The teams of Class 3 are some of the best in the state. Today at states they proved that with Western Albemarle taking the girls team title and Maggie Walker taking the boys team title. Both teams however took very different paths to the state meet.
As the season started, Western Albemarle was our early favorite. Unfortunately for them, one of their high scorers did not come out for the team and that changed their team title hopes in a big way. Not only did they have to deal with that but there were other major losses the team and community dealt with during the season.
They also had to deal with Spotswood who quickly made a name for themselves as one of the best teams in the state. Spotswood even beat them by 20 points at regionals.
To put it bluntly, it was a rough start to the season for Western Albemarle and they now had not good but great competition to deal with. The good news though, is it is not about how you start the season but how you end the season.
Take Western's #1 finisher, Emerson Ritter for example. She ran 19:12 at MileStat but 18:35 at states. You could also look at their #2 finisher, Hailey Hodson who dropped 19 seconds off of her PR at the state meet. Western Albemarle's entire top six either PR'd or ran a SB in this race. Their 7th runner ran 1 second off of their MileStat Invite SB as well.
This performance by Western Albemarle will go down as a textbook example of how the regular season and everything before the state meet decide nothing at the state meet.
Finishing in second in this race were the ladies of Spotswood who also have had one of the best seasons in program history. Both teams will look to hold a ranking spot on our final subjective rankings.
It could not be a more different story on the boys side. Maggie Walker ran away with it and won the Class 3 boys team title by 45 points. The next closest title battle out of the 11 others was 24 points. Simply put, the Green Dragons dominated.
The reason it is a different story though is we (MileStat) did not give them any love until after MileStat/Third Battle. It was then we realized how great they were. They entered the season unranked and entered the state meet VA #4.
They are another example about how nothing on paper matters pre-season and that you must prove it when it matters most, at the state meet. Them winning would be a "point" but them winning by 45 points adds a nice big exclamation mark to their "point".
Leading the way for Maggie Walker were Anthony Bastardi and Colston Wisotzki who both finished with all-state honors and return next year.
Finishing in second in the boys team title race was Monticello.
