More to come from this weekend's meets with results, meet summaries, photos, videos, and interviews!
Photo by John Herzog
Maymont X-Country Festival - It was a big day for the Western Albemarle program at Maymont and the team had only one champion in Derek Armstrong. Armstrong's shocking individual victory in the invitational division at Maymont with a time of 15:58 over defending Group AA state champion Kyle King of Grafton as well as a field full of several top ranked contenders propeled the Western Albemarle boys to a near major upset of the top ranked and US #24 Blacksburg boys with a mere five points separating the two teams. The Blacksburg boys did not run bad either to make it a close team outcome for first place. In fact, they ran great with three individuals in the top 10 with George Carter (3rd, 16:13), Frank Locascio (4th, 16:22), and Caman Skelton (8th, 16:34) to become the first school in meet history to win back to back titles in the invitational boys division. However, Armstrong's teammates at Western Albemarle came to Richmond to show the Group AA state title will not be a cakewalk for Blacksburg beating team in runner positions #1, #4, and #5.
The Blacksburg girls got a good measuring stick as far as how they stack up to another national caliber programs finishing third behind Harrier US #11 ranked Tatnall (1st, 48 pts) of Delaware and US #20 ranked Green Hope (2nd, 74 pts) of North Carolina with a team score of 98 points. Blacksburg's front two in Sarah Dorrell and Hannah Brown ran very smart races with conservative first half of the race to move up to take sixth and eight place respectively. The only Virginian ahead of Dorrell and Brown in an out-of-state dominated top 15 was Western Albemarle's Mattie Webb who finished strong to move up into third place with a cross country 5K personal best time of 18:21.
In the coastal division races (second most competitive race division at Maymont), hometown teams Trinity boys and Maggie Walker girls both ran very strong through five to win those divisions in dominant fashion and certainly would have likely finished respectably high if inserted in the invitational division behind their two individual winners in Guy Shelby and Anna Spiers.
Photo by Tim Hagen
Oatlands Invitational - Cosby junior Megan Moye has certainl made a case for herself as a serious challenger for the Group AAA state title this fall after 18:36 win and 28 second margin of victory against one of the hottest runners so far this season in Hannah Lowery of Stafford at Oatlands. Lowery produced another solid sub 19 minute time on a challenging course for runner-up honors in 18:54. Two potential state team champions later this fall faced off between Group AAA top ranked Thomas Jefferson girls and three-time private school state champions Bishop O'Connell. Despite the Jefferson girls not being at full strength without Lisa Junta, they still won by a margin of 25 points against Bishop O'Connell girls (192 pts). Osbourn Park (3rd, 210 pts) and West Potomac (4th, 213 pts) were not far off the top two in a very deep field with several state qualifying caliber teams finishing outside the top 10. Notable individual races by Crystal Nelson of Millbrook taking third place in 19:20 as the next finisher following the star powered first two in Moye and Lowery, while Robert E. Lee freshmen Bailey Kolonich ran upfront for fifth place in a time of 19:32.
Photo by Tim Hagen
Cody Pelliccioni of Morgantown (WV) successfully defended his Oatlands Invite title from a year ago and showed how today's unseasonably warm and humid day affected times as Pelliccioni's 2010 winning time of 16:10 was 21 seconds slower than his 2009 win on the same course in 15:49. A runner from Maryland and another finisher from the state of West Virginia followed Pelliccioni before the first in-state finisher in Warren County's Seumas O'Reilly (4th, 16:24) who battled with Robert E. Lee's Abraham Yacob (5th, 16:25) for that honor all the way through the line. The team outcome for boys could not have been anymore surprising and probably leaves more questions than answers about some of the top ranked and favored teams leading into the meet. However, the Stafford boys continue to excel in the shadows of some of their Commonwealth District rivals and shined in the absence of those teams at Oatlands to score a significant invitational win with a team score of 158 points, which put them over 50 points ahead of the nearest challenger in the Potomac Falls boys who also beat more than a handful higher ranked teams to take runner-up. Despite not having a single individual runner among the top 15 finishers, Stafford was well packed with a top five spread of 56 seconds.
Chesapeake Invitational - Grassfield sweeps team titles with boys defeating Eastern Region's top ranked Ocean Lakes boys (missing #1 runner Jon Winters) by 8 points, while the Grassfield girls held off individual race champion Abby Motley (19:10) and the Kellam girls by 5 points. Jeremy Greenwald and Seth Taylor both broke 16 minutes at the Bells Mill Park 5K course with Greenwald as the race champion in 15:46, while Taylor (3rd, 15:51) nearly finished ahead of Bethel's William Brown (15:50) for second place behind his teammate. Grassfield girls had four girls finish among the top 15 with runner-up performance from Carolyn Cunniffe (2nd, 19:29) and 2008 Group AAA 800 meter state champion Amanda Smith stepping up at the 5K distance for 8th place in 20:37. Juniors Maya Walton of Hermitage and Shannon Morton of Indian River both ran strong individually with times of 19:33 each for third and fourth place in the "A" girls race, while Group AA squad York had three boys place among the top 10 including Jack Little (4th, 16:09) and Zachary Poelker (5th, 16:20).
Stanford Invitational - Sophie Chase and the Lake Braddock girls held their own traveling across the country and competing against the best from arguably one of the country's toughest and most competitive states for high school cross country at the Stanford Invitational. Running on a fairly challenging 5K course (especially in California), Chase finished 14th individually with a time of 18:22 to lead the Lake Braddock girls to a 10th place team showing in the 20 team seeded division. Chase's time is only three seconds off her PR last year of 18:19 from Foot Locker South. Lake Braddock averaged 19:34 as a team with 254 points and three other runners under 20 minutes in Casey Lardner (19:14), Hannah Christen (19:47), and Tara Landy (19:53). The Lake Braddock boys may have outperformed their own expectations with a 13th place team showing led by Luke Sohl's personal best 15:44 5K run for 14th place overall. Teammate Sam Rubenking was not far from joining Sohl under 16 minutes in 33rd place with a time of 16:08.
Greensboro Invitational - The Hidden Valley girls took second down in Greensboro to a state champion caliber squad from Chapel Hill (NC) in the invitational division with a team score of 110 points and 13 points shy of the team champions. The defending Group AA state champions were led by a very impressive run from Haley Cutright posting a time of 18:43 for second place behind one of North Carolina's top distance runners in Samantha George (18:43). Also placing high individually from Virginia was Northside's Erin Wheeler in fourth place with a time of 19:07.
Bull Run Invitational - Brentsville squads had fair team showing, but exceptional individual efforts from their top finishers with Morgan Price placing fourth in the elite girls division with a time of 20:44 and Zach Morrow stepping up to finish among the top 15 in the pre-state meet for Maryland schools at the incredibly challenging three mile course at Hereford High School.
Mercersburg Academy Invitational - The Episcopal girls might be emerging as the top challenger for the Bishop O'Connell girls for the private school state title after a team victory at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania. Episcopal had their entire top five among the top 15 places for a team score of 35 points with junior Alessandra Gavin (4th, 20:59) as the top finisher, Reid Nickle, one of most talented returnees among the private school boys with PR's of 4:24 in the 1600 and 9:37 in the 3200, competed in his first race since the state indoor meet after missing the outdoor season due to injury. Nickle finished fifth in Saturday's race with a time of 16:55 on a challenging 5K course layout.