CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA -- Pushed back a day due to heavy rain on Thursday, the starting guns finally went off on Friday afternoon at Panorama Farms just outside of Charlottesville as the Northwest Regional Championships were held. A windy day for racing greeted the competitors, but Forest Park\'s Stefanie Slekis, E.C. Glass\' Patterson Wilhelm and the Brooke Point girls and Colonial Forge boys teams welcomed it as they blew away their competition en route to their regional title victories.
Forest Park junior Stefanie Slekis came into the meet as the overwhelming favorite, but had to work for her first regional cross country title as the talented field would not let her have it easy. Franklin County sophomore Brittany Killough led Slekis and the field at the mile mark in a comfortable margin at a 5:38 split. Slekis ran second at that point in the race and would later overtake Killough for the lead. Slekis would keep the lead till the end as she crossed the finish line in a winning time of 19:02.
If Slekis did not finish strong herself, she may have been overtaken by a hard charing Kaylan Comer. The Colonial Forge sophomore had moved ahead of the field and surpassed Killough for second place in the final mile. Closing hard in the final quarter mile, Comer was able to finish four seconds shy of Slekis with a runner-up finishing time of 19:06. Killough would hold onto third with her season\'s best run with a time of 19:12. Another talented underclassmen in the region, North Stafford freshmen Kelly Reinwald finished fourth overall in a time of 19:19.
Despite Comer\'s strong runner-up performance and sophomore teammate Molly Hawkins finishing with All-Region honors with a sixth place finishing effort of 19:47, the Colonial Forge girls (74 pts) fell just short in knocking off Brooke Point (70 pts) for the regional crown. In comparision to Colonial Forge\'s two All-Region performers, the Brooke Point girls doubled that number with four runners finishing in the top 15 places with Brittany Copeland (9th, 20:05), Brittany Wilhelm (13th, 20:44), Robin Vannaman (14th, 20:47), and Claudia (15th, 20:48). Brooke Point\'s fifth runner, Christina Markish finished 24th overall in a time of 21:23 and most importantly, ahead of Colonial Forge\'s fifth runner by a decisive six points.
Forest Park (3rd, 108 pts) and North Stafford (4th, 114 pts) will be joining Brooke Point and Colonial Forge at next Saturday\'s state meet at Great Meadows. Last year\'s regional champs, Forest Park, was led by the race champion Slekis as well as All-Region sophomore performer Erin Caskey (5th, 19:33). Reinwald was North Stafford\'s lone All-Region Performer as the Lady Wolverines are making their first state meet appearance in this decade.
The classic battle between star runners Patterson Wilhelm of E.C. Glass and Bryce Iverson of Forest Park never truly materialized as most had hoped on Friday. Iverson, bothered by IT band problems late this season, tried his best to make it a race being one of the early race leaders with Wilhelm at the mile (4:47), but faded badly in the latter stages of the race to finish sixth overall in a time of 16:37. On the other hand, Wilhelm slowly but surely broke away from a lead pack of four that consisted of himself, Iverson, Culpeper\'s Devin Cornwall and Albemarle\'s Kelly Watt to win by an eight second margin in a time of 16:13.
Cornwall appeared to have second in reach, but Osbourn senior Charlie Schwartz had a surprising late charge to kick past Cornwall for runner-up honors in a time of 16:21. Cornwall held onto third with a 16:23 clocking. In typical fashion, a conservative early pace paid off for Massaponax\'s Brandon Dick as he passed many of the early race leaders to finish fourth overall in a time of 16:25.
Finishing fifth overall in the race and leading his team to the Northwest Region team title was junior Daniel Leyh, brother of Colonial Forge graduate and 800 meter star Sean. Leyh came through big for his squad at the regional meet as he posted a new personal best time by 22 seconds with his 16:37 clocking. Joining Leyh on the All-Region team was junior Arno Dieckmann with the final spot in 15th place with a time of 17:07. Trailing not too far behind Dieckman were fellow Eagles Joseph Mihelic (16th, 17:07), Nicholas Oltman (19th, 17:16), and Tony Nowotarski (21st, 17:19). Surprising enough that Colonial Forge finished 26 points better than their competition with 70 points was the fact that their fifth place finishing runner Nowotarski is typically the top runner on the team. Nowotarski has had an up and down season, but if he can cap it off with a strong race at Great Meadows next Saturday, Colonial Forge could quite possibly be standing on the state meet podium with a top three team finish.
Taking runner-up honors behind Colonial Forge was defending regional champs Forest Park with 96 points. The Bruins were matched man for man by Colonial Forge as they were beaten at every spot from their number one to number seven runner. Iverson was the team\'s sole All-Region performer as Mike Ross (17th, 17:14), Ryan Shea (23rd, 1 7:22), Peter Brandt (27th, 17:24), and Erich Fritz (31st, 17:35) rounded out Forest Park\'s top five.
Like their female counterparts, the North Stafford boys will also be making their first team trip to the state meet in this decade as the Wolverines finished third in the team standings with 108 points. North Stafford was led by a duo of All-Region performers in junior Alec Meyer (10th, 16:49) and sophomore Lucas Hatcher (12th, 16:53).
Race champion Wilhelm helped continue the streak of E.C. Glass state meet appearances as the Hilltoppers took the final fourth place finishing spot with 118 points. E.C. Glass freshmen Nathan Richards was the top finishing underclassmen in the race as Richards earned All-Region honors with a 11th place finishing time of 16:51.