MileStat.com will be providing extensive pre-meet and post-meet coverage of Virginia's two high school cross country championships with Friday's Virginia Independent Schools Championships at Woodberry Forest and Saturday's Virginia High School League Championships at Great Meadow. MileStat.com will also be providing live results of the VHSL State Cross Country Championships for the first time ever!
LATE Monday Night: Combined Team Scoring from VHSL & VIS Championships
Tuesday thru Thursday: More stories and interviews with the champions and others
Click here for state championship coverage with more to be added throughout the week
VHSL State Championships:
Saturday, November 10th - Great Meadow - The Plains, VA
Fastest state meet EVER at Great Meadow!
As I was leaving the VIS State Champions on Friday, Fork Union coach Winston Brown made a comment that MileStat.com was the main reason that Virginia had 100 boys breaking 10 minutes for 3200 meters last spring. I have to disagree with Coach Brown though after watching the VHSL State Championships on Saturday as it apparent that the depth of talent in Virginia is an all-time high with many outstanding runners who may never get their front page glory on MileStat.com, but are highly motivated individuals on their own. The 2007 Virginia state championships lit up the all-time Great Meadow state meet performance lists with 56 boys beating the previous 100th performer cutoff of 16:13.3, while 52 girls ran faster than the previous 100th time to beat of 19:12.2.
Each of these runners as well as the rest of the competitors in the field should all be given credit to taking Virginia high school cross country to a new level! Watch out South region at Footlocker South! We are coming to clean house!
A pair of Midlothian harriers led the way with AAA state champions Jason Witt (15:10) and Kathleen Lautzenheiser (17:56). Only Alan Webb and Bobby Lockhart have ran faster than Witt's time at a Great Meadow state championship, while only Catherine White has a faster time than Lautzenheiser at the state meet venue since 1994. The most thrilling finish came with the Group A boys as it went down to the very end between Radford's Nathan Brame and Lebanon's Jakob Maidens (finish pictured right by John Herzog). A fully automatic timing system could have been very useful in determing winner with Brame declared as the winner as both were timed at 15:50.Peter Dorrell won a highly anticipated AA boys race to close the state championships in the day's second fastest at 15:16. Laura Rapp broke away from a half dozen runners in the hunt coming down the final stretch in 18:14 for the AA girls title. Glenvar's Megan Marsico went out aggressively to distance herself from co-favorite Susanna Sullivan of George Mason and never relented her large lead for a 19 second win 18:21.
The team finishes were even wilder and more exciting. The AAA boys had four outstanding squads coached by some of the state's very best in Thomas Jefferson, Midlothian, Mountain View, and Oakton. The Thomas Jefferson boys, who at season's beginning looked to possibly be the odd one out of a top three podium finish and an end of five year streak of top three finishes, instead won their third state championship in a six year span led by Coach Matt Ryan. 15 points separated the top three with Thomas Jefferson (1st, 91 pts), Midlothian (2nd, 101 pts), and Mountain View (3rd, 107 pts). The Midlothian girls had the least trouble out of the favorites in the AAA girls division with a low team score of 57 points, but the bigger stories were in second and third place with Oakton (110 pts) and Western Branch (3rd, 131 pts). The Oakton girls had been overshadowed by their male counterparts all season, but came through big in crunch time by going from fourth in their region to second in the state. Meanwhile, the Western Branch girls accomplished a feat that has not been done by an Eastern Region team in ages by making it onto the podium.
The new challengers in Millbrook and Hidden Valley girls made things interesting coming off their regional upset wins, but the order was re-established with a repeat of last year's state champions and state runners-up in Blacksburg and Brentsville. The closest team battle came with the AA boys as the Brentsville boys won yet another state championship under Coach Rob Dulin, but not before tough challenges from Western Albemarle and Jamestown. The Brentsville and Thomas Jefferson boys are a classic example of how tradition never graduates as they were able to come back stronger in 2007 from 2006 graduation losses.
The Clarke County girls won a fourth state title in a row in Group A, but the Clarke County boys were denied a fourth consecutive with their girls thanks to a great state meet team performance by the Radford boys with three runners in the top seven for the lowest team score of the meet at 38 points.
VHSL State Championships Results: AAA Boys - AAA Girls - AA Boys - AA Girls - A Boys - A Girls
VHSL State Championships Race Videos: AAA Girls (Part 1 & Part 2) - AAA Boys - A Girls - A Boys - AA Girls - AA Boys
VHSL State Championship Photo Galleries:
Herzog Gallery (All Races) - 1584 total photos available for purchase!
