#1 Lake Braddock ladies take the A and B races
The Plains, VA -- Sophomore Brittany Copeland of Brooke Point worked "real hard" over the summer according to her coach Teresa Jones. On Saturday, at Octoberfest on the Great Meadows Non State Course, Copeland would run a very tactical race that would have her overtake Broad Run's Stephanie Garcia in the last 400 meters. Copeland the State\'' 12th ranked AAA runner recorded her first ever major win in a cross-country race and her 2nd fastest ever 5K race. At the end of the first mile Copeland was running easily in the 4th position. Near the two mile marker Copeland would take over the 2nd spot from #10 ranked Erin Klein of Lake Braddock, and then she waited and waited until about 500 meters to go to make her move into first place that would take her to the line in 19:58.63. Copeland speaking like a champion after the race said, \"I could not do this without my team and coach. They keep me positive.\" I would say a win at a big cross-country meet is a positive thing. Garcia would take 2nd by a comfortable distance with a time of 20:06.13.
The Lake Braddock girls proved why they are the #1 ranked AAA team and the #1 ranked Cream of the Crop Virginia team with a most dominating performance. Lake Braddock placed 5 girls in the top 8 of the "A" race, but they had enough girls to run in the "B" race where they placed 5 in the top 13 to claim both the A and B races. Erin Klein, the #10 ranked girl in AAA, paced the Lake Braddock team with a 3rd place finish with a time of 20:17.50. Other Lake Braddock ladies were, Kelsey Snowden (5th – 20:30.20), Kelly Sherrard (6th - 20:33.18), Michelle Presley (7th -20:36.880, and Becca Hoogland (8th - 20:42.53). Sandwiched between all these ladies was 4th place finisher Jessica Trapeni of Fairfax who came across the line in 20:17.75.
On the boy's side, five AAA ranked runners squared off in the Varsity Boy's A race. At the first mile mark, Culpepper's Devin Cornwall would lead a tight pack of runners through in 5:03. Cornwall, the #6 ranked AAA runner, would give way to Dawitt Legesse of Robert E. Lee in Springfield at the halfway point. Legesse, ranked #10, would hold the lead as he brought a pack of three through the 2 mile in 10:28. Only during the final shoot did Brad Siragusa of Chantilly show the crowd gathered at the finish line why he was the highest ranked runner on the course. Siragusa who is ranked #4 at this point, had plenty of energy left and sprinted to a 3-second win in the last 100 meters. Thomas Jefferson S & T won the "A" race in convincing fashion with a 42 to 120 margin over runner-up West Potomac.
The top finishing AA runner was Will Frye of Pulaski County. Prior to last week, Frye had been ranked in the top 10 in each AA poll of the year. Frye would claim the 10th spot with a time of 17:15.71. This is a very good time considering only 5 male runners were able to break 17 minutes in the muggy and muddy conditions.
Ermias Regassa of Mount Vernon won the Boy's Varsity B Race in 17:06.53. Regassa led from start to finish, but was challenged along the way by Daniel Cummings of Bethel and Jason Driscoll of Battlefield. After pulling a hamstring muscle in the summer, Regasse said he did not know how this season would go. It looks like it is going pretty good. Rebecca McDowell of Atlee won the Girl's Varsity B race with a time of 21:17.25 over Karla Slater (21:25.79) of Spotswood.