3 of Blacksburg's 4 sub 5 milers at the Draper Mile in the Stevens twins (Joanna 4:41, Kathleen 4:42) and Leah Fitchett (4:58). Hannah Brown (4:59) is missing from the photo.
The Stevens twins of Blacksburg rolled on the notoriously fast road downhill mile race, the Draper Mile in Blacksburg on Friday, clocking the second and third fastest performances all-time in the race's history with Joanna Stevens as the winner at 4:41.5 and twin Kathleen Steven as the runner-up at 4:42.7. The Stevens sisters were second and third in last year's Draper Mile with times of 5:02 (Joanna) and 5:05 (Kathleen) respectively, so both rising seniors were over 20 seconds faster from a year ago. Also it was an impressive show collectively put on by the returning members of the Blacksburg girls cross country team with four returnees running under 5 minutes in the downhill road mile as Leah Fitchett in fourth place at 4:58.6 and Hannah Brown in fifth place at 4:59.6 also took advantage of a fast course to run under 5 minutes for the first time, while teammate Sarah Dorrell was the fifth finisher from Blacksburg in sixth at 5:05.2.
Blacksburg rising junior George Carter taking it to the older runners in the end for a 4:11 victory.
Winning the men's race was another Blacksburg High runner in rising junior George Carter taking first over two late 20 something's runners in 4:11.3. Carter was fifth in last year's race with a time of 4:26. The next high school finisher after Carter was teammate Matt Howard in 7th place at 4:21.4 followed by Christiansburg's Andy Eddleton in 8th place at 4:23.7. The Blacksburg boys, expected to be the pre-season #1 ranked team in Virginia, had their next three finishers come in at 4:29 (Zach Link), 4:32 (Frank Locascio), and 4:41 (Caman Skelton). Their cross country squad is considered to consist of more long distance geared runners though with only Carter and Howard as members of their great 4x800 meter relay this past spring.