Plunkett Gallery (All Races) - 1071 total photos
D'Amato Gallery (AAA) - 243 total photos
Paisley Gallery (AAA) - 260 total photos
Jefferson boys win state cross country title
Photo by Ted Plunkett
At the beginning of the season, things were not looking good for the Jefferson boys cross country team. Star senior Brian Landry missed the entire month of August with a knee injury and coach Matt Ryan didn't sense the right team chemistry.
“It was not realistic to sit there and say, 'We're going to try and win the state meet,'” Ryan said of his team's start to the season. “Get to the state meet and do your best, but to win would've been kind of a stretch.”
Two months later, with a healthy Landry leading the way, the Colonials captured their second Virginia AAA state championship in four years, finishing 10 points ahead of second-place Midlothian.
Brentsville boys claim another state title
But working hard and running in unison can lead to great results.
"Even though we may not have the strongest up-front runners as we've have had for the past four years, we have something else that other teams don't have and that's a strong core group of guys who work together," senior runner Ray Delgado said.
Lautzenheiser, Witt take titles, a first for a Group AAA school
Photo by John Herzog
Midlothian cross country runners established a first at the Virginia High School League state meet at Great Meadow for the second year in a row.
Running under low gray skies and in cold temperatures yesterday, sophomore Kathleen Lautzenheiser and senior Jason Witt became the first runners from the same Group AAA school to win individual titles in the same year. The feat has been accomplished twice in Group AA (1980, 1986) and never in Group A.
Timesland runners win state titles at VHSL meet
"Real snotty," he said, referring to his nose. "Just not feeling perky."
The redheaded senior at Blacksburg High School was nursing a cold before Saturday's VHSL state cross country meet at Great Meadows.
He was one of three Timesland runners to claim an individual title on Saturday. In Group A, Radford's Nathan Brame repeated as champion in the boys' division. Glenvar sophomore Megan Marisco added the girls' state title to go along with her first-place finishes in the Three Rivers and Region C meets.
State cross country: Rinehardt and Western Branch girls take third
The goal of every runner who comes to the Group AAA state cross country meet is to make it on the awards podium. That means placing in the top 15 individually or top three as a team.
Tallwood senior Octavia Rinehardt and Western Branch’s girls both achieved those goals, placing third on a cold Saturday morning at Great Meadow. Rinehardt ran a personal-best 18 minutes, 5.9 seconds, the fastest time ever posted by an Eastern Region girlsat the state meet. It’s also the sixth-fastest time overall at the state meet.
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Email us links of your local newspaper articles on the VHSL State Championships at milestat@gmail.com
VHSL State Championships Podcasts: Coach Matt Ryan (Thomas Jefferson S&T)
VHSL State Championships Podcasts: Coach Rob Dulin (Brentsville)
VHSL State Championships Podcasts: Coach Mike Carrow (Radford)
State Meet Information - Important information for Saturday's Virginia High School League Cross Country State Championships being held at Great Meadow in The Plains, Virginia. Information on time schedule, admission costs, directions, reminders for coaches/athletes/spectators, and area hotel lists posted.
State Meet Preview - The 2007 VHSL State Cross Country Championships will have six competitive races with many teams and individuals chasing dreams which began on day one of summer training fueled by the quest of eventually making it onto the podium at Great Meadow as either a state champion, a member of a top three finishing team, or a top 15 All-State finisher. The dream will only be achieved by a select few on Saturday, but the many dreamers will be giving their all as they come down the final stretch inside the gate. There is no doubt Saturday will be a great showcase of the best in Virginia high school cross country.
State Meet Rankings - State meet rankings for this Saturday's VHSL State Cross Country Championships. What does state meet rankings mean? These rankings are not the usual coaches rankings, do not include teams or individuals who failed to qualify for state competition, and based only on regional meet performances with some subjectivity. State meet rankings are 16 deep in teams and 25 deep in individuals for each classification. The 25 deep individual lists should be especially resourceful in seeing which runners beyond the usual 15 deep coaches rankings has a shot at earning All-State honors in Group AAA, Group AA, and Group A.
