Pre-meet interview with the fastest duo in the state of Virginia and one of the fastest all-time in The Covenant School junior pair of Maddie Gardiner and Reese Dalton as they prepare to compete in the largest and deepest MileStat.com XC Invitational this weekend at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville, Virginia.
Gardiner was the runner-up in last year's race with a time of 17:37, while Dalton finished 8th with a time of 18:30. At season's end Gardiner went onto qualify for the Eastbay Cross Country Nationals in San Diego after her 3rd place 5K best run of 17:13 at the South Regional Qualifier in Charlotte, while Dalton was 16th in the race with a 17:44 PR.
On Saturday at the 2022 MileStat.com XC Invitational, the superstar duo could challenge both of their personal best 5K times while mixed in with arguably the best girls field for any high school cross country race in Virginia this season as well as recent years in the elite race.
Dalton has improved vastly from last year including winning last week's Albemarle Invitational ahead of teammate Gardiner as well as another talented runner who will be in the race this weekend as well in Sadie Adams of Western Albemarle in a gathering once again of the best from Charlottesville.
Earlier this season, Dalton broke 18 minutes on an alternative and tougher 5K course at Pole Green in the original one that goes back in a woods loop filled with many hills and trails to slow runners down. There will be no hills to impede the two from Covenant and the rest of the field on the fast and flat upper course utilized this Saturday.
Gardiner has notched two invitational wins herself this year at Woodberry Forest (18:38) and Fork Union (18:39) on more difficult hilly courses. The Fork Union Invitational victory was 13 seconds faster than her 2021 victory on the same course.
During the last track season, the more middle distance geared Dalton rolled to personal best times of 2:14 in the 800, 4:47 in the 1600, and 10:36 in the 3200 while Gardiner stronger with her endurance stamina blasted a 10:33 for 3200 meters on the track.
With how well that Dalton has been running this season close to Gardiner, it would not be a shock to see both girls qualify together later this season for the Champs Cross Country Championships (formerly Eastbay/Foot Locker/Kinney).
If curious how a small private school can have two runners of such national elite caliber, one can simply look to their head coach Ann Dunn. Coach Dunn was a collegiate coach previously at Cal Berkeley, University of Kentucky, and University of Oklahoma after a collegiate career herself as an NCAA All-American honors at the University of Wisconsin.
Her husband Jason Dunn has had two stints coaching at the University of Virginia as well as other coaching stops at Stanford, Oklahoma, and Kentucky as certainly another great resource in the background.
The fast results from the MileStat.com XC Invitational often annually sets the stage for later greater success and had its share of past national meet qualifiers and All-American that were top finishers and race winners. Look for Maddie Gardiner and Reese Dalton on Saturday to show they are ready this fall to take their talents onto the national scene as one of the best tandems out there.
