Tomorrow will be yet another historic day in what has bent he greatest season in Virginia XC history. 16 individuals will get off the plane in Portland Oregon and race in the Nike Cross National Championship. Those competing will include Girls 6A State Team Champs and NXR-SE Regional Champs Lake Braddock and Girls 3A State Champs Blacksburg. They will be joined by Colin Schaefer from Lake Braddock and Rachel McArthur from Patriot.
This is a year of firsts, it will be the first time Virginia has qualified two girls teams in the same yet and the first time the historic program of Lake Braddock has qualified a team! This could also be the year Virginia breaks into the top 5 at this prestigious and ultra competitive meet. The highest three finishes for a Virginia girl's team were Blacksburg in 2009 (6th), Blacksburg in 2014 (7th), and Midlothian in 2006 (10th). This year both Blacksburg and Lake Braddock are much stronger and could shock a lot of people with their ability.
Their finish would not only do wonders for exposure to our state and how great the competition is here but also help future teams in the southeast region to hopefully get more at large bids. Great Oak is the solid the favorite for this title.
Individually in the girls' race three Virginia girls have a serious shot at finishing very high and potentially even winning. These girls will have to face off with Destiny Collins, Cate Ratliff, Stephanie Jenks, Katie Rainsberger, and many more!
The three girls that have the speed and ability to do this are Kate Murphy, Sophia Link, and Rachel McArthur. All three of these girls are around low 17 on a good day. If they can have a great day then they are going to be in contention the entire way. The only girl with more foot speed then Murphy and McArthur has to be Desiny Collins so if it is anyone but Collins in a foot race then it bodes well for VA. Link is the youngest of the trio but could be just as talented. She will need a much better race than her performance regionals both to place high and to help her team.
One of the biggest battles though will be between Lake Braddock and Blacksburg. These two programs are some of the most historic in our state's history with 16 and 11 state team titles respectively. That is #1 and #2 all-time for Virginia with Blacksburg leading the way. Both coaches respect each other but want to beat the other more than anything, because after all, they are each other's greatest competition. It only adds more excitement to this matchup the fact that Blacksburg's James DeMarco is stepping down after this meet. He lost to LB at regionals for the first time and definitely doesn't want to make a trend. Lake Braddock though will be very tough to beat if they run as well as they did at NXR.
In the boys' race Lake Braddock has Colin Schaefer toeing the line in hopes of an All-American finish. He ran 15:11 and finished 4th last week. This was by far his best race of the post-season and a huge improvement. Colin was also the Conference 7 and 6A North Regional champion. He seems to like to pull away late but is going to be chasing some talented guys in this race.
This season has been historically great and tomorrow things could get even better as they take the course in hopes of a huge post-season continuing!