In recent history, the Manhattan Invitational has never had such importance to Virginia high school cross country than the 35th annual edition of the event will have this weekend. Many of Virginia's best teams and individuals circled the the largest one day high school cross country meet in the country on their calendar. The Midlothian girls obviously know how big of a deal this meet is as last year's shocking win in the Eastern States Championship catipulted them into becoming a nationally recognized program and more importantly helped them an eventual Nike Team Nationals berth. There are regional meets to determine the NTN teams this year, but Midlothian and the other top Virginia squads who will be racing there at Van Cortland Park's 2.5 mile course this weekend are not there to see how they stack up within the state. They could very well do that at an in-state invitational this weekend. No these teams are traveling to New York City to see if they can run with some of the best teams in the country and if Nike Team Nationals is an attainable dream.
Photo by John Lautzenheiser
Few expected the Midlothian girls to storm the Manhattan Invite last year and beat some of the nation's best to become the first Virginian team and likely first team from the Southeast Region to win the Eastern States title. Midlothian has five of their top seven back from last year as M.C. Miller graduated and Leia Lautzenheiser is still out with injury. Other returnees will need to pick up the slack with two of their top three 20 finishers in last year's race not present. Kathleen Lautzenheiser is back and leading the charge for the Lady Trojans as the 14th place finisher in the 2006 race is coming off a big victory at the Maymont Festival in a loaded field of individual runners. Look for Lautzenheiser to break into the top 10 this year.
Paige Johnston should be much improved for Midlothian from her 2006 Manhattan performance with a 56 place effort. Johnston broke 19 minutes with a top ten finish at the Maymont Festival and the shorter distance should suit the defending AAA state champion at 800 and 1000 meters well. Midlothian's #3 Sammy Dow is a New York native and very familar with the course and teams in New York. Her experience will need to be put into use as Midlothian will likely need another top three in the top 20 to take down the #1 ranked squad in the country according to Marc Bloom's Harrier Super 25 in defending NTN champions Fayetteville-Manlius of New York. Like Johnston, Dow may be more comfortable racing at the shorter distance as she was the state runner-up to Johnston in the 1000 meter run last March.
Midlothian may be stronger in the fourth spot than they were last year as Amy Witt has been a steady performer for Coach Morgan this fall. Witt was only five seconds behind Dow (15th, 19:21) at Maymont with a top 20 finishing time of 19:26. The fifth spot will likely need to be improved upon than what has been shown so far in Midlothian's only two invitational 5K races for them to come out on top of another Manhattan field. Midlothian has three possible runners to step up into that role. Anne Tenser ran well at Maymont to dip just under 20 minutes with Erin Strehle only a few seconds behind at 20:02. However, the runner with the most potential to close the gap on their top four looks to be freshmen Shannon Ropelewski, who won the Chesterfield County Middle School Championships last fall. Ropelewski won the varsity "B" race at the Great Meadow Invite in the season opener and then ran well at Maymont in the silver division with a fourth place time of 20:01.
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Other teams from Virginia competing in the Eastern States Champion girls race set to go off at 2:37 PM on Saturday will be AA squads Blacksburg and Brentsville. Blacksburg firmly established themselves as the second best team in Virginia last weekend at the Octoberfest Invitational over a previously nationally ranked squad in Lake Braddock. Coach James Demarco's girls are currently ranked #6 in the Southeast Region in the latest DyeStat.com Regional XC Rankings and feel they can push their way close to the top two with a strong showing at Van Cortland Park this Saturday.
One runner for Blacksburg whose improvements each race out is making a considerable impact on the overall improvement and strength of the team is senior Laurel MacMillan (pictured right by John Herzog). MacMillan suffered a stress fracture injury in late summer and was not able to race until the Maymont Festival. In her first race of the fall at Maymont, MacMillan finished fifth for the team and just under 20 minutes. A week later at Octoberfest, MacMillan was under 19 minutes and the team's first finisher.
If Blacksburg's other top runner in junior Allison Homer can shake off her recent slump in races, watch out for the Lady Bruins to sneak well into the top 10 in the Eastern States race as their pack has been quite impressive this season. Blacksburg's depth could be argued to be slightly better than Midlothian right now with Leia Lautzenheiser out as they have seven girls under 20 minutes for 5K compared to Midlothian's five. However, in order for Blacksburg to matchup well against the many great teams in the 31 team Eastern States field, MacMillan, Homer, and Joanna Stevens will need to shoot for high individual finishes to keep pace. Stevens has stepped up well in her sophomore year as she is nearly on the verge of joining MacMillan and Homer under 19 minutes this season after a 19:07 performance at Octoberfest.
The Brentsville girls will put together a solid lineup as a top 15 finish would be very respectable considering the quality of the field being lined up at Manhattan. Brentsville finished third at Octoberfest last Saturday behind Blacksburg and Lake Braddock and come into this weekend as the #5 ranked team in Virginia. The team is led by senior Amelia Emerson, who clocked a personal best of 19:01 at Octoberfest with freshmen Morgan Price (19:34 5K best) in the #2 slot having bolstered a squad returning five from a 2006 AA state runner-up squad to Blacksburg.
Photo by Ted Plunkett
The Herndon and Oakton girls, both ranked in the top 10 in Virginia, will be competing in the other randomly assigned varsity divisions as will the top Virginia boys teams. Herndon girls finished fourth at Octoberfest last Saturday and potentially have the only Virginian girl with a shot at winning a race division this weekend with junior Hiruni Wijayaratne. Wijayaratne was painfully close to winning the Octoberfest Invite last weekend, but had to settle for fourth place in a personal best 5K time of 18:30. She should fair well at the 2.5 mile distance as she ran 11:05 for 3200 meters last spring as a sophomore. The VA #8 Herndon girls will look to battle with Queensbury of New York for the team title in the varsity C race at 3:15 PM with six girls this season having already ran under 20:50 for 5K behind their ace Wijayaratne.
The Oakton girls will be competing in the race prior with the 3:01 PM start time for the varsity B division. The #10 ranked team in Virginia will be looking to post a faster team average their Northern Region rivals Herndon, who race 14 minutes after the start of their race. While the Oakton girls lack a true front runner, their pack is one of the tighest in the state as roughly 30 seconds separates their top five based off their season 5K bests ranging from 19:40 to 20:12.
Also racing in the varsity girls divisions from Virginia are Thomas Jefferson and Forest Park in the varsity E race (3:37 PM) and Walsingham Academy with Oakton in the B race.
