VISAA State Championships Coverage

Wilson wins duel with Strehler in 18:32 course record!

Division I Boys: Brenden Leavitt (Norfolk Collegiate) 16:32, Woodberry Forest 70 pts

Division I Girls: Anneka Wilson (The Potomac School) 18:32 Course Record, Bishop O'Connell 37 pts

Division II Boys: Raleigh Hazel (Fredericksburg Academy) 17:12, Roanoke Catholic 59 pts

Division II Girls: Dalton Kuhar (Fuqua) 20:45, Covenant 37 pts

VISAA State Championships Photo Gallery by Brandon Miles - 1,645 total photos

VISAA State Championships Video Interviews: Anneka Wilson - Brenden Leavitt

VISAA State Championships Photo Gallery Race Videos (Part 2 is race finish): Division I Boys (Part 1 - Part 2) - Division I Girls (Part 1 - Part 2) - Division II Boys (Part 1 - Part 2) - Division II Girls (Part 1 - Part 2)

Division I Boys Race Summary: Woodberry Boys prevail on home course, Leavitt becomes second Tidewater champion

The Woodberry Forest boys had felt good about their chances of winning the VISAA Division I state cross country title earlier in the season when they won the Woodberry Forest Invite against many of the top private school teams in Virginia on the same course which the state meet would be held. However, the Prep League Championships at Roslyn Park in Richmond was not a confidence booster heading into the state meet when they were defeated decisively by Collegiate in every position from runners #1-7. In a week's time, Coach Hale's boys made a quick turnaround to turn the tables.

Woodberry Forest did not have front runners in the race with their first finisher coming in 10th place with Kevin Bennert at a time of 17:35, but they clearly were the strongest team through five as only 34 seconds separated Bennert from fifth runner Georgi Klissurski (19th, 18:09). The 11 places between Klissurski and Collegiate's fifth runner was 11 of the 12 points which ended up distancing Woodberry Forest from the Prep League champions Collegiate (82 pts) for the VISAA state title with a team score of 70 points.

Collegiate had four runners earn All-State honors with top 25 finishes with Scott Newton (9th, 17:29), Graham Glass (11th, 17:37), Cabell Willis (14th, 17:55), and Alex Lutterbein (18th, 18:09). Paul VI, the Catholic Schools state champions, took the last trophy place in third with 101 points as low score cards from their top two runners Ian McGinn (4th, 17:09) and Charles Horne (6th, 17:25).

Norfolk Collegiate's Brenden Leavitt (pictured left by David Fleenor) had not matched up with many of top ranked private school runners in the state during the season and did not race on the slightly modified Woodberry Forest School course like many of his top challengers on Friday had earlier in the season at the Woodberry Forest Invite. His #1 private school ranking was earned by posting swift times in meets in the Tidewater area as well as mixing it up with All-State caliber public school runners at the Chesapeake Invite mid-season. He showed the ranking was well deserved as after being challenged in the first mile by Campbell Ross of the Potomac School, he ended up running the rest of the race solo on his way to the Division I individual title in 16:32. With his win, Leavitt becomes only the second private school cross country state champion from Tidewater area of Virginia.

St. Christopher's senior Harrison Tucker moved up well in the last half of the race to take runner-up 14 seconds after Leavitt finished at 16:46. Ross, a sophomore, held on for third place at 17:05.

Division I Girls Race Summary: Wilson defeats 2 past champions in 18:32 course record, O'Connell girls win big as expected

It was a race of three through 1 mile, race of two through 2 miles, and race of one at the end with The Potomac School's Anneka Wilson (pictured right by David Fleenor) running away from two past Division I champions in 2006 champ Barbara Strehler of Trinity and 2007 champ Megan Fitzpatrick of Bishop O'Connell. Wilson set a course record at Woodberry Forest in her 18:32 as she beat the 2007 performance by Fitzpatrick and Strehler of 18:46. Fitzpatrick pushed the pace with Wilson in the first mile while Strehler trailed. In the second mile, Wilson pushed ahead with only Strehler able to stay in contact. Wilson, undefeated for the entire season, refused to finish second for the first time this season and much of her 40 second margin of victory was created by Wilson in strong last mile.

While seniors Strehler (2nd, 19:12) and Fitzpatrick (3rd, 19:36) were both unable to win a second individual state title with the rising national star Wilson taking the win, but were able to celebrate over their team finishes.

Fitzpatrick and the Bishop O'Connell girls successfully defended their state championship from a year ago. There was little competiton for the O'Connell girls as their team score of 37 points put them 64 points ahead of the next team. The team had six runners finishing among the top 15 with Fitzpatrick, Claire Whitesell (4th, 20:00), Nicole Carty (7th, 20:27), Michelle Van Horn (9th, 20:37), Alex Nihill (14th, 20:59), and Katie Stuver (15th, 21:01). Bishop O'Connell averaged 20:20 on a difficult Woodberry Forest course, especially on a seasonably warm day.

Strehler helped lead the Trinity girls (130 pts) to a third place trophy to hold off two teams close behind in Peninsula Catholic (4th, 136 pts) and Collegiate (5th, 147 pts). The Richmond area private schools were well represented in the team standings with St. Catherine's (101 pts) also earning a team trophy as runners-up to Bishop O'Connell. Anne Finley Vaughan, a 3rd place finisher in last week's LIS race, ran a very strong last mile to move up to a fifth finish (20:14) to lead St. Catherine's to a state runner-up showing.

