Octoberfest Invitational Recap

The Octoberfest Invitational started as a chilly, rainy morning rekindling thoughts of 3 weeks before when the rain and the mud controlled the events of the day. But the rain soon subsided and the temperatures slowly began to rise. First up after the JV Girls race was the B Girls Varsity. No surprise here. Fauquier junior Sarah Bowman jumped to an early lead and cruised to a win with a time of 19:15. Next up, A Girls Varsity. Like Sarah did in the B race, Forest Park senior Beth Fahey took the early lead and never looked back, turning in the top girls time today with an 18:41. Forest Park teammate Stefanie Slekis dueled with Stonewall Jackson's Kirsten Milot most of the race, with Slekis prevailing in the end for a 1-2 finish to spear the Forest Park girls to victory. Finishing second in team standings was the Oakton girls with Brrok Point girls taking 3rd. After the Boys JV, the Boys B Varsity got underway with Fauquier senior Matt Bierlein sharing the lead with Osborn junior Charles Schultz for the first mile and a half. Then Bierlein began to pull away, finishing with a 30+ second win with a time of 16:29. As temperatures climbed into the 60s, the Boys A Varsity kicked off with Thomas Jefferson teammates Christo Landry and Chris Mocko sprinting to an early lead. They were soon joined by James Wood senior James Printz and Forest Park junior Bryce Iverson. As they approached the two mile point, Landry, Printz and Iverson were running three abreast in the lead and then Landry just shot out as he opened about a 10 second lead and held it the rest of the way. Printz finished 2nd followed by Iverson with Mocko taking fourth. In team standings, AA defending champ James Wood put their first five in the top 15 (Printz 2nd, Russell 9th, Frye 12th, Pugh 13th and Pattyson 14th) to defeat the top AAA team 50 points to 62 for Thomas Jefferson. Oakton finished 3rd.