Newport News Park 3:00PM
Course Conditions: Gravel paths, concrete trails, muddy trails, and slick grass
Weather: Sunny around 70 degrees
The Eastern Region meet provided many surprises and heartbreaks. Individually Derrick Robbins (15:27) of Woodside and Natalie Sherbak of Kellam (18:22) claimed the titles while Western Branch Boys and Ocean Lakes girls nabbed the team titles.
Those Lovely Ladies
The last time a non-beach district team grabbed the title was Great Bridge way back in 1994, nine years ago. Every other district has hoped to just make it to states since then. This year none managed to crack the top four because the Beach District continued its dominance of the Eastern Region by advancing all of its teams to state and grabbing seven of the fifteen individual slots.
Ocean Lakes once again dethroned the heir apparent Kellam Knights. Last year Ocean lakes managed to upset the top ranked knights in the beach district meet. This year they managed to do so at the Eastern Region meet. The 4-5 runners turned in big time performances on Ocean Lakes. Everyone expected the trio of Keally (19:57, 13th), Lloyd (20:23, 23rd), and Murdoch (19:28, 5th) to do well, but it was the effort of Carey Young that really made the difference. Where this girl got the energy or mojo or whatever to run 20:00 minutes for 14th place is beyond me. Ocean lakes' fifth place girl also stepped up with a 21:31 clocking good enough for 42nd place. The way Ocean Lakes and Kellam push each other, these two teams could both turn in top eight performances at state.
Kellam ran a fairly decent race, but was just outraced that day by Ocean lakes. Natalie Sherbak did her part winning the team a 1-point place. Both Tara Connor and Chelsea Webb stepped up big with either PR's or near PR's to boost Kellam to second. Unfortunately a few individuals did not perform up to their potential and turned in sub par performances. However, that can also be construed as good news for if those runners who didn't perform as well as possible step it up a little at the state meet, the Knights could turn some heads at the state meet. The 2-5 spread of team was only 60 seconds, the best of the top 4 teams, and if the team runs a little better at states, Kellam could be the top ranked Eastern Region team at Warrenton.
Princess Anne turned in a marvelous performance, and should have taken third by a substantial margin over Cox. However, the absence of Ashley Hay, their top runner, hurt them badly. Hay was busy playing for PA's Field Hockey team that hopes to make it back to the state finals. She was the Beach district runner-up with a 19:14 clocking. No telling what she could have done at the region meet. Despite, or maybe in spite of her, Katy Winsper of PA managed to run a 19:12 and place 2nd. If PA took 4th as a team without their front runner, imagine what they could have done with another runner in the top 5, as Hay was easily capable of achieving. Putting Hay fifth, which is underestimating her talent, PA would have scored in the neighborhood of 86 points and would have been about 7 points behind Kellam. Instead they scored 140 for fourth place.
Cox managed to achieve a third place finish due to the absence of PA's Ashley Hay. Not as good as they were hoping for, and certainly not as good as they can do. Failing to put anyone in the top 15, Aspen Foster (20:10, 18th) was the top finisher. The team was spread out with a 2-5 spread of 69 seconds that started near Kellam's three runner. If the team is going to have a pack that far in the back of the field, it best have a spread of 10 seconds. A showing like this at state and the team will have many people in between each of their runners that will spike their score into the 300's.
Natalie Sherbak of Kellam took the race out hard and never looked back. By the two mile she was alone and she finished with no one behind her on the final stretch. Sherbak has come on hard at the end of the season, when it counts. Her times this season are indicative of a runner about to have a great race, for they have been dropping steadily. It is doubtful that she could win the state title against Patterson of Midlothian and Beth Fahey, but stranger things have happened. She is easily the best outside contender for the title. Because of some of her performances at invitational some people in northern VA may not be afraid of her, but they should be. An 18:22 by yourself is not just physically hard and demanding, it also drains one mentally. I wonder what Sherbak could do when she runs with the top girls of VA.
Katy Winsper of Princess Anne was the surprise of the meet. Placing 3rd in her district meet with a 19:22, she managed to overcome the competition of fellow frosh Emily Webb of Gloucester and place 2nd in the Region meet with a 19:12. Her time and place puts her ahead of fellow teammate Ashley Hay. Imagine what PA could have done with those two in the race. Katy also has sister, Alanna, and both look to lead a strong PA team for the next three years since both are 9th graders.
The Boys
Southeastern teams have won the last three titles dating back to 2001 (Western Branch 2001, 2003 and Hickory 2002). The Beach District has been represented in those times with individual champions, however this year for the first time since 1996 (Gloucester, Robbie Williams of Churchland) the Beach District was shut out from a championship title.
