Thomas Dale boys keep on truckin in Central

The Thomas Dale boys kept on truckin' and carrying on a long tradition of dominance in the Central District Cross Country Meet. With the Thomas Dale boys winning their seventh straight district title, while an even more impressive streak was continued by Nathaniel Kistner's last second kick to take the individual crown. With Kistner denying Prince George's Justin Hayne the district title with a one second win at 17:07, Kistner became the 17th straight individual champion by a Thomas Dale runner in the district championship.


It came down to the very end for the title between Thomas Dale's Kistner and Prince George's Hayne. (Photo by Brandon Miles)

Hayne tested the streak and Kistner to the limit though as he ran down the Thomas Dale senior in the final quarter mile and appeared to have the win in sight coming through the finish. However, Kistner summoned one last surge of energy to overtake Hayne in the final strides.

Hayne's Prince George squad also were a worthy challenger to Coach Bob Gulley's Thomas Dale boys with five runners earning All-District honors with top 15 finishes, but Thomas Dale was stronger up front with five in the top nine and ahead of Prince George's third finisher for a team score of 28 points. Prince George took district runner-up honors with 44 points.


Matoaca's Brock and Colonial Heights' Tyler leading the field early on. (Photo by Brandon Miles)

The Central District needed a girl to break out in the district race. Going into the meet, no girl in the district had broke 22 minutes this season. Matoaca's Emily Brock certainly was up for the challenge as she made a huge drop in times to clock in at 20:39 to win by 40 seconds over Colonial Heights freshmen Samantha Tyler (21:19). However, Tyler led a reversal in results for the team crown as Colonial Heights tallied 27 points with five of the top seven finishers in the race. A field hockey player and a 300 meter hurdler made up their top three with Tyler in Nikki Grunow (3rd, 21:24) and Megan Sinclair (4th, 21:56) finishing in the top four. 

COMPLETE RESULTS: BOYS - GIRLS

PHOTO GALLERY - 316 photos total 

RACE VIDEOS: Varsity Boys - Varsity Girls