pritchard, Nathan Liberty Christian Academy 18:04.56 19
20 Mosman, Kyle Collegiate 18:06.13 20

 

Virginia Independent Schools Division 1
Girls Team State Champions

St. Catherine's 76 pts (20:54 avg, 1:38 avg)

 

Virginia Independent Schools Division 1
Girls Team State Runners-up
Bishop O'Connell 99 pts (21:12 avg, 1:03 spread)

Division 1 Girls - Top 5 Teams

Team Scores
Place Team Points Scorers Times
1 Saint Catherine's 76 3+7+17+22+27 (37+47) 1:38 1-5 Split | 20:54 Avg
2 Bishop O'Connell 99 8+15+19+28+29 (30+35) 1:03 1-5 Split | 21:12 Avg
3 Collegiate 128 11+21+24+26+46 (50+51) 1:37 1-5 Split | 21:27 Avg
4 St. Anne's-Belfield School 131 2+13+33+41+42 (108) 2:36 1-5 Split | 21:20 Avg
5 Trinity Episcopal School 169 1+4+52+53+59 (75+82) 4:17 1-5 Split | 21:20 Avg

 

 

Virginia Independent Schools Division 1
Girls Individual State Champion
Molly Breidenbaugh (Trinity Episcopal) 18:41

Division 1 Girls - Top 20 All-State Individuals

Place Athlete Team Result Points
1 Breidenbaugh, Molly Trinity Episcopal School 18:41.22 1
2 Hunter, Madison St. Anne's-Belfield School 19:35.97 2
3 Nicholson, Ann Saint Catherine's 19:59.83 3
4 Bowe, Katie Trinity Episcopal School 20:00.96 4
5 Gallant, Denise Pope John Paul the Great Catholic High School 20:01.50 5
6 Palmer, Noel Liberty Christian Academy 20:18.06 6
7 LeBey, Izzy Saint Catherine's 20:20.00 7
8 Baltimore, Isabell Bishop O'Connell 20:35.46 8
9 Frazier, Hannah Bishop Sullivan 20:36.43 9
10 Lambert, Julia Norfolk Academy 20:38.24 10
11 Golladay, Claire Collegiate 20:39.38 11
12 Lohrer, Maggie Bishop Ireton 20:40.10 12
13 Pritchard, Megan St. Anne's-Belfield School 20:52.04 13
14 Landy, Genna Flint Hill School 20:53.03 14
15 Matula, Theresa Bishop O'Connell 20:56.70 15
16 Granovsky, Rachel The Potomac School 21:02.25 16
17 Ogden, Ryley Saint Catherine's 21:07.49 17
18 Falken, Grace Episcopal 21:09.64 18
19 Broccoli, Briana Bishop O'Connell 21:10.00 19
20 Yoder, Savannah Norfolk Academy 21:14.18 20

 

Virginia Independent Schools Division 2
Boys Team State Champions
Veritas School 28 pts (17:14 avg, 1:45 spread)

 

Virginia Independent Schools Division 2
Boys Team State Runners-up
Peninsula Catholic 58 pts (17:54 avg, 2:11 spread)

Division 2 Boys - Top 5 Teams

Team Scores
Place Team Points Scorers Times
1 Veritas School 28 1+3+4+7+13 (14+49) 1:45 1-5 Split | 17:14 Avg
2 Peninsula Catholic 58 2+6+9+17+24 (36+43) 2:11 1-5 Split | 17:54 Avg
3 Walsingham Academy 159 5+18+25+50+61 (73+87) 2:28 1-5 Split | 18:48 Avg
4 Miller School 191 12+35+38+46+60 (69+77) 1:37 1-5 Split | 19:09 Avg
5 Trinity Christian School 217 29+41+42+52+53 (58+64) 0:39 1-5 Split | 19:24 Avg

 

Virginia Independent Schools Division 2
Boys Individual State Champion
Miles Clikeman (Veritas School) 16:34

