This was Virginia's year! Check out our Virginia Boys' Foot Locker recap here!
Watch Drew Hunter's Record & The Boys' Championship race here!
The next race was the Girls' Championship Race, check out that full recap here!
Photos by: Mary Ann Magnant
After the excitement of the girls' race it didn't seem like anything could raise the bar but then Drew Hunter toed the line and the crowd grew even larger. Unlike the girls' race, Drew was completely by himself. He opened in a crazy 4:26 and then blew through the two mile mark in 9:07. No one was in sight. He ran around the fields and entered back around the lake at 12:57. As the crowd went wild and all took selfies he powered through and crossed the line in 14:26 to break Sean McGorty's 14:28 course and meet record.
Though Drew was not delighted with his time it is very impressive considering this year meet management added 70-80 meters to the course to make it almost exactly 5,000m. That addition adds at least 12-15 seconds which means Drew was around 14:10 pace if the course had stayed the same!
The craziness didn't stop there though for Virginia. Just after Drew finished down the stretch came not one but two Virginia athletes battling it out. At the line Gannon Willcutts (Western Albemarle) edged out Jonathan Lomogda (Cox) to finish second and third both in 14:59!
Once again, the craziness didn't stop there for VA as just a few seconds later at 15:10 Douglas Freeman's Waleed Suliman crossed the line in 6th to advance to FL Nationals in only his second season of XC!
All of those exciting finishes were only a warmup as home-schooled Micah Pratt (Patriot Pacers) moved from 11th and 50m down in the final 200m to walk down his competition and finish in 9th as he threw his hands in the air in excitement. Both Suliman and Pratt are both juniors while the other three boys are seniors.
Also finishing inside the top 30 for Virginia was Fitsum Seyoum (Tuscarora) 22nd in 15:39, Kyle Sanok (The Potomac School) 23rd in 15:40, Tyler Cox-Philyaw (Millbrook) 25th in 15:47, and Dalton Randall (Clover Hill) 27th also in 15:47.
This race as well as the entire meet will go down as one of the most successful meets in Virginia XC history. Out of the eight high school and one open races Virginia saw five victories and two second places!
Top 30 Boys' Championship Finishers
Place Athlete Team Result Points 1 Hunter, Andrew 12 Loudoun Valley 14:26.00 -- 2 Willcutts, Gannon 12 Western Albemarle 14:59.00 -- 3 Lomogda, Jonathan 12 Cox 14:59.00 -- 4 Brown, Reed 11 Southlake Carroll 15:04.00 -- 5 Meade, Luke 12 Sullivan East High School 15:07.00 -- 6 Suliman*, Waleed 11 Douglas Freeman 15:10.00 1 7 Dowdy, Cole 12 South Oldham 15:16.00 -- 8 Jacques, Joshua 12 Lyman HS 15:21.00 -- 9 Pratt, Micah 11 Patriot Pacers 15:23.00 -- 10 Cross, Steven 12 Merritt Island HS 15:24.00 -- 11 Coston, Eric 11 St. Paul's School 15:25.00 -- 12 Bradtmueller, Adam 12 Sarasota HS 15:31.00 -- 13 Varghese, Ben 12 Daniel Boone High School 15:32.00 -- 14 Fryman, Trenton 12 North Oldham 15:33.00 -- 15 Shewbert, Jake 12 Flowery Branch 15:33.00 -- 16 Clark, Allen 11 Lakeside, Evans 15:35.00 -- 17 Harrison, Hayden 12 Buffalo 15:35.00 -- 18 Lowery, Blake 10 Swett, Purnell 15:36.00 -- 19 Colaizzi, Tristan 12 Georgetown Day School 15:37.00 -- 20 Crigger, Alex 10 Science Hill High School 15:38.00 2 21 Dowdy, Tanner 12 South Oldham 15:39.00 -- 22 Seyoum, Fitsum 12 Tuscarora High School (VA) 15:39.00 -- 23 Sanok, Kyle 12 The Potomac School 15:40.00 -- 24 Taylor, Kieran 12 Catholic High School 15:46.00 -- 25 Cox-Philyaw, Tyler 12 Millbrook 15:47.00 -- 26 Lane, Connor 11 Cardinal Gibbons 15:47.00 -- 27 Randall, Dalton 12 Clover Hill 15:47.00 -- 28 Kearney, Matthew 10 Austin Westlake 15:49.00 -- 29 Bluth, Jack 12 Milton High School 15:51.00 -- 30 Kattenberg, Trevor 11 Holy Trinity Academy 15:51.00 --