Group AAA, AA, A Top 50 Individual 5K Rankings: Boys - Girls - Top 50 fastest 5K times for each classification leading into Saturday's VHSL State Cross Country Championships
Group AAA, A, A Top 25 Database Team Scoring Rankings: Boys - Girls - Based off season best 5K times, Midlothian boys & girls in Group AAA, Brentsville boys & Blacksburg girls in Group AA, and Radford boys & Clarke County girls in Group A should win state girls titles this weekend according to MileStat.com's database team scoring rankings. However, we all know the difficulty and conditions of different cross country courses make it virtually impossible to rank teams based off of 5K times alone.
VHSL State Championship History: Boys - Girls - History of team and individual champions at the VHSL State Cross Country Championships.
Top 100 All-Time Great Meadow State Meet Performers: Boys - Girls - Top 100 all-time performers from the Great Meadow era (1994-present) of VHSL State Cross Country Championships. Alan Webb has the boys' course record at 15:03.3 in his 2000 AAA state title, while the 100th performer cutoff is 16:13.3. Compiled by Brandon Miles. Catherine White's 17:48.7 win in the 2005 AA state race ranks as the fastest girls time, while the cutoff for the top 100 is 19:12.
Reliving State Championship Glory - Series of podcast interviews this week with MileStat.com's Brandon Miles catching up with past state champions in Virginia as they recall their memorable days at the VHSL State Cross Country Championship:
Jennifer Boyd (Hickory) - 2002 AAA State Girls Champion
Jim Hill (Oakton) - 1978 Group AAA State Boys Champion
Kendall Tata (Kempsville) - 1979 Group AAA State Girls Champion
Shannon Saunders (Jefferson Forest) - 2000, 2001 Group AA State Girls Champion
Michael Chapa (J.R. Tucker) - 2004 Group AAA State Boys Champion
VIS State Championships:
Friday, November 9th - Woodberry Forest School - The Plains, VA
Ross, Fitzpatrick, Strehler, and Gay join elite company at Woodberry Forest
There were some amazing individual performances at the Virginia Independent Schools State Champions on Friday afternoon at Woodberry Forest School. On one of the state's most difficult commonly run courses, four individuals posted times which have rarely been seen much less a barrage of them in the same meet. With his 15:57 win in the Division I race, Potomac School senior Ross joined only three others to ever break 16 minutes at Woodberry as only Alan Webb (15:18) and Kippy Keino (15:51) have ran faster. Both happened to be Footlocker finalist, which should give Ross a great deal of confidence heading into Footlocker South later this month.
Jeremy Haney was able to hang tough with Ross for close to two miles before Ross was able to break away as Haney's 16:11 runner-up performance was very helpful to Ross as well as the Fork Union boys in winning their third straight Division I title.
It will be hard for any of the public school state championship races to live up to the drama of the Megan Fitzpatrick-Barbara Strehler battle on Friday in the Division I girls race as the private school's top two ranked harriers raced neck and neck the entire way. Strehler started to gap Fitzpatrick in the final mile, but Fitzpatrick was able to reel her in and look to be starting to pull away for the win. Strehler fought back in the final stretch to pull a slight advantage, but Fitzpatrick responded just in time to hold off for the win as both were timed at 18:46 to finish ahead of the old course record set by two-time AAA state champion Rachel Rose at 18:51.
In the final race of the day and running out in front by herself, North Cross senior Jane Gay had an equally impressive performance to break 19 minutes in 18:57.
The Covenant boys and girls swept the Division II team titles with senior Austin Ellis wrapping up his stellar high school cross country career with a fourth straight state championship. The Bishop O'Connell girls were dominant as expected in Division I with a team victory.
VIS State Championships Results: Division I Boys - Division I Girls - Division II Boys - Division II Girls
VIS State Championships Race Videos: Division I Boys - Division I Girls - Division II Boys - Division II Girls
Video Interviews: Johns Ross - Megan Fitzpatrick - Jane Gay
VIS State Championships Photo Gallery by John Herzog - 1143 total photos available for purchase!
11/8 Private School State Rankings
Private School Top 50 Individual 5K Rankings - Top 50 fastest 5K times this fall among private school runners this fall heading into Friday's Virginia Independent Schools State Championships at Woodberry Forest. A total of 8 girls have met the MileSplit US second team standard of 19:45, while 14 boys have eclipsed the MileSplit US second team standard of 16:30.
Private School Top 25 Database Team Scoring Rankings - The Bishop O'Connell girls and Fork Union boys have been ranked #1 among the private schools all season long. MileStat.com's Database Team Scoring Rankings agree with the assessment by the coaches as both teams are ontop of this list as well. The Fork Union boys will be going for their third straight Division I title on Friday at Woodberry Forest.