Division 2 Boys - Top 20 All-State Individuals

Place Athlete Team Result Points
1 Clikeman, Miles Veritas School 16:34.49 1
2 Harpen, Philip Peninsula Catholic 16:38.29 2
3 Fitch, Tripp Veritas School 16:46.16 3
4 Francis, Cameron Veritas School 16:47.64 4
5 Grimson, Jack Walsingham Academy 17:20.71 5
6 Weidman, Max Peninsula Catholic 17:37.60 6
7 Heide, David Veritas School 17:46.46 7
8 Runyon, Michael Trinity School at Meadow View 17:56.71 8
9 White, Collin Peninsula Catholic 17:58.88 9
10 Jackson, Tim Seton School 17:59.52 10
11 Berner, Gustav Nansemond-Suffolk Academy 18:08.58 11
12 Fortenberry, Rahls Miller School 18:10.64 12
13 Kontopanos, Nicholas Veritas School 18:20.16 13
14 Franck, Alex Veritas School 18:23.04 14
15 Marshall, Stephen Denbigh Baptist 18:23.72 15
16 Rohrman, Tyler Quantico 18:24.19 16
17 Taleghani, Eric Peninsula Catholic 18:26.29 17
18 Hamra, Duncan Walsingham Academy 18:26.62 18
19 Grider, Andrew Faith Christian School 18:26.98 19
20 Burtle, James Fredericksburg Christian 18:27.38 20

 

Virginia Independent Schools Division 2
Girls Team State Champions
Peninsula Catholic 52 pts (21:12 avg, 2:45 spread)

 

Virginia Independent Schools Division 2
Girls Team State Runners-up
Veritas School 88 pts (22:00 avg, 2:21 spread)

Division 2 Girls - Top 5 Teams

Team Scores
Place Team Points Scorers Times
1 Peninsula Catholic 52 1+2+12+18+19 (29+33) 2:48 1-5 Split | 21:12 Avg
2 Veritas School 88 3+15+22+23+25 (42+50) 2:21 1-5 Split | 22:00 Avg
3 Covenant 147 17+20+28+31+51 (93+100) 1:51 1-5 Split | 22:52 Avg
4 Nansemond-Suffolk Academy 149 9+14+35+45+46 (47+63) 2:20 1-5 Split | 22:42 Avg
5 Walsingham Academy 153 5+32+36+37+43 (49+57) 2:31 1-5 Split | 22:49 Avg

 

Virginia Independent Schools Division 2
Girls Team State Champions
Molly McKenna (Peninsula Catholic)

Division 2 Girls - Top 20 All-State Individuals

Place Athlete Team Result Points
1 McKenna, Molly Peninsula Catholic 19:35.28 1
2 Hunnicutt, Martine Peninsula Catholic 20:01.15 2
3 Lewis, Morgan Veritas School 20:16.45 3
4 Edgemond, Amy Foxcroft School 20:33.89 4
5 Russell, Ali Wakefield School 20:41.30 --
6 Pieri, Reilly Walsingham Academy 20:58.00 5
7 Byler, Dara Eastern Mennonite School 20:59.56 6
8 Oliver, Isabelle Trinity School at Meadow View 21:00.36 7
9 Chen, Sierra Trinity Christian School 21:13.24 8
10 Moore, Kaylee Nansemond-Suffolk Academy 21:16.44 9
11 Mast, Sylvia Eastern Mennonite School 21:23.89 10
12 Lucas, Geni Seton School 21:30.63 11
13 Spring, Adrienne North Cross 21:35.95 --
14 Aungst, Becky Peninsula Catholic 21:41.40 12
15 Robins, Anna Hampton Roads Academy 21:50.77 --
16 Guyant, Julia Seton School 21:57.71 13
17 Lutz, Kate Nansemond-Suffolk Academy 21:59.69 14
18 Franck, Elizabeth Veritas School 22:00.36 15
19 Anderson, Kate Wakefield School 22:04.29 --
20 Patronzio, Molly Highland School 22:06.28 16