All photos by Andy Paisley. Full photo gallery from Chesapeake Invite can be found here: https://va.milesplit.com/photos/albums/1280
No one was missing at the Chesapeake Invitational this past weekend among the best teams and individuals in the Eastern Region. As a result, the winners from Saturday at Bells Mill Park have to now be considered the clear favorites to win the Eastern Region cross country titles when they return back to the home course of the regional championships in November.
Individual winners were Tallwood senior Octavia Rinehardt and Kellam junior Bobby Peavey as both were able to distance themselves from challenges by the Gloucester's top runners in Hannah Varnell and Doug Fenstermacher. Peavey was a 12 second winner over Fenstermacher (15:59) in 15:47, while William & Mary Invite champion Rinehardt (18:45) was 14 second seconds ahead of the AAU Junior National 1500 champ Varnell (18:59) for a third straight race well under 19 minutes.
The Ocean Lakes boys continue to look like a team who could not only dominate the Eastern Region, but fair well come state meet time. The Dolphins (41 pts) followed up their strong runner-up team showing at William & Mary with a decisive 41 second margin of victory of their strongest threat to the regional crown in Western Branch (82 pts). Ocean Lakes had four runners well under 17 minutes on the 5K course at Bells Mill including a dominant display up front with three of the top five runners in Caleb Doan (3rd, 16:12), Drew Paisley (4th, 16:21), and Conor Doan (5th, 16:23).
The time for the Western Branch boys to shine ontop may come next year with their only senior in the team's top seven found as their seventh runner. Three sophomore and one freshmen comprised their top five on Saturday behind top finisher in junior Chris Werner (11th, 16:33).
The team order was reversed on the girls' side between arguably the top two cross country programs combined in the Eastern Region with Coach Carroll's Western Branch girls taking the win over Coach Nestor's Ocean Lakes boys. Western Branch had the superior depth with seven in before Ocean Lakes' fifth finisher. With 58 points, Western Branch had six under 21 minutes in Callen Powers (3rd, 19:01), Casey Gresham (6th, 19:17), Blake Andrews (14th, 20:14), Kayleigh Lewellyn (15th, 20:16), Mary Katherine Sanders (20th, 20:42), Bonnie Roane (26th, 20:53). The Lady Bruins could have had an entire seven under 21, but raced without their top freshmen in Natalie Wynn.
The Ocean Lakes girls ran well up front with three in the top 12 including Stacey Nobles (5th, 19:16), Peri Bowman (8th, 19:47), and Anne Reiner (12th, 20:02), but Western Branch was able to gap them considerably after the third runner.
Watch out for the Eastern Region's top two teams in the Ocean Lakes boys and Western Branch girls as the region has two teams very capable of making runs a top three podium finish in AAA state race.