3A State Championship Preview
In the first race of the 2016 VHSL State Championship it will be the Bruins of Blacksburg taking to the course in the girls race. Though they are strongly favored in this competition, they will be attacking the course full speed to attempt a shot at history.
The first goal for them will be to take home their 6th consecutive title in a row. That win would put them just one win away from tying Brentsville's historic seven in a row from 1995-01. They will also be chasing down their own state meet record of 23 points. Them and Maggie Walker (and Western Albemarle*) have tallied this score before and this year they will look to lower that and edge closer to the overall state meet record of 17 points set back in the 70's on the boys' side.
Behind Blacksburg on the team side is a very strong team from Western Albemarle who were the runners-up to them in the 3A West Region. This team led by Averi Witt and Zoe Clay have a great chance at holding off Hidden Valley and Brentsville for the runners-up trophy.
Individually it looks like Samantha Marin and Ailene Edwards will have a battle of the teammates for the individual title. Marin is the senior while Edwards is only a sophomore. Their teammate Sophia Link though is actually the defending champion, also a sophomore, and definitely cannot be counted out. She definitely flourishes on the hillier courses like Great Meadow. This is going to be a very tough battle amongst these Blacksburg teammates.
In the second race of the meet, the boys of 3A will race the 5K course in what should be an extremely close team and individual battle.
The leader of this competition is Abingdon junior Karl Thiessen. He enters the meet having won five races this season and only having been beat by a single Virginia runner (Peter Morris - 4A). This will be a huge race for Karl as he looks to become Abingdon's second XC state champion ever and the first to win in over a decade.
Karl will face stiff competition though from Blacksburg's Ben Fleming, Christiansburg's Tyler Kuchan and Rustburg's Colby Hudson.
For the team title though it looks like Blacksburg will just need to perform to come away with this title but if they were to slip up, Western Albemarle and Christiansburg would be right there.
*An earlier version of this preview left out the 1993 squad from Western Albemarle. Not only did they score a state meet record 23 points, but they also managed to garner a 75 point margin of victory. That is a state meet record on the girls' side and was done in the very competitive AA classification.