Check out more photos from Patriot XC Team Trial by Lisa McArthur!
MileStat.com visited Patriot High School for a two mile team time trial at Bristoe Station Battlefield Park at the end of their first week of official practice for the upcoming the 2015 cross country season.
Coached by Adam Daniels, the Patriot girls are coming off one of their best seasons ever in program history in finishing fourth in the 6A race at the VHSL State Cross Country Meet last November at Great Meadow. They graduated several key runners including Candace Jones and Carina Garcia, but still return a strong core of returnees who improved over the track season as well as the addition of impactful freshmen. And we can't forget their #1 runner, who might be one of the top 15 best returning runners in the country in junior Rachel McArthur.
McArthur is the reigning Virginia 6A state champion in cross country as well as outdoors in the 3200 (with a 10:19 PR performance). She earned All-American honors in cross country with a top 25 finish at Nike Cross Nationals and anchored her distance medley relay to a Penn Relays victory in the spring.
Believe it or not, despite her success last year, this past summer has been the first summer that Rachel McArthur has actually trained over the offseason months in between the outdoor and cross country season. Her improved fitness from running over the summer for once showed in her team trial as despite being instructed by her coach to go at 80% effort, still managed to run 20 seconds faster than a year ago in the same two mile time trial loop at Bristoe Station in a time of 11:45. McArthur still hasn't decided on her postseason plans if she plans on going back to Nike Cross Nationals or try to qualify for Foot Locker Nationals for the first time.
Patriot Girls Top 7 Returnees
| 1) Rachel McArthur | 17:16.00 | |||
| 2) Abigail Wied | 19:01.70 | |||
| 3) Sierra Biber | 19:46.00 | |||
| 4) Maggie McCarty | 20:02.00 | |||
| 5) Lindsay Yentz | 20:17.60 | |||
| Average Time: 19:16.66 Total Time: 1:36:23.30 1-5 Split: 3:01.60 | ||||
| 6) Megan Howard | 20:20.40 | |||
| 7) Emily Miller | 20:59.70 | |||
Behind McArthur, the Patriot girls have six more girls back who ran under 21 minutes for 5K last year for solid depth including a quality top two in Abigail Wied (19:01 5K/11:36 3200) and Sierra Bibler. Wied was out of town for Thursday's time trial, but Bibler ran strong as the second finisher behind McArthur. Bibler was a top 50 finisher at last year's state cross country meet and excelled in the 800 meter run outdoors dropping her time down to 2:16. Wied was a top 25 finisher in the 6A North Regional last fall.
Patriot also had two freshmen among their top 8 finishers in the time trial and one happens to have a strong gene pool for running in Emily McArthur, kid sister of Rachel McArthur. Primarily a 400 meter runner in middle school track, McArthur looks to move up in distance while showing off her speed in her first cross country and find her way eventually in the team's top five. Currently, senior Maggie McCarthy and sophomore Lindsay Yentz expect to round out the team's top five after running in the low 20 minute range last fall for 5K inc ross country.
Watch Patriot XC Girls Time Trial
The boys team could surprise a few in the always tough and deep 6A North Region. Two years ago when MileStat.com last visited Patriot High School for a team workout, they had arguably their team's most talented group to compete for a state meet berth, but fell apart down the stretch and didn't make it out of the regional meet at Burke Lake Park. On paper, this year's team appears to be on the bubble of top 6 finish at the regional meet.
Their team may have received the necessary boost to push them over the top in the transfer of Greg Moore, formerly at Grafton High School in Yorktown, to their team this fall. Moore actually led and finished first in their team's two mile time trial on Thursday evening with a time of 10:43. He was quickly trained in by two more teammates also under 10:50 including the team's top returnee in Eric Speeney. This past spring, the rising junior Speeney finished his outdoor season running excellent PR's of 4:29 for 1600 meters and 9:51 for 3200 meters. Speeney ran 16:48 for 5K last fall.
Moore is also a junior and is looking for a bounce back year after starting off high school strong at Grafton running freshmen year PR's of 16:33 for 5K and 10:05 for 3200 meters. Didn't have the same level of success or improvement in his sophomore year (did run a 4:43 1600 PR), but may have had some injury issues slowing him down.
Patriot Boys Top 7 Returnees
| 1) Eric Speeney | 16:48.40 | |||
| 2) Matthew Blair | 16:57.50 | |||
| 3) Jonathan Hubler | 17:25.50 | |||
| 4) Blair Matthew | 17:27.60 | |||
| 5) Damian Grant | 18:00.90 | |||
| Average Time: 17:19.98 Total Time: 1:26:39.90 1-5 Split: 1:12.50 | ||||
| 6) Christopher Santi | 18:18.60 | |||
| 7) Kristopher Longenecker | 18:34.70 | |||
Matthew Blair is another returning sub 17 minute runner for the Patriot boys as he was the team's best new freshmen last year not only running 16:57 for 5K for the fall, but running 4:46 for 1600 meters in the spring. That happens to be the identical PR time to the team's #1 girl in Rachel McArthur, but can count on Blair making the sophomore year leap and going sub 4:40 soon into the track season.
Like most teams, the Patriot boys will need to improve their #4 and #5 runner positions throughout the season though to give them a hope of trying to make it through the stacked 6A North Region.
Watch Patriot XC Boys Time Trial
Check out more photos from Patriot XC Team Trial by Lisa McArthur