Over the past three weeks of the XC season Virginia has been welcoming in some of the top talent from around the country. The season started at Great Meadow with Saratoga Springs and last week saw Green Hope and Cardinal Gibbons put on a clinic at Knights Crossing. This week though, NC is going to get a lesson in how good Team VA is this season.
81 teams will be competing at the adidas XC Challenge this Saturday at WakeMed in Cary, NC. This course is home to the Great American Invitational and NXN Southeast regional. It is a course that the top teams in VA know very well and have a history of dominating.
One athlete in particular has won the title on this course and that is Patriot senior Rachel McArthur. She was the 2014 NXNSE champion here and is opening up her senior season on this very fast course.
Though you can easily expect her to run a lot of fast times this season and for her to do big things this season, it is going to be very exciting to see her back from injuries. Last year she fought injuries all season and still made it to NXN... just imagine what she could have done healthy!
Opening up at Adidas also means she and her coaching staff want to prove a point and make a nationwide statement. She should be going for the national lead of 16:44 this weekend.
The top VA boy athlete to watch is Grant Northcutt of Cosby. He was the 6A runner-up last season and has already run 15:29 as only a sophomore. Now that he is an upperclassman he knows how to win and how to race. This could be a huge bounce back race for him after a not-so-great showing at FUMA last week.
He enters the competition seeded 4th but only one second off of second place. This could be a huge step for him in a season where he is hoping to bring home the state 6A title.
Check out the next couple pages for the rundown preview of the weekend.