Great American Complete Results
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The Midlothian boys and girls (both pictured above by Glenn Dow) were the top team finishers from Virginia in the Race of Champions as both finished second in the highly competitive race featuring many of the top ranked teams in the Southeast Region as well as nationally ranked squads from the Northeast.
The Midlothian boys finished second with 128 points and ahead of returning NXN Southeast squads Columbus (FL) and Brookwood (GA), while US #28 Trinity Prep of Florida won the title with 96 pts. Midlothian senior Brayden Burleigh showed why he is still one of the state's most talented distance runners by beating the time which he ran last November to qualify individually for NXN and running the state's fastest time this fall for 5K taking 7th place individually with a 15:20 clocking. Fellow Trojan senior Darren Barlow ran really strong in the #2 spot to run his first sub 16 minute 5K ever in 20th place at 15:40 behind only two other Virginians in teammate Burleigh and Cosby senior Evan Niciphor (14th, 15:36). Also competing as an individual along with Niciphor in the Race of Champions was John Handley's Thomas Delaney, who came in right after Barlow in 22nd place (15:41). Completing Midlo's team scoring and running just over 16 minutes were Sam Hush (41st, 16:04), Andrew Gorsuch (45th, 16:06), and Sean Willard (47th, 16:08). Ryan Peterson made for a fast sixth runner in a time of 16:09 for 51st place as Midlothian averaged 15:51 as a unit.
Colonial Forge boys averaged 16:14 as a squad as a sub 16 minute run from Brian O'Loughlin (36th, 15:59) led his team to a seventh place finish with 250 points to be placed just behind of defending NXN Southeast champions Brookwood of Georgia (6th, 228 pts) and ahead of quality Northeast squads Saratoga Springs of New York (8th, 264 pts) and Danbury of Connecticut (9th, 269 pts).
The Midlothian girls were the top team for the Southeast region taking second only to US #2 Saratoga Springs (53 pts) with a team score of 114 points, which put them well ahead of the third place team Holy Trinity (FL) with 185 points. The Midlothian girls had a team average of 18:37 on the WakeMed Soccer Park 5K course in Cary, NC. Their top four finishers were well packed together finishing within 13 seconds and five places by running PR's across the board with Claire Benjamin (19th, 18:24), Kari Johnston (20th, 18:25), Krista Willard (23rd, 18:34), and Kara Dickerson (24th, 18:37). The noteworthy fact is Midlothian's great team showing at Great American could have been even better and finished even closer to one of the nation's best squads in Saratoga Springs with an off race (coming back from mono) from one of their top runners Marie Johnston, who was the team's fifth finisher completing the team scoring in 42nd place with a time of 19:06.
The Colonial Forge (7th, 227 pts), Hidden Valley (8th, 231 pts), and Western Albemarle (10th, 241 pts) girls all finished really close to one another in the ROC race with Midlothian and all three should gain NXN Southeast top 10 ranking consideration following their team efforts in Cary this weekend.
Western Albemarle senior Mattie Webb made a name for herself on the national scene running an amazing 5K personal best of 17:38 to place third individually in the Race of Champions, while Cosby junior Megan Moye was not too bad herself running an incredible race for fourth place in a time of 17:44 to make for two of the top four finishers from Virginia.
The Mountain View boys won the seeded invitational division with 134 points putting three runners among the top 10 finishers with Robert Thomas (6th, 16:08), Jared Elly (7th, 16:12), and Nicholas Wolfe (10th, 16:18) while their fourth and fifth stepped up to run under 17 minutes and close the door for team victory. More impressive though was the complete Virginia domination in this division as following Mountain View for the next four team places were schools from Virginia with Albemarle (2nd, 148 pts), Brentsville (3rd, 165 pts), Loudoun County (4th, 166 pts), and James Robinson (5th, 169 pts). Loudoun County senior Tommy Curtin enjoyed his first taste of victory this weekend and appears back on track to contend for the Group AA state title by posting a season best time of 15:36 to take first in the seeded invitational race.
In the girls' race for the seeded invitational (2nd most competitive race), top teams from the Northwest Region went to battle among Albemarle, Forest Park, and Mountain View for the places after the incredible Saratoga Springs program's "B" squad won the division. The Albemarle girls got the leg up on both Forest Park and Mountain View at least for this weekend taking runner-up behind Saratoga Springs with 84 points. Not far behind were their regional rivals Forest Park (97 pts) and Mountain View (109 pts) for third and fourth respectively in the division. Both Albemarle and Forest Park had individual runners place high with two of the region's best after Hannah Lowery in Forest Park junior Natalie Young (4th, 18:31) and Albemarle sophomore Allison Huschke (5th, 18:40) both racing well with a season best run for Young and personal best for Huschke.
The third best division in the varsity red races had a sweep of Virginia individual champions with Morgan Price of Brentsville (18:55) breaking 19 minutes to lead her school to a runner-up team showing, while Manchester junior Nathan Clarke won by 17 seconds in the boys' race with his finish time of 16:16.
With four runners among the top 12 places, the Trinity (Richmond) boys easily won the first ever Independent Schools Championship division race at Great American with a team score of 49 points. Episcopal of Alexandria finished fourth with 95 points. Trinity boys had three runners under 17 minutes with Guy Shelby (6th, 16:20), Mac Strehler (8th, 16:46), and Reider Strehler (10th, 16:48). In race between two of the top ranked private school runners in Virginia, Episcopal's Reid Nickle finished 7 seconds ahead of Trinity's Shelby in fifth place with a time of 16:13.
More to come from Great American!