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The Albemarle Invitational definitely shook up the establishment as favorites faltered and underdogs rose to the occassion. No bigger underdog in the meet was the host school in the Albemarle boys going up against the giants in Western Albemarle and Mountain View. While neither of the highly ranked teams raced at full strength, one cannot diminish the team performance of Coach Buz Male's boys in pulling off the win in the home invite under their first year coach. It came down to a final two for the individual title between two of private school's best in Jeremy Haney of Fork Union and Austin Ellis of Covenant both (pictured above by John Herzog with Western Albemarle's Kyle Satterwhite) clocking in at 15:53 with Haney taking the slight edge and his major invitational victory. The VA #4 ranked Maggie Walker girls showed their depth, but in the wrong race as their top two finishers in JV race could have helped them out greatly in the varsity race. As a result, the VA #7 ranked Millbrook girls were able to score a mild upset led by another great 1-2 punch in the Parkes sisters and other teammates stepping up. Regardless of an off day from 2006 Albemarle Invite champ Liz Barclay, Osboun Park sophomore Ariel Karabinus will be tough to stop from winning the Northwest Region title if she runs like she did on Saturday in November with a 11 second 18:35 victory. More to come from Albemarle...