The Oakton boys are solid favorites to defend their team title while the West Springfield girls seem to hold a slight edge over Jefferson and Lake Braddock for the Northern Region Championship meet to be held at Burke Lake's 2.98 mile course on Thursday, November 5th.
Girls Preview
Photo by Dave Watt
The West Springfield girls pulled a mild upset in winning the Patriot District title last week with 44 points. The Spartans also had the individual winner in senior Paige Kvartunas, who posted the fastest winning time among all four of the districts in the region with her time of 18:01.
West Springfield also recieved a very strong race from senior Alex Watt, as she finished fourth in the district meet with the sixth fastest time overall in the region at 18:30.
The Spartans were also solid at the number three spot with Anna Barber, and if West Springfield can get their fourth and fifth runners to close the gap a bit more for the regional meet, the Spartans may have a chance to duck under what looks like the magic number this year of 100 points to have a chance at winning and also guaranteeing a spot among the top four teams in order to qualify for the state meet.
In what looks like a very wide open race for not just the team title, but also in trying to secure one of the coveted top four spots, defending region champion Thomas Jefferson ran what may have been their most complete race of the season last week in capturing the Liberty District title with 26 points.
The Colonials had the individual winner in Stephanie Marzen, who was third at last year's regional meet, at 18:28 and that time was the fifth fastest posted last week at Burke Lake among all the girl competitors.
Jefferson also had sophomore Sarah Stites finish in third place at the district meet and with a spread of just 54 seconds between their first and fifth runners, seem well positioned for a chance at winning the team title for the second year in a row.
Lake Braddock is somewhat of a wild card due to the status of region individual defending champion Liana Epstein. The Bruins senior looked fairly comfortable in first place at the Patriot District meet with just over 400 meters to go, but an apparent bout with dehydration as possibly the main culprit, caused her to fall more than a half dozen times in the last 150 meters before she finished in eighth place at 18:57.
With Epstein at full strength, Lake Braddock would at least be a co-favorite for the team title and even factoring her in the slot she finished at districts, the Bruins still clearly have a chance at states with freshman Sophie Chase continuing to run very well (3rd; 18:24) and with two other runners at 19:00 or better at districts in Casey Lardner and Kelly Hagan.
Concorde District champion Robinson finished third at the regional meet last year and has an eye on making it to states once again. The Rams had the district runnerup in Taylor Crosson at 18:37 and showed a spread of just over one minute for their five point scorers at last week's district meet.
Looking to knock off one of those four teams is the squad from West Potomac. The Wolverines finished what seemed to be a disappointing but close third with 55 points in the toughest girls district, the Patriot, last week. They, like all the other teams around, hope to be as healthy as possible for Thursday's meet.
West Potomac is led by one of the top runners in the region with Julianne Bigler (2nd; 18:16) once again leading them at the district meet with sophomore Sarah Jane Underwood their number two runner (5th; 18:35) but the Wolverines need to steady themselves more in the next three positions.
The other two teams with a possible shot of advancing one more week look to be Langley and Oakton. Langley almost matched Jefferson at the Liberty District meet at the top three spots with Mary Fouse, Jessica Miles and Courtney West but seem to have a pretty tough gap to close at numbers four and five.
Oakton was last year's region runnerup and have the Concorde individual titleist in senior Lanie Smith, coupled with a 1:09 spread through their first five runners, but will probably have to take it up a notch or two to challenge for a top four team spot.
Top individuals to watch start with Edison junior Myah Hicks, the National District champ by 70 seconds with the second fastest overall time last week of 18:11.
Hicks went through two miles by herself in 11:58 at districts, much slower than the leaders of the Patriot at 11:38, but if she can stay fairly close to the lead throughout the race, her 2:12 state outdoor track runnerup speed for the 800 run last spring could make things interesting.
Erica Howes of Woodson, Herndon's Caroline Hennessey and Katherine Sheridan of Jefferson are all returnees to this year's meet who finished in the top fifteen last year to automatically make the state meet on an individual basis and Chantilly's Rachel Grochowski along with Juli Cuomo of Centreville both have times ranking among the top fifteen from last week's district meets.
Boys Preview
