William & Mary Invitational Preview

TIME SCHEDULE:

9:00 a.m.         JV Boys
9:30 a.m.         JV Girls
10:00 a.m.       Boys "A"
10:30 a.m.       Girls "A"
11:00 a.m.     Boys "B"
11:30 a.m.       Girls “B”
12:00 noon      Boys “C”
12:30 p.m.       Girls “C”

MileStat.com will be on-site with coverage (photos, videos, interviews, stories) 

More than 80 schools will be represented at Saturday's William & Mary Invitational as many outstanding cross country runners and teams from Virginia, Maryland, DC, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and North Carolina will be spread out among the three varsity race divisions. Leading the individuals will be newly minted stars with Foot Locker South rankings in Virginia private school runners Johns Ross (pictured above by Linda D'Amato) of The Potomac School and Barbara Strehler of Trinity. The Jamestown boys will be the overwhelming team favorites with none of their fellow NTN regionally ranked Virginia squads present to take on the NTN Southeast #3 ranked Eagles on their home course at Eastern State Hospital. Meanwhile, Eastern Region title contenders in the Western Branch and Ocean Lakes girls look to clash for the first time this season with several Northern Virginia teams looking to make things interesting.

Johns Ross (pictured right by Linda D'Amato), now ranked #12 in the Foot Locker South rankings by MileSplit national editor Scott Bush, looks to further legitimize himself as a possible qualifier to San Diego by picking up a win in one of Virginia's most historic and biggest invitationals in the W&M Invite. Ross, a close second to Midlothian's Jason Witt at the Great Meadow Invite with a 15:38 5K, will have some competition to push him including Bradshaw Kenimer of T.C. Williams. Kenimer opened his season with a 15:28 win at the Monroe Parker Invite on Burke Lake's 2.98 mile course and last week posted a split of 7:25 in the Brentsville Relays, which actually tied for fastest of the evening.

The list of contenders grows as favored team Jamestown also has an ace upfront in Andrew Colley. Colley ran up with Ross and other top runners Jason Witt and Thomas Porter at the Great Meadow Invite with a fourth place finishing time of 15:46, which was a new 5K PR for the Jamestown junior. Experience and knowledge of the course will play into the hands of Colley against Ross and others while racing in front of the home crowd. Colley finished 10th in the 2006 W&M Invite with a time of 16:12 and will be the top returnee for this year's race.

A total of five runners ranked in the top 15 in the latest MileStat.com Cream of the Crop coaches rankings will be racing against one another in Williamsburg. Ross leads the group at #4 with #9 Colley, #11 Kenimer, #12 Bobby Peavey of Kellam, and #13 Jeremy Haney of Fork Union also in the mix. Haney is coming off his first invitational win last Saturday at the Woodberry Forest Invite where he ran a time of 16:47 on a tough Woodberry Forest 5K course. Peavey defeated Haney two weeks ago at the Fork Union Invite when he slipped into third place with a time of 15:16 on the three mile course.

The depth of individuals will be much greater outside of just the five ranked runners including two invitational champions already this season in Gloucester's Doug Fenstermacher and Patrick Henry's Davis Barry. Fenstermacher won the Newport News Invite unpushed in a 5K time of 16:09, while Barry raced against the top ranked Oakton boys in Delaware last Saturday and was able to keep a perfect sweep by Oakton in the first seven places with a 16:15 win over Oakton's top runner Joe Lorusso. 

The next road stop on the possible trip to Portland, Oregon for the NTN Southeast #3 ranked Jamestown boys is a quick drive over to their home course at Eastern State Hospital. Jamestown will look to put up a dominant team performance on Saturday after finishing a distant second to Fork Union in 2006 at the William & Mary Invite. Fork Union will be back to defend their title, but they are not the same team as they were last fall led by Nike Indoor Nationals 800 meter champion Axel Mostrag. Jamestown could likely put two under 16 minutes on Saturday with Colley and fellow junior John Holt, who posted a 16:19 5K in a top 10 finish at the Great Meadow Invite. The Eagles had four under 17 minutes last year at W&M and could put their entire five under the time this year.

Trinity coach Marcus Jones and Trinity junior Barbara Strehler wanted to keep Strehler under the radar this season, but it is pretty tough to not gain notice after scoring such a decisive victory last Saturday at the Woodberry Forest Invite over one of the state's top returning runners in Liz Barclay of Albemarle. Strehler finished 35 seconds ahead of Barclay, who is a pick by many to win the AAA state cross country title this fall. As a result of her performance, Strehler moved to a #2 ranking in the all-class rankings in Virginia behind Foot Locker Nationals runner-up Aurora Scott and also received a #9 ranking in the MileSplit's Foot Locker Power Rankings for the South region girls.

Likely Strehler's only serious contender for Saturday will be Tallwood senior Octavia Rinehardt (pictured left by John Herzog), who looked impressive in her opening leg at the Brentsville Relays finishing right with or ahead of some of the state's top runners. Rinehardt did not play around this past Wednesday in a Sportsplex meet among the Virginia Beach schools by posting the second fastest 5K time in the state behind Aurora Scott with a 18:32 5K performance. Strehler has yet to break 19 minutes in a 5K yet, but her 19:17 last weekend at Woodberry Forest certainly indicates she can dip well under the time at William & Mary with the quicker and short (3.05 mile) course found at Eastern State Hospital. Look for it come down to a two way battle between VA #2 ranked Strehler and VA #10 ranked Rinehardt.

Other individuals to consider include Gloucester's Hannah Varnell, Westfield's Tasia Potasinski, Ocean Lakes' Stacey Nobles, Western Branch's Callen Powers, Colonial Forge's Kaylan Comer, Cosby's Jenna Moye. Comer is the top returnee from last year's "A" race as the Colonial Forge senior took third in 2006 with a time of 18:50 on the 3.05 mile course. Varnell picked up a 18:43 5K victory two weeks ago at the Newport News Invite, while Potasinski broke 18:30 in a runner-up showing at Monroe Parker.

The team titles could stay in the hands of Tidewater schools with Jamestown as heavy favorites to win in the "A" boys race, while Eastern Region's best in VA #6 Western Branch and VA #8 Ocean Lakes headline the girls' teams. However, other teams could finish ahead of the two rivals being preoccupied with one another in an early test for Eastern Region supremacy as the Westfield girls ran well in their first season invite at Monroe Parker with a second place showing behind Lake Braddock. The Western Branch girls were impressive at the Great Meadow Invite taking a third place finish in a strong field led by US #2 ranked Midlothian girls. Ocean Lakes and Westfield went head to head last Saturday at the Brentsville Relays albeit in the untraditional 5x2500 meter relay meet format with Ocean Lakes finishing 30 seconds ahead of the VA #9 ranked Westfield girls for sixth place.