The Colonial Forge coaches may have picked up on Hidden Valley's idea last year by venturing down to Texas for the Nike South Invitational as the Hidden Valley girls winning last year's Nike South against eventual Nike Cross Nationals team qualifiers from the NXN South Region helped the Roanoke, VA squad qualify for the Nike Cross Nationals as an at-large berth. The NXN South Region is made up of several states, but the state of Texas dominates this region and sends the region's four automatic qualifiers (2 boys teams, 2 girls teams) on almost an annual basis. The Texas boys have proved themselves as worthy of receiving two teams to nationals, but the Texas girls have historically struggled in the mud at Portland Meadows for NXN as the 5K distance is not commonly run in girls cross country within the state of Texas as the two mile is the established distance including for the state meet.
The Colonial Forge girls and Hidden Valley have raced head to head twice this season with Colonial Forge finishing ahead of the defending Group AA state champions in both encounters including most recently in a narrow margin of four points at Great American. Colonial Forge finished seventh and Hidden Valley took eighth at Great American, but each team is looking for top 2 or 3 finishes this weekend at The Woodlands High School home cross country course. In the race will be the top five ranked teams in the Texas 5A classificiation (largest schools) led by host school Woodlands with two of the top three 4A schools in Kingwood Park and Boerne Champion. It will be the first 5K race of the season for the Texas girls' teams, while Colonial Forge and Hidden Valley have been running at the 3.1 mile distance all fall. Southlake Carroll (TX) has the fastest team average this season at the 2 mile distance at 11:37, while The Woodlands is not far behind at 11:38. Colonial Forge has a total of eight girls who ran under 12 minutes for 3200 meter last spring on the track for a 11:39 team average which cross country times in Texas are comparable since not many hilly courses in the Lonestar state.
On the other hand, Hidden Valley enjoys much more success in the fall during cross country than during track season especially since their current top runner Haley Cutright only runs cross country. Cutright will be one of the top individuals at Nike South coming off her personal best 18:06 5K performance at Great American. Cutright and teammate Annie LeHardy (18:15 at Great American) both figure to place well inside the top 10 individually. LeHardy finished fifth to lead Hidden Valley to their 2009 title at Nike South, while other top returnees Cutright (19th) and Carolyn Bethel (26th) look to improve their individual finishes from a year ago. In muddy conditions last year, Hidden Valley won with 58 points and a 20:00 team average compared to runner-up Southlake Carroll's 89 points and 20:15 team average.
The Colonial Forge boys will be in a much more tougher and competitive race than the Virginia girls at Nike South as Texas boys are no slouches. The race will feature one of the nation's top returning individual cross country runners in Craig Lutz, who won the Nike Cross Nationals as well as Foot Locker South regional last fall. Texas 4A #1 Boerne Champion were national champions themselves at the Nike Cross Nationals last December, while the top two teams in Texas this fall appear to be 5A squads Southlake Carroll and The Woodlands, who are ranked US #9 and US #12 respectively in the latest Harrier national team rankings. If the VA#3 ranked Colonial Forge boys were to fare well against these national caliber programs or even run competitively close to them, it would certainly bode well as a positive sign for their championship and post-season aspirations. The Colonial Forge boys have the talent to run with the best from Texas, but it is a matter of getting all of their talented top four in Brian O'Loughlin, David Pennesi, Donny Lozier, and David Klimek all clicking at the same time with a step up race from their fifth to pull some upsets at The Woodlands.