Cave Spring senior Tim Smith (pictured left by Scott Rigler) not only came away with a decisve win over AA rival Alex Ott of Turner Ashby at the Runnin' With The Wolves Roctoberfest in Forest, Virginia, but also obliterated the meet record of 16:16 set by 2003 AA state cross country champion Justin Hatch by a whopping 28 seconds. Smith had finished a second behind Ott at the Maymont Festival two weeks ago and this weekend's race at Wolf Branch Farm was expected to be another close finish between the #4 (Ott) and #5 (Smith) ranked runners in AA. However, Smith simply dominated this contest in a 15:48 win as Harrisonburg's Bryant Clopper actually ended up slipping ahead of Ott (3rd, 16:03) for a second with a strong run of 16:02. This year's Runnin With The Wolves was one of the fastest ever on the boys side with ten under 17 minutes on one of the state's more challenging common run courses. With a 58 second spread for #1-5 and nearly five runners in the top 25 places, the #8 ranked Christiansburg boys won another invitational.
The individual winner in the girls' race figured to be wide open and the actual winner turned out to be new name as an invitational champion in Broadway senior Margaret Richardson putting 27 seconds between herself and runner-up Stephanie Spickard of Lord Botetourt in a 19:50 win. The Blacksburg girls showed their great depth without their top seven present as they were racing in New York this weeked as the Blacksburg "B" team almost claimed the title at Runnin' With The Wolves led by a fifth place finish from Peter Dorrell's little sister Sarah (20:51), but the Jefferson Forest girls had too much pride on the line in their home meet to allow that to happen with a narrow three point win over Blacksburg with 77 points.
Running With The Wolves Rocktoberfest Photo Gallery by Scott Rigler - More photos to be added on Sunday.