This weekend will mark the fourth annual Virginia Middle School XC State Championships. This meet has now grown to over 700 athletes from 75 teams all competing for the chance to call themselves a state champion.
Team Preview:
In the Girls Championship race it looks like six teams that have risen above the rest (at least using virtual meets). Those teams are XC Elite, NOVA AC, Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Waynesboro, and Crozet Crew.
Of these XC Elite looks to be the favorite on paper but Waynesboro and NOVA AC could challenge them. It should also be noted that Blacksburg and Christiansburg are actually the top returning teams based on last year's finish.
In the Boys Championship race three teams are who we have our eyes on. Pacers is the favorite on paper but they are right there with St. Christopher's and Blacksburg. St. Chris won MileStat and that means they are very familiar with the course while Blacksburg won Knights Crossing in what is the largest middle school race (aside from States) in VA.
Last year's champion was Pacers with Blacksburg taking second and St. Chris taking 4th.
Individual Preview:
Here things will be interesting. This course is very fast and the fields will be large. That means you need to get out fast and be prepared to run faster than you normally do for that first mile. The course calms down and the field will spread out around the 2K mark but there is no time for a break as you quickly return back to the mile mark and then you just have about 1000m to go.
The last 1K is likely the slowest of the bunch as you're slowly going up in elevation (not a ton up but it is still technically up). Then you turn for the finish which is an all downhill 180m stretch. Its roughly 30-35 seconds from the top of the rise until the finish line.
Up first will be the girls race featuring our returning champion Samantha Nitzche of William Monroe who enters with a personal best of 14:14 which is the state meet record and overall state record. It will be exciting to see if she can have a breakthrough race and break the 14:00 minute barrier.
She might have competition though with Abigail Anstett (VA #1 - 14:26) entered as the second seed. These two girls enter as the only sub 15 seeds on the season.
Girls Course Record: 14:14 Samantha Nitzsche (2021)
The boys race should be equally as exciting with quite a few guys eyeing that state meet record. Entering the competition as the favorite is VA #2 Michael Tafe (NOVA AC) who has blazed a 13:29 already this season.
His closest competitors are Thomas Fulcher (Bassett) and Jonathan Grimm (Greater Williamsburg) who both have run 13:42 or faster.
We predict 10 or more boys could break 14 this weekend meaning there will be a lot of PR's and record chances.
Boys Course Record: 13:13 Trevor Lawson (2020)