A young Bishop O'Connell girls squad with many newcomers for a school looking to extend its streak of Virginia Independent Schools state championships this fall showed the strength of pack running on Saturday at the Peter Geraghty Invitational in Maryland. After starting the season with a distance fifth place finish at the Great Meadow Invitational, the O'Connell girls (photo left by Tim O'Dowd) looked much better a week later with a tight 18 second spread among their top five through places 10 and 15. Their final team score of 58 points allowed them to outdistance themselves by 18 points from runner-up Century High School of Maryland in the 24 team field.
There is not a single senior among their top five this weekend with freshmen Devin Nihill (10th, 20:28), sophomore Sarah McCarthy (11th, 20:28), junior Ashley Stumvoll (13th, 20:42), sophomore Emily Blagg (14th, 20:46), and junior Michelle Van Horn (15th, 20:46), which is not good news for the rest of the private school teams in the state of Virginia.