It was a day of records at the 2019 Albemarle Invitational. This included the fastest team finishes ever and both course records being broken by Carlos Shultz and Ellie Desmond respectively.
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Up first was the girls' varsity race featuring some of the best athletes from multiple classifications. Also featured in this race was some of the strongest teams in the state as well.
Opening up this race with emphasis was Ocean Lakes' Aniya Mosley. She is only in her second XC season and already starting to make waves amongst her competition and that was evident this weekend with her pushing the pace early.
Behind her at the Mile Desmond, Maeve Stiles, and Alli Crytser. By the 2K though it was Desmond in the lead at 7:10 with Stiles one second behind and Crytser and Mosley four and six seconds behind them.
On the back end of the course though Mosley rebounded and took the lead back over to cross the 4K point in 14:41 with Desmond second in 14:44. Also coming thru in under fifteen minutes was Crytser at 14:58 and Stiles at 14:59.
Ultimately it was Desmond taking home the win in 17:56 with Mosley second in 18:11, Crytser in third in 18:24, and Stiles in fourth in 18:32.
Those times rank 1st, 6th, 20th, and 24th all-time on this course and 1st, 4th, 13th, and 16th all-time at this meet.
Ocean Lakes with the team of Mosley, Austin Heft, Elise Richardson, Maggie Reed, Ryan Smith, Isabella Gesick, Amy Schleicher, and Maggie Furco scored a solid 94 points to take home the team title.
The boys race was up next and could have been the best team competition in Virginia all year.
Similar to the girls' race, this one was close from the start until the very end. The picture above sums it up perfectly with 10 guys opening the race at the 2K split separated by just one second. They were all 6:04.7 to 6:05.7.
Move on to the 4K split and things were just as exciting. Here it was Carlos Shultz leading the way with Western Albemarle's Jack Eliason just behind 12:25.0 to 12:25.3. In third was Taylor Ney at 12:29.
Finally at the finish Shultz was able to pull away and hold off a late charge from Eliason and finish in a meet and facility record time of 15:08.70. Eliason was second in 15:15 with Ney third in 15:27 and Hassle fourth in 15:28.
Loudoun Valley ran away with the team title scoring 31 points.
Finishing in second and running the best they have all season was Albemarle who scored a strong 88 points ahead of rival Western Albemarle's 106. Oakton was fourth in 106 and Deep Run finished fifth with 198.