John Horst breaks course record
Christiansburg, VA -- The 14th annual Blue Demon Invitational, which was hosted by Christiansburg High School, has sent some strong messages regarding this year's cross country season. The Blue Demon is run on one of the toughest courses in the state of Virginia. Long and continuous hills are the recipe for usually slow times especially when the race is the season opener for most of the participants. However, this year's times were not slow for some harriers. Coach Shane Guynn of Christiansburg said, " There's a quote we put on our meet t-shirts a few years back that said, \"One HILL of a race", and I think a lot of competitors realized that today just why we decided on that logo". Coach Guynn added, " We had two course records fall today and that speaks leaps and bounds about the rising competitive nature of the athletes in our area." Christiansburg boy's team took the team title with Cave Spring finishing second. On the girl's side, Cave Spring was very impressive with the win with 28 points and holding off the lady Bruins of Blacksburg, which had 38 points.John Horst, a junior from Christiansburg and ranked 2nd in AA by Milestat, set a new standard for the boy's varsity race with a time of 16:19.54, which eclipsed the 16:20, which All-American Fleet Hower of Marion posted in 2001. Finishing 2nd to Horst was Lee Bradshaw a senior from Cave Spring and the #3 ranked runner in AA. Bradshaw's time of 16:55 is still impressive for this course and this time of the year. Horst came through the first mile in 4:48, but fell off to 5:22 on his second mile as Bradshaw closed in on him. However on the last mile, Horst cranked it back up and pulled away in impressive record performing fashion.
Horst is not new to running fast times. Last year prior to his hip injury during cross-country season, Horst was highly ranked in the State. He finished 2nd to teammate Justin Hatch in just about everything he ran. Horst said, "I am a little more motivated this year. Last year no matter how I ran I knew Justin was going to win. This year I had to fill the gap." I would say he has filled the gap pretty well. In order to prepare for this season, Horst said he backed off on the mileage and the number of summer road races. "Last year, I ran about a 100 miles a week during the summer and this year I only ran about 50 miles a week. I only ran two summer 5K races and one road mile." When asked about the inevitable of facing #1 ranked runner Pat Eggleston of Brentsville District, Horst added, " Pat was sick at the Link Track 5K and he is good. I look forward to running against him." However, for now he may have to settle with holding off Bradshaw at a flatter and faster Radford Fall Classic course, which will be held next Saturday at the Radford Dedmon Center in Radford. Bradshaw added, "We will be at Radford next week, and I look forward to racing John again."
The girl's varsity race was most interesting as Blacksburg's team set the early pace with a blistering start. Rachel Travitz of Salem responded and went with Blacksburg's Cate Berenato. As Berenato and Travitz were pulling away from the field, Laurel Sitze of Cave Spring was just sitting back and waiting for the rush to subside. When the leaders began to slow, Sitze kept her steady pace to blow by Travitz prior to the first mile and she was never challenged. Sitze crossed the finish line in 20:36 and eighteen seconds ahead of fast closing Emily Tilson (20:54.00) of Marion. The Cave Spring ladies had four runners in the top eight. Helping the knights to the title were Nikki Harvey (3rd place - 20:57), Dana Orr (6th place –21:20), and Allison Crawford (8th place –21:34).
Allison Homer of Blacksburg with a time of 22:03 erased the other course record that stood for the past 3 years in the girl's junior varsity race. Mary Disa Raulfs of Christiansburg set the old course record in a time of 22:07.
As in past years, the Blue Demon Invitational was a huge success. Coach Guynn said, "We could not have asked for better weather. I feel like everything went off without a hitch." Speaking of the hard hills, Guynn added, " So many people proved they could conquer that obstacle if they are willing to give all of themselves for those challenging minutes on the race course." It doesn\'t hurt to have a good race Horst either.