Grafton senior Kyle King (pictured above by John Herzog) will have a perfect opportunity to prove that he is still the defending Group AA state cross country champion at Saturday's Albemarle Invitational when he faces two runners who have legitimate hopes of becoming Group AA champions as well in November at Great Meadow in Skyline sophomore Thomas Madden and Western Albemarle senior Derek Armstrong. Madden has the #1 ranking currently in Group AA, while Armstrong defeated King in his first race of the season at Maymont.
The Western Albemarle boys will be battling with three of the top teams in the Northwest Region in Stafford, Albemarle, and Riverbend, while the girls' team battle look to be a five-way contest with Western Albemarle, Ocean Lakes, Osbourn Park, Albemarle, and West Springfield. The Western Albemarle boys were close runners-up to Group AA #1 ranked Blacksburg two weeks ago, while the Stafford boys were team champions at Oatlands on the same weekend. Colonial Forge and Mountain View will be absent from the Albemarle Invite as both travel far out-of-state with Forge in Texas at Nike South and Mountain View in Florida at the Disney Classic, but a lot should be learned about the Northwest Region through Stafford, Albemarle, and Riverbend's presence at the regional course. Group AA squad Skyline as a VA #8 ranked team will also be in the mix to make for five top 10 ranked teams at Panorama Farms on Saturday with VA #3 Western Albemarle, VA #6 Stafford, VA #7 Albemarle, and VA #10 Riverbend.
The VA #8 Western Albemarle girls are still not at full strength, but still strong through four runners led by VA #1 ranked Mattie Webb, who dipped well under 18 minutes last Saturday at Great American. The opening in the fifth runner spot may leave the door open for an Eastern Region squad in VA #10 Ocean Lakes to conquer the hills and field at Panorama Farms after running a very competitive second place to Thomas Jefferson at the Octoberfest Invite. VA #9 Osbourn Park and VA #13 Albemarle girls will race each other for the first time this season and see who might be Colonial Forge's top challenger for the Northwest Region title. The VA #15 West Springfield girls were champions one week ago in Greensboro at the Hagan Stone Park Classic and appear to be a team capable of finishing among the top four in the Northern Region.
Course and meet records of 18:02 by Ariel Karabinus of Osbourn Park (2009) and 15:13 by John Crews of Rockbridge (2003) will be in jeopardy with a star studded field set to battle one another at the 2010 Albemarle Invitational. Western Albemarle's Mattie Webb has already ran 25 seconds faster than the course record albeit on a faster Great American course, but she should be pressed to make a go for a course record time with three girls in the race ranked among the top 8 in the state of Virginia with VA #4 Hannah Lowery of Stafford, VA #6 Crystal Nelson of Millbrook, and VA #8 Erin Wheeler of Northside. Lowery might be her top challenger as she has already notched four invitational wins this season including a personal best 5K time of 18:11. Wheeler has also been contagious with the winning bug this fall with three invitational victories and last spring ran an 18:14 5K on the track.
There should be a large size second pack of runners chasing after the top four and potentially sub 19 minute times on the fairly challenging Panorama Farms 5K course including Albemarle's Allison Huschke, Sherando's Krista DeCeault, Western Albemarle's Killian O'Connell, Battlefield's Nicole Carter, Ocean Lakes' Audrey Batzel, Princess Anne's Lizzie Cornell, and Osbourn's Emma Nowak.
The top individuals for the varsity boys' race will be just as loaded as their female counterparts with four of the top six ranked runners in the state of Virginia (though VA #2 Kevin Bennert of Woodberry Forest is reported to be out with injury). With Bennert expected to be out, it appears to be a three way race between the top three ranked runners in Group AA so an excellent preview for the state race between VA #4 Thomas Madden of Skyline, VA #5 Derek Armstrong of Western Albemarle, and VA #6 Kyle King of Grafton. Madden had been unbeaten this season prior to a close runner-up 15:31 5K PR performance at Octoberfest Invite including an earlier season win at the Judges Classic against Western's Armstrong. Armstrong showed much better at Maymont when he scored an upset win against defending Group AA state champ Kyle King and a strong field. Maymont was King's first race of the season, so expect a much stronger race from King after shaking off the race rust two weeks ago.
Other top individuals in the race will include Eastern Region contender William Brown and slew of runners vying to establish themselves at Panorama Farms as the man to beat several weeks from now on the same course for the Northwest Region title including Riverbend's Ryan Kuhns and Shaquon Wilkins, Patrick Henry's Patrick Woodford, and Stafford's Tyler Oliver. After running a season best 16:10 5K last weekend at Hagan Stone, West Springfield's Colin Taylor should be racing up with that Northwest Region top pack.