VIS Division I Rankings: Boys Teams - Girls Teams - Boys Individuals - Girls Individuals
VIS Division II Rankings: Boys Teams - Girls Teams - Boys Individuals - Girls Individuals
VIS State Championships Girls History - History of the varsity girls championships race from the Virginia Independent Schools Cross Country Championships. Dates back with top three individual and team finishers from the 1979 race.
VIS State Championships Race Day Instructions & Course Map
Meet Preview - There could be some great duels for the Division I individual titles with Johns Ross and Jeremy Haney for the boys and Barbara Strehler and Megan Fitzpatrick for the girls. Strehler and Fitzpatrick especially could be produce one of the fastest winning times ever at a VIS Championships hosted at Woodberry Forest. The Fork Union boys and Bishop O'Connell girls are favored, but should get challenged on Friday for the titles. Jane Gay will be attempting to post the fastest time of the meet without the competition in Division II, while Austin Ellis should conclude a fantastic four years of state titles in the Division II boys race.
TIME SCHEDULE
D1 Boys 2:30pm
D1 Girls 3:00pm
D2 Boys 3:30pm
D2 Girls 4:00pm
TEAM DIVISIONS
DIVISION I. BOYS
1. BISHOP IRETON
2. BENEDICTINE
3. BISHOP O’CONNELL
4. BISHOP SULLIVAN
5. BLUE RIDGE
6. CAPE HENRY COLLEGIATE
7. COLLEGIATE
8. EPISCOPAL
9. FLINT HILL
10. FORK UNION
11. LIBERTY CHRISTIAN
12. NORFOLK ACADEMY
13. NORFOLK COLLEGIATE
14. PAUL VI
15. POTOMAC SCHOOL
16. SAINT ANNE’S BELFIELD
17. SAINT CHRISTOPHER’S
18. SAINT STEPHEN’S/SAINT AGNES
19. TRINTIY
20. WOODBERRY FOREST
DIVISION I. GIRLS
1. BISHOP IRETON
2. BISHOP O’CONNELL
3. BISHOP SULLIVAN
4. COLLEGIATE
5. EPISCOPAL
6. FREDERICKSBURG CHRISTIAN
7. LIBERTY CHRISTIAN
8. NANSEMOND SUFFOLK
9. NORFOLK ACADEMY
10. PAUL VI
11. PENINSULA CATHOLIC
12. POTOMAC SCHOOL
13. SAINT CATHERINE’S
14. SAINT GERTRUDE’S
15. SAINT STEPHEN’S/SAINT AGNES
16. TRINITY
DIVISION II. BOYS
1. ATLANTIC SHORES
2. BLESSED SACRAMENT
3. CALVARY CHRISTIAN
4. COVENANT SCHOOL
5. DENBIGH BAPTIST
6. EASTERN MENNONITE
7. FAITH CHRISTIAN
8. FREDERICKSBURG ACADEMY
9. FREDERICKSBURG CHRISTIAN
10. FUQUA SCHOOL
11. GREENBRIER CHRISTIAN
12. HAMPTON CHRISTIAN
13. HAMPTON ROADS ACADEMY
14. HIGHLAND
15. MASSANUTTEN
16. MILLER
17. NORFOLK CHRISTIAN
18. NORTH CROSS
19. PENINSULA CATHOLIC
20. QUANTICO
21. RICHMOND CHRISTIAN
22. ROANOKE CATHOLIC
23. SETON
24. STEWARD
25. STONEBRIDGE
26. V.E.S.
27. WAKEFIELD
28. WALSINGHAM
DIVISION II. GIRLS
1. ATLANTIC SHORES
2. CAPE HENRY
3. CHATHAM HALL
4. COVENANT
5. DENBIGH BAPTIST
6. EASTERN MENNONITE
7. FAITH CHRISTIAN
8. FREDERICKSBURG ACADEMY
9. FUQUA
10. GREENBRIER CHRISTIAN
11. HAMPTON CHRISTIAN
12. HAMPTON ROADS ACADEMY
13. HIGHLAND
14. MASSANUTTEN
15. MILLER
16. NORFOLK CHRISTIAN
17. NORFOLK COLLEGIATE
18. NORTH CROSS
19. QUANTICO
20. RICHMOND CHRISTIAN
21. ROANOKE CATHOLIC
22. SETON
23. STAB
24. STEWARD
25. STONEBRIDGE
26. V.E.S.
27. WAKEFIELD SCHOOL
28. WALSINGHAM ACADEMY