MileStat.com\'s Brandon Miles interviews one of the four Group AAA All-State individuals to make for one of the most dominant team showings in VHSL State Championships history by the Nike Team Nationals bound Midlothian girls in junior Samantha aka Sammy Dow. Dow finished 8th overall as the team\'s third finisher in a time of 19:20. Dow transferred to Midlothian from Guiderland High School in New York last year as sophomore and earned All-State honors indoors for 3200 meters.
MileStat.com: Coming in as the huge favorite and knowing all you guys had to do was pretty much do what you had been doing all season, how much pressure did you or the girls feel knowing you had just one more race left to clinch a Nike Team Nationals berth?
Sammy Dow: Dave Davis (VHSL State Championships meet director and Mountain View HS Head Coach) told us all we needed to do was go out and run and not worry bout NTN or last year, so as a team I think we didn\'t really feel too much pressure. The only pressure that we felt was maybe to live up to everyone saying we could win it, but we weren\'t really worrying about NTN before the race.
MileStat.com: The order of the team seems to change on almost a weekly basis. Do you think this makes Midlothian a stronger team than most knowing anyone can step it up big if the others do not?
Dow: I think it does because you don\'t have to worry as much about if you have a bad race that the team will suffer. You have the comfort of knowing the other girls are right there with you to pick up the slack.
MileStat.com: Do you feel the team has improved since Manhattan and do you think the team has ran to its full potential yet?
Dow: I personally don\'t think we have run to our full potential because in every race we\'ve had at least one girl not at her best race. We haven\'t all had a good race on the same day yet.
MileStat.com: Having ran cross country and track in New York and seen many of great teams there as a freshmen, how is cross country different in Virginia from New York and do you think that the competition in the state has gotten better and closer to that of one of the best states in the country in New York?
Dow: I defininetly think Virginia is becoming more and more like New York in running, especially this year because our region was way more competitive and has so much young talent. I used to think Saratoga was unbeatable, but this year two of the Southeast teams beat them at Manhattan which amazed me.
MileStat.com: How are you and the team feeling mentally and physically post-state meet?
Dow: We feel awesome and we are ready to take on the Yankton South Dakota and all the other teams at NTN.
MileStat.com: Last year many of the Midlo girls ran personal bests including yourself at Foot Locker South. Does that give you extra confidence in the training gearing you to do well just a week later than Foot Locker this year at NTN?
Dow: Yes. I think our coach knows what he\'s doing and he\'ll do what he knows is right for our training to get us to peak one more time for NTN.