1A State Championship Preview
The past couple of years and reclassification has made for quite the team title battles in this classification. Each year it seems that just when things look clear, they become a whole lot closer. This will probably happen again this year.
Individually though things are much clearer than the team titles. On the boys' side Gavin Jenkins will enter as the slight favorite over the Auburn duo of Hallinan and Harris while Caitlin Dominy enters as the slight favorite over three-time runner-up Mary Elliott.
Both races feature the runner-up from last year which makes for great potential story lines as they try and correct what happened the year before. In Mary Elliott's case though she will be attempting to finally break through as she has finished as the runner-up a state record three times. She will be looking for that historic win this weekend and if she was to win, she would become the first athlete ever to do so after having finished second three times.
In the team competition Auburn will be attempting to pack the bus with trophies this year. They enter as the favorites on paper for both the boys' and girls' team titles. Radford enters as the second ranked team on the girls' side and third ranked team on the boys'.
Luray though enters this race on a mission. Just weeks ago tragedy struck this team when they found the lifeless body of one of their team's coaches while on a practice run. This loss was tragic for them but they have chosen that instead of sobbing about it that they are going to run in his honor this weekend. Despite their lower ranking and entering the season ranked 5th, each week they have progressively gotten stronger and proven that their will to win is on another level. They may not look it on paper, but this team is completely in the hunt for the title this weekend. They were the overwhelming champions in the east regional.