William & Mary Invitational

September 19, 2009 @ Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg, VA

Hosted by College of William & Mary

Results:

Note: Performances will be converted for rankings & athlete profiles using a .9718 multiplier.

Photo Gallery by Brandon Miles - Over 1,800 photos from all 8 races.

Race Videos

After years of competing at a distance short of the regular 5K race distance, the high school runners today at the William & Mary Invitational finally ran a 5000 meter race at Eastern State Hospital...and then some. A new course taking out the camelback loop where the first mile use to be found and the addition of two new loops made for a course distance approximately at 3.19 miles.The Group AAA #1 ranked Grassfield boys and Group AAA #2 ranked Maggie Walker girls won as expected. While Clarissa Schick of Maggie Walker was an easy winner by 34 seconds, VA #1 ranked Colin Mearns of Jamestown was defeated on his "home course" by DeMatha Catholic 's (MD) Correy Puffett.

The Grassfield boys did not get a true rematch from Western Branch after defeating them a week previous at full strength in the Newport News Invite to usurp them as the top ranked team in Group AAA. Western Branch sat out their #1 and #2 runners Blake Theroux and George Matais, but even if they raced, it would not have mattered as Grassfield matched up well and ahead of the rest of Western Branch's top seven.with five runners among the top 20 places in the varsity "A" race. Their spread was a bit larger than the week before at 58 seconds, but a longer and more challenging course will do that to any team. With Jeremy Greenwald (4th, 16:56), Aaron Harrison (5th, 17:06), Joseph Daversa (8th, 17:25), Seth Taylor (14th, 17:41), and Andrew Atangan (20th, 17:54) for their top five, Grassfield ran away from the rest of the field with a team score of 46 points. Their team will make a rare trip out of the area in two weeks for the Octoberfest Invitational in which they will get a chance to race against Group AAA #2 ranked Mountain View.

The Jamestown and Maggie Walker boys are both teams which were counted out at the start of the season, but after their team showings at the William & Mary Invitational can begin to believe they can put together successful finishes with their cross country season. Jamestown, the defending Group AA state champions, lost 5 of their top 7 from a year ago, will be trying to challenge Grafton within their district and region after a second place finish on Saturday with 80 points. Although top runner Colin Mearns would have liked an individual victory on his home course, his teammates ran well behind him with 38 seconds separating runners #2-4 in places 15th through 27th.

Every year, the Maggie Walker boys seem to overachieve and exceed expectations whether its getting out of an always competitive Colonial District or sneaking into the top 4 at the Central Region Meet. With a clear down year for Central Region boys, Maggie Walker and Coach Holdren might able to work some magic at season's end. The Green Dragons were third in the "A" race at William & Mary with 123 points and had 2 top 15 finishers in Marc Breidnbaugh (6th, 17:21) and Cody Talmadge (12th, 17:38).

For a second straight weekend, the Maggie Walker girls rolled through and dominated up front a meet on the Peninsula. Big winners at the Newport News Invitational last week, the Group AA #2 ranked squad had five runners among the first 12 places to win by 65 points ahead of hometown team Lafayette (2nd, 95 pts) with a mere total of 30 points.

Maggie Walker's top runner Clarissa Schick is looking at William & Mary as one of her potential future colleges and she did nothing but impresses the coaches for the Tribe in her 19:39 victory on the 3.19 mile course. Her time converts to a 5K effort just over 19 minutes and she was not challenged after the first mile as she put 33 seconds between herself and runner-up Elizabeth Tauber of John Carroll School in Maryland.

Schick's teammate Anna Spiers moved up well throughout the race to pull in third place with a time of 20:20 and rounding out Maggie Walker's top five were Caroline Newcomb (6th, 20:58), Kelsey Green (8th, 21:00), and Emily Bird (12th, 21:21).

The Lafayette girls sent a strong message to other teams in Bay Rivers District and Region I. The district and regional titles will go through them. The Lady Rams had a solid 1-2 punch in defending regional champion Heidi Peterson (4th, 20:30) and Becky Dobosy (7th, 20:59) both under 21 minutes on the long course and helping Lafayette to a runner-up team finish in the varsity "A" race.