THE PLAINS, VA -- The Great Meadows Invitational served as big test to see what two #1 ranked teams in the Thomas Jefferson boys and James Robinson girls and one #1 ranked individual, Jemissa Hess of C.D. Hylton, were made of. Well the outcome ended up with only the Thomas Jefferson boys being able to withstand the challenges thrown at them by the competitive field gathered at Great Meadows.
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The Thomas Jefferson boys (52 pts), led by the top two races finishers in Christo Landry (16:02) and Keith Bechtol (16:06) made easy work of the competition including #2 state ranked Midlothian (119 pts), who took runner-up honors. At the state meet, Landry and Bechtol could very well be giving their team the very same light three points to contribute to the team scores because as of right now, they look to be the top two team scoring individuals in AAA. Running without their top finisher from last year\'s state meet and probably their projected number three or four runner heading into this season, Joey Bylund, who was out due to injury, the rest of the Thomas Jefferson team really stepped it up in his absence. Brian Hanak, coming off a great spring of track where he posted a 9:42 3200, finally broke 17 minutes for the 5K and he did it in a big way by finishing sixth in the race with a time of 16:30. Filling out one incredibly formidable five was Tarik Jones (17th, 16:49) and Kyle Smith (26th, 17:00). As their initial race of this young cross country season, the #10 nationally ranked Thomas Jefferson boys look awfully tough.
Midlothian, also ran without their top state meet finisher from a year ago, Andrew Baker, but still performed notably well without Baker. The upperclassmen trio of junior Ryan Witt (11th, 16:42), senior Brandon Miles (13th, 16:45), and senior Taylor Matthews (21st, 16:53) led the Trojan charge as varsity newcomers in sophomore Ryan Call (34th, 17:17) and junior Pat Harding (40th, 17:27) had personal best runs to round out Midlothian\'s top five. The absence of Baker and a back injury to talented German exchange student runner Robert Gielow, who fell back all the way to 85th place (18:26) due to severe back pains during the race may have a hurt Midlothian's cause a bit. However, even with Baker and a healthy Gielow in the lineup, it still looks as though the #2 ranked Trojans and the rest of the teams in the state will have a tremendous amount of work to do to upset Thomas Jefferson after their impressive opener.
Westfield had a solid showing for third place with 159 points. The Bulldogs were led by Bryan Buckland with his fourth place finishing time of 16:22 as he lost out in an exciting finish with Jamestown's Jonna Reinhardt (16:20) for third place. The team was actually nicely matched up with runner-up Midlothian through four runners with Buckland, junior James Scheiner (19th, 16:50), junior David Groff (23rd, 16:56), and senior Josh Cordle (36th, 17:19). However, having their #5 runner, Andrew Buckland finishing 77th place (18:11) dashed at any hopes at taking home runner-up honors.
Bad luck struck the top ranked girls' team of James Robinson at Great Meadows. The team depends so heavily on the performances of their 1-2 punch in Joanna Rodgers and Sam Ference, which is quite possibly one of the most talented tandems out of any team in the state. Rodgers did her part by garnering a third place finishing time of 19:19, but Ference was not able to as she had a run she would like to forget as she fell back all the way to 140th place (23:40). Caroline Coster (11th, 20:09) and Susan Brooks (14th, 20:16) ran fine races to follow after Rodgers, but with the fade of Ference, there left some huge holes in the team's #4 and #5 positions at which the girls from Herndon seized the opportunity to upset the defending state champions.
Great Meadows marked the return of Kristen Hart from Herndon as she was one of the state\'s top cross country runners last fall, but suffered a season ending stress fracture in the outdoor track season. While she was nowhere near her old from last fall, her impact was obviously felt in the team scoring as she led her team with a 12th place finishing time of 20:12. Right behind her was freshmen Colleen Lear at 20:13 for 13th. Finishing out Herndon\'s top five were Jessie Erickson (19th, 20:25), Heather Fisher (23rd, 20:27), and Jenny Miller (45th, 21:03) to seal the upset victory over Robinson (112-124 pts). Quite a huge upset considering that Herndon was not even ranked coming into the meet.
The Northern Region girls dominated the meet as they took the first four places with Herndon, Robinson, Hayfield (3rd, 125 pts), and Thomas Jefferson (4th, 201 pts). Hayfield nearly put an impressive five runners under 21 minutes on the hilly Great Meadows course with Morgan Phelan (6th, 19:39), Melissa Dewey (21st, 20:26), Jessica Weber (28th, 20:33), Neela Balkissoon (31st, 20:41), and Ashley Bivins (43rd, 21:01). So close in team scores to regional rivals Herndon and James Robinson, don\'t count out the girls from Hayfield in the team picture at states, who are a young group that consists of only one senior, Weber.
Coach Ryan has put together a masterpiece in his boys' squad this season, but his girls' squad is not that bad either as they took fourth Saturday at Great Meadows. Shauneen Garrahan had a fabulous run for fifth place overall with her time of 19:38. Also having decent showings for Thomas Jefferson were Sarah Levine (30th, 20:40) and Jen Dolson (37th, 20:53).
A team that performed much better than their team score was the girls of Midlothian, who took fifth place (205 pts). At one point well into the race, the team had four runners ahead of Robinson's #2 runner. However, running #2 for the Lady Trojans and easily in a top 20 position with more than half of the race already underway, junior Maria Anthony collapsed due to asthma problems. Those remaining three runners finished strong with sophomore transfer Amanda Patterson taking a surprising seventh place (19:47), freshmen Jessica Oakley taking 18th place (20:21), and junior Erin Prillaman making for a great top three with 27th place finish (20:33). If Anthony would have finished the race with senior Evan Dove finishing 53rd (21:14) to what would have been Midlothian's #5 runner, the Lady Trojans would finished right with or close to Herndon, Robinson, and Hayfield in the team scores. However with Anthony not being able to finish the race, Midlothian\'s next runner to take their #5 spot added instead another 100 points to their team score as it knocked them well out of top three contention.
As for the girls' individual race, Joanna Rodgers of Robinson (3rd, 19:19) built a substantial early lead over the rest of the field early on, but then was chased down by Hess and Jill Porto of Potomac as then Porto broke away from Hess (2nd, 19:12) down the stretch for an unexpected win of 19:06 over Rodgers and the top-ranked Hess.