Despite losing several members from their 2007 VIS state champion cross country squad, the Bishop O'Connell girls opened their season looking even stronger for the 2008 campaign with a win at Saturday's Peter Geraghty Invitational over one of the top teams in Maryland in Northwest High School.
On a sloppy course thanks the driving rainfall from Tropical Storm Hanna, Bishop O'Connell had six girls finish among the top 20 places and Megan Fitzpatrick (pictured left by Kevin Milsted of Mocorunning.com)led the squad with a third place showing in 19:58. Fitzpatrick, a returning state champion and ranked fifth in MileStat.com's pre-season All-Class rankings, battled it out with expected challenger Britt Eckerstrom of Northwest for the lead for much of the race, but it was Gaithersburg's Abby Spitler as the surprise winner at 19:42. Nicole Carty (8th, 21:11) and Claire Whitesell (9th, 21:12), newcomers to the O'Connell squad, made an immediate impact with top 10 finishes on the Mount St. Mary's College 5K cross country course.
Fairfax's Frances Dowd finished 7th individually with a time of 20:50, while the Fairfax boys had two solid individual races from Frances' brother Kevin Dowd (5th, 17:45) and Ethan Paster (12th, 18:00) to help them to a sixth place team finish.