Nobles upsets defending champ Lautzenheiser for win, but no one close to keeping Midlo girls from 4th straight title
Group AAA Girls Results: Stacey Nobles (Ocean Lakes) 18:15, Midlothian - 72 pts (19:00 team average)
Group AAA Girls Race Video
Audio Interviews: Stacey Nobles - Paige Johnston
Stacey Nobles raced against history, while the Midlothian girls joined history. The Ocean Lakes senior Nobles became on the third South Hampton area female athlete to win a state cross country title, while the Midlothian girls became only the second team to win four consecutive AAA state cross country titles.
Photo by Ted Plunkett
Nobles had to defeat a Midlothian runner in order to win her first state championship and join Kendall Tata of Kempsville and Jennifer Boyd of Hickory as winners from the Eastern Region. Down the final stretch, it was race between two in Nobles and 2007 defending champion Kathleen Lautzenheiser of Midlothian. Nobles was able to find another gear to pull away from the Foot Locker finalist for a three second victory at 18:15. Only Megan Marsico ran a faster time on the day. Nobles now turns her attention to Foot Locker South in her attempt to become the first national qualifier from Virginia Beach since Adrienne Parker of Kempsville qualified in 1995. Her victory over a returning Foot Locker finalist should build her confidence in pursuit of that goal.
Photo by Ted Plunkett
If the Midlothian girls had not already established themselves as one of the most dominant dynasties in high school country with their teams over the past few years, it became official on Saturday. Midlothian joined another great dynasty in the Lake Braddock girls from 1985 to 1988 as the second school to win four consecutive Group AAA girls cross country team titles. A much like their state titles in 2005, 2006, and 2007, the Midlothian girls won by a mile as their team score of 72 points put them well ahead of the next teams in the field.
Midlothian had three All-State finishers with Lautzenheiser (2nd, 18:18), Amy Witt (8th, 18:52), and Paige Johnston (12th, 18:56). Johnston, a senior, has experienced an amazing four years of high school cross country as a member of four state champion squads. Johnston has played a key role in those four titles as a three-time All-State cross country runner as a freshmen, sophomore, and this year as a senior.
Photo by Linda D'Amato
It was a big day for the Central Region with the top two finishing teams from the region as the Maggie Walker girls slipped past Northern Region champions Thomas Jefferson by two points to take the state runner-up trophy with 126 points. Coach Jim Holdren's team benefited from only a 46 second spread between their top five runners as the Green Dragons were the only team in the field to have a spread under 1 minute. Susannah Piersol was the team's top finisher, only a few spots off All-State in 17th place at 19:02 and Anna Spiers was the team's fifth finisher in 53rd place at 19:48.
Thomas Jefferson girls ran admirably without their top #3 runner Lisa Junta to still make it onto the podium as freshmen Sarah Stites had a strong individual race to lead Coach Matt Ryan's team with a personal best time of 18:30 to finish fourth in her first high school state meet. Thomas Jefferson will certainly be a team to be reckoned with the next few years with four freshmen and one sophomore in their state meet lineup not including sophomore Junta.
The same could be said though for Midlothian and Maggie Walker as well with only Johnston for Midlothian and Piersol for Maggie Walker graduating.
Ocean Lakes girls behind individual state champion nearly made it a trend of Eastern Region teams making it onto the podium after Western Branch's third place finish in 2007. The Lady Dolphins took fourth with 146 points and had one of the better top four's in the field, but lost ground in the fifth and final scoring spot.
There were several individual runners from the Northern Region who stepped up on the state championship stage to earn All-State honors unexpectedly. Few predicted W.T. Woodson junior Erica Howes to finish third in the AAA race as she did with a personal best 18:29 time. Also surprising with their top 15 finishers were Herndon's Carolyn Hennessey (9th, 18:52) and West Potomac's Julianne Bigler (10th, 18:53).