The Western Branch Bruins under the tutelage of Coach Volkman captured their 2nd title in three years. The Bruins ran an amazing race and easily outdistanced the teams of Hickory and Cox. The Bruins were led by an excellent finish (3rd, 15:55) by Adam Hutton. He was only 8 seconds from Steven Walters and his third place finish and 2 point team score put the Bruins immediately in the kill zone. However, the whole season everyone in the region knew that Adam should have been in the top 3, but what gave Western Branch the win was the 2-5 runners. Mark Anderson was the Bruins second All-Region runner with a 16:55 for 14th place. The 3rd place runner ran ok, but it was the effort of #5 runner Steven Brewer that swung the title. Running a 17:59 at his district meet, Brewer stepped up and beat Cox's 4-7 runners, all of whom had times better than a 17:59 at their district meets. The Western Branch boys are looking at the state meet and hoping to be the best Eastern Region team.
Defending champions Hickory looked strong entering the meet, but I had no idea that they were that strong. I knew of Ward and Oakes leading the Hawks, but I was sure that their #5 runner would kill them at the region meet. Not only was I wrong about Hickory not advancing to state they also took runner-up honors. The two front runners of Hickory Chris Ward (16:29, 6th) and Kyle Oakes (16:47, 10th), who were ranked in the top ten of South Hampton Roads runners, immediately established the team's lead over Cox. The 19th place finish of Andrew Zohorsky (17:00) was the most critical finish for the team for it put three Hawk runners ahead of the #2 runner of Cox. The fourth and fifth place runner of Hickory placed well enough to ensure that the Hawks would be runner-up.
Favorite Cox managed to run a terrible race and finish third. However, only about 3 seconds separated Cox from second place. If Kyle Guglielmo had caught Chris Ward who was one second ahead and Andrew Zohorsky had been caught by the two Cox runners just 2 seconds behind him the scores for Hickory and Cox would have been at 111 and Cox's 6th man was in before Hickory's fifth so the tiebreaker would have been in favor of Cox. However, this did not happen and Hickory was better team this day. Kyle Guglielmo (16:30) led the Falcons with a disappointing 7th place finish. Following 30 seconds later were the duo of Robby Stoots (17:01) and Phillip Jasper (17:02). Andrew Jasper was the fourth man and Jason Grace the fifth. The problem was that they were just too far back. As a team the Falcons performed poorly and if they wish to make a splash at states they must tighten up their 4-7 runners, and their 5-7 must be near Andrew Jasper.
Landstown overcame Ocean Lakes to claim the last team ticket to states. Jonathan Bunker led the Eagles with a 5th place finish in 16:23. Bunker also finally ran faster than every other runner did in the beach (minus Walters), the first time this season. I make this statement because he had the fastest time on the sportsplex coming into Districts and that was indicative of his supremacy of the District behind King Walters. However, at districts Kyle Guglielmo managed to beat him. Not at the region meet. Behind Bunker was Andrew Robles with a 17:20. The 3-5 runners, all of whom were within 40 seconds of him, followed in robles. It was the lack of a strong #2 finisher that allowed Cox to overcome Landstown as Landstown put their top 5 in before Cox did.
Ocean Lakes's boys did not fare as well as their girl's team. 5th place for 7 underclassmen is not bad, for they are now in the hunt for the title next year. However, to lose to Landstown must be a bitter taste. Front runner Drew Midland had a terrible race and failed to make it to the state meet, a shock to most people. He was merely 10 seconds ahead of the #2 man, Clancy Waldron. Ocean Lakes had a 2-5 spread of 51 seconds. The lack of a strong front runner hampered the Dolphins, but they ran as good of an outing that they have all year. This race will linger in each runner's mind until next October and this could easily fuel them to the team title in 2004.
Up till the 2-mile mark, Steven Walters of Green Run and Derrick Robbins of Woodside were still battling for the individual title. However, Robbins soon stepped up the pace and Walters was not up to the change. Robbins surged forward to win the meet in a great time of 15:27 and claim his first region Cross-Country title. Walters fell back with stomach pains and nearly succumbed to Adam Hutton of Western Branch. Hopefully Steven will be able to run 100% by the time Footlocker South swings around.
The surprises of the meet must have been Kory Moody of Salem and Jaris Riley of Deep Creek. A very capable sophomore, Moody was without the training partner of Nick Oltman this year. However, he showed his pure talent as he placed 11th with a 15 second improvement on his district time. He was one of the few Beach District runners to do well. Riley was also without the partnership of Desmond Perkins. Despite this, Riley placed 13th with a 16:49, 35 seconds better than his Southeastern District meet time.
My predictions vs. real results
Girls
1. Kellam 1. Ocean Lakes
2. PA 2. Kellam
3. Ocean Lakes 3. Cox
4. Cox 4. PA
Boys
1. Cox 1. Western Branch
2. Western Branch 2. Hickory
3. Gloucester 3. Cox
4. Ocean Lakes 4. Landstown