The Newport News Invitational saw a very early season showdown of the two runners who likely will be battling for the Eastern Region title later this season in Kellam's Bobby Peavey and Western Branch's Blake Theroux. The only definite heading into the race would be that fast times would be posted in a duel between the two as the #10 ranked (Peavey) and #11 ranked (Theroux) in the state of Virginia would meet on one of the fastest 5K courses in the state found at Newport News Park. The senior Peavey defeated the junior Theroux in their first head-to-head race of the season with a state leading 5K time of 15:32 to break the old course record of the newer version of the Newport News Park course.
Theroux led a very impressive team performance by the Western Branch boys, who look to follow up their girls team success from last fall with a state podium run themselves at Great Meadow. The Bruins had four of the top six runners with all four well under 17 minutes with Theroux (2nd, 15:55),...