Several quality meets on the final weekend in which virtually all of teams will compete in any major meets prior to the district championships. The Stallion Stampede hosted by South County could not avoid the rain, but Fairfax's Kevin Dowd (pictured by Nicoll Knudsen) showed little signs of being affected by the conditions in route his dominant 16:02 victory. At the Runnin' with the Wolves Rocktoberfest, the Thomas Jefferson squads made it a sweep of the team titles, while another Northern Region squad in West Springfield also had champions in Lynchburg with individual race winners Paige Kvartunas (18:56) and Colin Taylor (16:24). The weather and course conditions seemed to be much worse to the north as times were slowed at Georgtown Prep, but the West Potomac girls proved themselves to be true mudders in winning their third straight invitational in as many weekends. More to come from this weekend's meets.
Runnin With The Wolves Rocktoberfest
October 17, 2009 @ Radford Estates Wolf Branch Farm in Forest, VA
Hosted by Jefferson Forest
Despite the meet being located near Lynchburg, this year's Runnin' with the Wolves Rocktoberfest had a strong Northern Region representation at least among the meet's team and individual champions. Thomas Jefferson Science & Tech cleaned up first place trophies among varsity teams, while West Springfield had the individual race champions in both varsity races.
The Thomas Jefferson girls appear to be getting closer to their 2008 state meet podium form with their team beginning to get back at full strength with several of their girls working their way back from injuries which had force them to miss most of the first half of the 2009 cross country. With Sarah Stites and Lisa Junta back in the lineup and finishing among the top 10 at Runnin with the Wolves, Thomas Jefferson girls were able to defeat regional rival West Springfield 35 to 54.
West Springfield had the firepower up front with Paige Kvartunas and Alex Watt running ahead of the pack to finish first and second individually with Kvartunas was nine seconds within the meet record held by Catherine White at 18:47.
The Thomas Jefferson boys blew out the field at Wolf Branch Farm with a 56 point margin of victory with their team score of 57 points and team average of 17:17. Coach Matt Ryan's squad had their entire top five among the top 20 finishers with Jon Phillips (6th, 16:57) and Jimmy Wu (7th, 17:01) finishing in close proximity to one another as the team's top two runners and only 49 seconds separated their top five overall.
West Springfield's Colin Taylor is making a name for himself individually as late and arguably had his best race yet in winning his first major invitational with a 16:24 victory. Finishing behind as race runner-up was Blacksburg's Anthony Noegel, which was a remarkable race to him considering Noegel has not been running in Blacksburg's top 7 and Noegel finished ahead of Christiansburg's Andy Eddleton (3rd, 16:49) who has defeated all of Blacksburg's top runners this season.
Results:
Below are the performances entered for the meet that met the national silver standard.
| HS Girls | |||
| 5000 Meter Run | 18:56.00 | Paige Kvartunas | West Springfield |
| 5000 Meter Run | 19:19.00 | Alex Watt | West Springfield |
| 5000 Meter Run | 19:33.00 | Stephanie Marzen | Thomas Jefferson S&T |
| 5000 Meter Run | 19:37.00 | Sarah Stites | Thomas Jefferson S&T |
| HS Boys | |||
| 5000 Meter Run | 16:24.00 | Colin Taylor | West Springfield |