This past weekend all the way out in Portland Oregon, Virginia runners were making a name for themselves and proving that Virginia is one of the better XC states in the country. It was only a week prior that history was made where for the first time ever Virginia qualified two girls' teams in the same year as Lake Braddock and Blacksburg went 1-2 in the SE region.
They were joined by Lake Braddock's Colin Schaefer and Patriot's Rachel McArthur who competed as individuals.
Since 2004 NXN has quickly grown to become one of the toughest competitions to win in the entire nation. It draws the top teams from around the country and many of the top athletes thanks in no small part to the hefty bag of free Nike swag they receive for competing.
With this competition and tough course comes some of the best races of the season for these teams and this year was no different. In the boys' race Colin Schaefer was the only Virginia representative. He finished a very respectable 79th in the nearly 200 person field. His time was 16:03.10.
In the girls race we had another view at the great McArthur and Murphy rivalry that was only heated up by the great Bruin rivalry between Blacksburg and Lake Braddock.
The race started out poorly for the Virginia squads as Lake Braddock clocked through the first mile sitting in 19th while Blacksburg was 21st out of 22 teams. The second mile saw little improvement with both teams moving up to 18th and 19th respectively. Even at 2.75 miles it wasn't looking great as they were at 16th and 18th with just .35 miles to go!
It was in the final 600m that the Virginia squads decided to make their move and battle it out with each other and the other teams. Blacksburg used this last portion the best as they moved all the way up to 12th with 323 points and edged out Lake Braddock who finished with 331 in 13th place.
This team battle was the best on record between these two storied programs and some of the best finishes ever at NXN for Virginia.
Individually in the girls' race Kate Murphy finished 16th at 17:27 and Rachel McArthur finished 41st at 18:04. Sophia Link, the 3A state champion, finished 76th in 18:28.