Not the greatest day to end the cross country seasons for Virginia's two lone representatives at the Nike Cross Nationals with girls team qualifier Blacksburg finishing 21st out of 22 schools and boys individual team qualifier Tommy Mulroy of Midlothian finishing 99th out of 197 runners. This year's national race at Portland Meadows in Portland, Oregon was not as much of a mudfest as in years past, but a chilly frozen tundra of a course for runners to compete on which allowed for course records and much faster times than in previous years.
After running a breakthrough 15:07 PR at the NXN Southeast Regional and being somewhat of a mild surprise as an individual qualifier, the Midlothian senior Mulroy was not able to keep the momentum going into nationals as he posted a time of 16:12. Nonetheless, a very successful season for Mulroy who won his first state individual title this fall in the 3A classification and became the second fastest runner in Midlothian school history in cross country with his runner-up race at the Nike Cross Southeast Regional.
In order to fair well as a team usually at the Nike Cross Nationals, a squad needs to get out well and have several of their top runners be deep penetrators into the top 50 individually. Blacksburg girls were unable to do either with Bonnie Angermeier as their top finisher in 90th place with a time of 18:56. Rounding out the top 5 scoring for Blacksburg which put them at a final total of 451 points included Emily Beatty (124th, 19:20), Claire Ewing-Nelson (143rd, 19:39), Samantha Marin (157th, 19:52), and Jennifer Fleming (159th, 19:59). With only one senior among their top 7, the Blacksburg girls certainly have the opportunity to learn from the humbling race in Oregon to come back for a much stronger finish in 2014.
NXN Results: Boys Race - Girls Race