Division II Boys Race Summary: Hazel overtakes a hill charging Zook, team DQ gives Roanoke Catholic the title

Aaron Zook tried his hardest to break away from pre-race favorite Raleigh Hazel of Fredericksburg Academy in the Division II boys race as he used mid race surges on some of the toughest hills on the course to attempt to distance himself, but the Eastern Mennonite senior might have tried too hard early on as Hazel bidded his team and took the lead away from Zook in the final 400 meters for a 17:12 victory. Zook held on for second in 17:25 after a gutsy run.

Peninsula Catholic's Brian Boeh finished 3rd in the race with a time of 17:35. Boeh and the rest of his teammates performances were allowed to stand, even though his team was disqualified and stricken from the team results after violation of the meet rules of competing with more than 12 runners. If Peninsula Catholic had not raced with two extra runners, there would have been no disqualification and their team would have been Division II state champions as they put 7 runners among the top 30 places.

As a result of the DQ, Roanoke Catholic was crowned as champions with 59 points. Roanoke Catholic had three runners finish among the top 15 with Seann Flynn (7th, 17:55), Forrest Spencer (9th, 18:11), and Douglas Beach (15th, 18:36).

Hazel and Zook, who had battled for the individual title, also helped lead their teams to top 3 finishes with Fredericksburg Academy in second with 110 points and Eastern Mennonite in third with 119 points.

Division II Girls Race Summary: Kuhar and Bowser create late race suspense, Covenant girls win in rout

The Division II girls championship race turned out to have much more late race suspense than the star studded Division I race, which was almost dominated at the end in a runaway victory by Anneka Wilson. For virtually the entire race, The Fuqua School's Dalton Kuhar and St. Anne's-Belfield School's Peri Bowser ran stride for stride with one another. Kuhar, a 7th place finisher in the 2007 Division II race, led for the most part with Bowser running off her shoulder. In the final mile, the junior Kuhar was able to create a distance of a few seconds and able to sustain it to the finish line in a 5 second win at 20:45, which is a personal best for Kuhar.

Bowser is definitely a rising star though as she became a state runner-up as only a mere 8th grader with her 20:50 performance and will have plenty of more opportunities to win state titles in the next five years.

The Charlottesville area private schools did very well in the Division II girls team scoring with Bowser's STAB team taking runner-up with 81 points, while the Covenant girls won big with 37 points and 7 finishers among the top 23 places.

Note from meet management on disqualification of Peninsula Catholic boys team: The VISAA Cross Country Games Committee disqualified Peninsula Catholic School as a team in the Division 2 Boys championship, but we allowed the PCS individuals as unattached so no team points will be awarded to PCS. Two reasons for a team disqualification: 1)Two bandit runners were stopped during the race and disqualified for not wearing a uniform and 2) subsequently they belonged to PCS who ran more than 12 runners on the team. These rules were fully explained on the entry form mailed to each coach, e-mailed to each AD, listed on the VISAA website, and listed on Milestat. At the awards ceremony today, we purposely did not publish individual results or team results for the Division 2 Boys' Race. However, we did hand out individual awards to the top 20, and we awarded plaques to the qualified top three teams excluding PCS without referring to their disqualification.

MileStat.com will be on-site Friday at Woodberry Forest School for the 2008 VISAA State Cross Country Championships with Virginia's best private school runners and teams battling it out for the Division I and Division II state crowns. Arguably one of the race of the weekend including Saturday's races at Great Meadow will be the Division I girls race featuring three of the state's best cross country runners in VA #2 Anneka Wilson of The Potomac School, VA #4 Barbara Strehler of Trinity, and VA #9 Megan Fitzpatrick of Bishop O'Connell. Both Wilson and Strehler have ran under 18 minutes for 5K this season, while Fitzpatrick is the defending state champion and course record holder at Woodberry Forest.

Megan Fitzpatrick won last year at Woodberry Forest in a still standing course record time of 18:46 with Barbara Strehler less than a step behind at 18:46 as well. Coming into this year's race, Fitzpatrick leads the Bishop O'Connell girls as the heavy team favorites, but a repeat individual win for Fitzpatrick would be considered an upset with the way that Wilson and Strehler have been running this fall. Fitzpatrick has a season best time of 18:45 and successfully defended her WCAC title last week.

Wilson was a distant third to Fitzpatrick and Strehler in the 2007 VISAA State Championships at 19:17, but might end up being a big winner in 2008 as The Potomac Junior has established herself as one of the state's best this fall with a streak of invitational wins.Wilson has undefeated this entire season, which began with a 19:23 victory on the same course used for the state meet at the Woodberry Forest Invite in early September against Trinity's Strehler.

The win against Strehler turned out to only be a small foreshadow of a stellar season to come which included first place finishes against top public school runners at the William & Mary, Mercersburg Academy Octoberfest, Glory Days Grill, and Georgetown Prep invitationals. Her last two races in the Georgetown Prep Classic and ISL Championships on the same course at Georgetown Prep have both been under 18 minutes at nearly identical times of 17:45 and 17:44. Her consistent performances at a high level not only have pinned her as a favorite to win the VISAA Division I state title on Friday, but make Wilson also a strong favorite to qualify for Foot Locker Nationals out of the South Region.

Strehler was a close runner-up to Fitzpatrick in last year's race and heads into this year's race in the second best position again with Wilson now as the new front runner. If any runner in Virginia could potentially hand Wilson her first loss of the season, it would be Strehler. The Trinity senior has ran the state's fastest 5K time of the season with a 17:39 performance at a Norfolk Academy meet a few weeks ago. Strehler was 23 seconds behind Wilson at the Woodberry Forest Invite and won the "B" race at Octoberfest in 18:34, while Wilson won the "A" race in 18:06. Strehler has not lost a race since Woodberry Forest against Wilson, so she will certainly be racing for first.

Virtual Meet Scoring for VISAA State Championships

Division Race Assignments for VISAA State Championships