The Capital District Meet was moved to Thursday from Wednesday with the severe weather that rolled through the Richmond area on Wednesday, but it was another storm rolling through on Thursday at Pole Green Park in the form of individual district champions Ben Dejarnette of Atlee and Lauren Hopper of Hanover. Both scored decisive wins while also leading their teams to district titles.
Dejarnette defended his title with ease as he was never challenged and allowed to runaway with a 34 second victory in a final time of 16:08. Dejarnette will be two-time Central Region champion Jason Witt of Midlothian's biggest challenger next week at the regional meet. It was a closer battler as expected for the team title though between Dejarnette's Atlee boys and the Lee-Davis squad. Lee-Davis was led by district runner-up Robert Reynolds at 16:42. Atlee had higher finishers in every position from #1 to #5 to give Coach Jim Triemplar a district title with a four point difference between the top two teams in the district. Only Varina's Will Hawthorne finishing third in 17:02 broke up an entire top 14 of only Atlee and Lee-Davis runners.
After being defeated by Amanda Lineberry of Lee-Davis for the district title last October, Hanover's Lauren Hopper evened the district series between the two sophomores who will have two more years of district meets to battle over. Hopper won by 11 seconds in 18:52 with Lineberry as the runner-up at 19:03.
The Hanover girls had defeated the Lee-Davis girls at the Lee-Davis Subvarsity Invite on October 13th, but were still concerned going into the district meet since Lee-Davis had defeated them in an earlier Wednesday meet. The margin was close at 27-31, but Hanover came out ontop for a second straight meeting as they build confidence into attempting to qualify for their first state meet as a team next week. Hanover has two potential All-Region performers with Hopper and freshmen Anna Gordon, who placed third in the district race with a time of 19:28.