Group AA Regional Roundup: COLLEY 15:45 AT LORIELLA!!!

Region I Championships

One must be educated a little more to truly appreciate the 15:45 performance at Loriella Park in Fredericksburg by Jamestown senior Andrew Colley at Thursday's Region I Championships. The Loriella Park course is at least 45 seconds slower than the current state course at Great Meadow (under ideal conditions) if not closer to a full minute. He shattered the course record by 25 seconds previously held by Devin Cornwall at 16:10. His teammate Colin Mearns was not too shabby either as runner-up in 16:16. The Jamestown boys rolled onto another regional championship with a low team score of 17 points. Based off his performance at the regional meet, Colley's fitness level indicates someone ready to become the first runner ever to break 15 minutes on the state course at Great Meadow.

Region I Championships Results: Boys - Girls

Region II Championships

Photo by Tim Hagen

Western Albemarle boys gave it a valiant run against Potomac Falls with their strong running up front, but the depth of Potomac Falls prevailed at the Region II Championships as only seven points separated two teams who expect to compete for top 3 finishes next week at Great Meadow.

Western Albemarle's back pack is getting stronger though as shown with their closest finish to the top ranked team in the region all season long. The Warriors had 3 runners finish among the top 6 led by individual champion Tyler Stutzman in a time of 15:48 on the Oatlands Plantation 5K course (same course used for Oatlands Invite). His teammate Kyle Satterwhite (2nd, 15:56) made it a 1-2 finish to even the score with Louisa's Thomas Baker (3rd,16:09) who had broken up the Western pair last week at the district meet. With James Howard-Smith also running near the front of the field in sixth place at 16:36, Western Albemarle (16:46) averaged 13 seconds faster as a team than Potomac Falls (16:59), but still managed to finish seven points behind them in the team scoring.

While not as strong up front as Western Albemarle, Potomac Falls still had two individuals finish among the top 10 with Josh Hardin (4th, 16:14) and Ryan Hagen (8th, 16:46). The team made up the most ground in the #4 and #5 spots with Alvaro Morales (19th, 17:18) and Andrew Mott (27th, 17:33) to take the regional title.

Sherando ended up being the only boys' squad from the Northwestern District to qualify, which is one of the toughest districts in Group AA to qualify out of to begin with. The Sherando boys had three All-Region performers in Daniel Stiefvater (5th, 16:34), Scott Guichard (13th, 17:00), and Colby Witt (14th, 17:02). Dominion qualified for their first state meet by holding off Dulles District rival Loudoun County by 2 points for the fourth spot with a team score of 114 points. Despite exceeding expectations as of late, the Brentsville boys failed to qualify for state competition and their streak of state titles is now snapped.

Photo by Tim Hagen

The Brentsville girls fought off a strong challenge by Millbrook who had three of the top six finishers to take the Region II title with 67 points due to a superior #4 and #5 over their Northwestern District rival. The Lady Tigers also had the individual race winner in junior Allison Bartels (19:03), who pulled away from Northwestern District champ Britany Myers (2nd, 19:12) of John Handley and Dulles District champ Julie Strange (3rd, 19:17) of Loudoun County for the victory.

Joining Brentsville and Millbrook in the state meet from Region II will be Potomac Falls (3rd, 114 pts) and Western Albemarle (4th, 116 pts). It has been a great season for the Potomac Falls girls who have stepped up in the adversity of not having their star runner Christina Lee all fall due to injury.

Region II Championships Results: Boys - Girls

Region III Championships Photo Gallery by Tim Hagen - 200 total photos

Region III Championships

Photo by Ben Wyric of BenWyric.com

Alex Ott rolled to a new course time of 15:39 on the Weyers Cave Community Center to win his second consecutive Region III title, while the Spotswood boys (46 pts) also repeated as champions.

Janel Reeves (19:16) dominated the girls' race finishing 40 seconds ahead of Southern Valley District champion Whitney Fulk (2nd, 19:56) of Fort Defiance, while her Brookville were team runners-up to familar Semonile District foe Jefferson Forest (38 pts)

Region III Championships Results: Boys - Girls

Region IV Championships

The Hidden Valley girls had been expected to be a thorn in the side of the Blacksburg girls all season along after defeating them last year for the regional title and returning all of their top runners back, but prior to this week's regional meet, the Blacksburg had handled the challenge very well and defeated Hidden Valley in all matchups this fall.

However, the Region IV Meet was once again the venue for the Hidden Valley girls to knock off the top ranked Blacksburg and shake up any form of certainty in regards to next week's state meet just as they did last fall. The Lady Titans defeated the two-time defending AA state champions quite decisively with three runners ahead of Blacksburg's second finisher and five runners ahead of Blacksburg' third runner. On a challenging Christiansburg home course, Hidden Valley averaged 19:17 as a team with Annie LeHardy (2nd, 18:58), Claire Sibley (4th, 19:01), Haley Cutright (5th, 19:02), Lindsay Skolrood (7th, 19:39), and Mary Catherine Sowder (8th, 19:45) making up an outstanding top five for Coach King with 26 points.

Blacksburg can still bounce back as they did in 2007 with a state title following a regional defeat and will have one of the individual race favorites for the state meet in Allison Homer as the senior continued her streak of strong races this season with a time of 18:47 to win the Region IV individual crown.

The River Ridge District dominated the girls' meet with all four teams advancing onto the state meet with Cave Spring (3rd, 103 pts) and Christiansburg (4th, 119 pts) moving onto the next level. The only girls' individual qualifiers not from a River Ridge District school were Melanie Rice of Marion (3rd, 18:58) and Mollie Kramer of Abingdon (14th, 20:12).

The boys' race had a similar theme with River Ridge District being well represented, but at least the Abingdon boys with their third place team finish kept it from being another sweep of state team qualifiers as two top 15 finishers in Emory Ernst (7th, 17:04) and Kris Johnston (11th, 17:13) helped make the hopes of the Falcons to make the cut a reality. Another Southwest District runner in Matt Coble qualified individually with a 12th place finishing time of 17:12.

Matt Howard and the Blacksburg boys were the champions of the day though. Howard has had to fill big shoes as the top runner for the Blacksburg boys, which were previously worn by multiple state champion and All-American 2 miler Peter Dorrell. Few have put the expectations for Howard to duplicate Dorrell's level of performance, but he was able to do something on Thursday which Dorrell was unable to do last fall in winning the Region IV individual title. Howard won in a time of 16:24, which put him 13 seconds ahead of Christiansburg's Andy Eddleton, who ran very well on his home course to finish as a regional runner-up.

The team standings also had Blacksburg and Christiansburg in the same order as the River Ridge District champs Blacksburg had five runners earn All-Region honors and all seven of their runners finish among the top 20 for a team score of 36 points. Christiansburg had just enough to hold off Abingdon by seven points for the regional runner-up trophy. Cave Spring (104 pts) rounded out the four teams headed to Great Meadow as the Knights were 12 points better than fellow River Ridge District school Hidden Valley (116 pts) for fourth place.

Region IV Championships Results: Boys - Girls

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