Information for coaches, athletes, and parents/spectators for Saturday's MileStat.com Cross Country Invitational at Pocahontas State Park in Chesterfield. Entry deadline is tonight at midnight. Reminder to parents, spectators and any athletes, coaches, or teams traveling in personal vehicles, there will be a $5 parking fee collected by Pocahontas State Park (not meet management). Carpooling is encouraged due to limited parking. Information on chip timing, varsity A & B division assignments, parking & bus drop-offs, awards, team tents, course maps & video tour, and time schedule included.
Thank you for deciding to bring your team to this year's MileStat.com XC Invitational. We are excited for Saturday's meet as we should one of the highest quality meets in the state of Virginia this fall on one of the faster commonly run 5K courses in the state at Pocahontas State Park.
ENTRY DEADLINE
A reminder that the final deadline to enter your meet roster is Monday, October 11th at 11:59 PM. Some of you have still not entered your meet roster for this meet. Also those teams who have already have entered their roster, please go back into the system by Monday and pull out any kids from your meet roster that you know will not be running next Saturday as we will be charged for every chip regardless if your runner shows or not. Below is the online registration link to edit your entries.
https://va.milesplit.com/meets/72906/registration/
ENTRY FEES
It is unacceptable if your team attempts to show up Saturday having not at least paid the $100 entry deposit as we are now having to turn away teams who want in this meet. You were suppose to send in your $100 deposit (or full entry fee if team entry numbers were small) to reserve your spot in this meet. If you have already paid the $100 entry deposit, but still owe a difference, it will not be a problem if you hand deliver the rest of the difference owed on meet day. The biggest thing is ALL teams who want to be accepted to compete next Saturday should have sent or send in now a $100 entry deposit (or full entry amount if less than $100) received before meet day.
Checks can be mailed to:
MileStat.com
3511 Quail Hill Ct.
Midlothian, VA
CHIP TIMING
We are happy to announce that this year's meet will be chip timed. With the growth of many major meets, it is a stress relief for meet management and also greater assurance in accuracy of times and places for coaches and athletes by going the route of chip timing. The meet will be chip timed by Mike Kiernan (meet director of several major meets in NOVA including the Glory Days Grill Invite this weekend) and Potomac River Running Store's IPICO chip timing systems. We will have a backup video and bib # voice recorder in place if needed to correct/verify any results or close finishes. There will be a chip timed split mat at the 2 mile mark. There will not be one at the mile mark. We are doing this because coaches can easily go from the start to 1 mile mark to 5K finish, but it is not an easy task to go from the 2 mile to 5K finish on this course. I will send out more information in regards to instructions for the chips once received from Coach Kiernan early next week.
VARSITY A & VARSITY B DIVISIONS
Also below is the race designation for the varsity A and varsity B races based off meet management's judgement separating the field in half based off quality of team performances this season. If you have any questions or concerns about your team's placement, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Varsity A Boys
Teams:
Brentsville District
Colonial Forge
Deep Run
Grafton
Hanover
Hickory
Jamestown
Kellam
Lake Braddock
Lafayette
Lee-Davis
Maggie Walker
Mills Godwin
Mountain View
Ocean Lakes
Osbourn Park
South Lakes
Stafford
Trinity
Western Branch
York
Individuals:
Silas Frantz (Douglas Freeman)
Andrew Catanese (Atlee)
Evan Niciphor (Cosby)
William Brown (Bethel)
Van Lewin (Broadwater Academy)
Matt Schwartzer (Princess Anne)
Jared White (Great Bridge)
Julian Menk (Patrick Henry)
Jake Golibert (Broadwater Academy)
Varsity B Boys
Teams:
Atlee
Bruton
Caroline
Chancellor
Clover Hill
Cosby
Essex
Goochland
Hermitage
James Madison
Massaponax
Matoaca
Middlesex
Monacan
Patrick Henry (Ashland)
Potomac Senior
Princess Anne
Tabb
Tallwood
T.C. Williams
Thomas Dale
Varina
Warwick
Westfield
Individuals:
Sean Thornton (Cumberland)
Codi Ward (Cumberland)
Zachary Barnette (Cumberland)
Matthew Hortnon (Cumberland)
Varsity A Girls
Teams:
Brentsville District
Colonial Forge
Cosby
Deep Run
Hanover
Hickory
James Madison
Jamestown
Kellam
Maggie Walker
Lafayette
Lake Braddock
Lee-Davis
Mills Godwin
Mountain View
Patrick Henry
Princess Anne
Ocean Lakes
Osbourn Park
T.C. Williams
Western Branch
Westfield
Individuals:
Hannah Lowery (Stafford)
Kaila Blackburn (Monacan)
Abby Badura (Clover Hill)
Emily Dinning (Stonebridge School)
Katherine Mello (Great Bridge)
Elizabeth Wade (Great Bridge)
Varsity B Girls
Teams:
Atlee
Bruton
Caroline
Chancellor
Clover Hill
Essex
Goochland
Grafton
Hermitage
Massaponax
Monacan
Middlesex
Potomac Senior
South Lakes
St. Catherine's
Stafford
Tabb
Tallwood
Thomas Dale
Trinity
Varina
Warwick
York
Individuals:
Emma Hand (Lancaster)
Whitney Spence (Lancaster)
Megan Biddle (Amelia County)
I'll have to wait till Tuesday to decide on which schools are racing in which JV boys race division based on final entry numbers.
AWARDS
We feel like we try to go all out with our awards and spend quite a good amount of $ to make athletes and teams feel like they have earned something very special by placing high in a quality meet. This year's meet will be no exception. Please try to stay around for the awards ceremony if possible, but if not you can pick up your awards from the awards table before leaving.
Varsity A Division
Top 3 teams receive trophies
Top 20 individuals receive medals
Individual champion receives Cream of the Crop Runner Mini-Statue
Varsity B Division
Top 2 teams receive trophies
Top 15 individuals receive medals
Individual champion receives bobble head runner trophy
JV Division*
Winning team receive trophies
Top 15 individuals receive medals
Individual champion receives bobble head trophy
*Team & Individual champions from EACH JV boys race receive awards
Middle School Division
Winning team receive trophies
Top 15 individuals receive medals
Individual champion receives bobble head trophy
PARKING
A reminder to all parents as well as teams and runners who may be traveling in personal vehicles, Pocahontas State Park will be collecting a $5 (FIVE DOLLARS) fee at the park gate entrance. Buses or school/government owned vehicles will enter the park for free. However, if you are a team or will have runners traveling in personal vehicles, you will be charged to park. I have no control over this and do not collect anything from the parking. It is collected and goes straight to the state park.
Encourage your parents to carpool if possible. The parking area is limited for spectators. There will be parking volunteers who will be directing parents, personal vehicles, and spectators to park in the CCV Field which is located on your right hand side roughly a quarter mile down the main park road once going through the pass gate. It will be roughly a half mile walk for spectators from the parking area. Handicap can park in the paved lot adjacent to the main park office once driving through the pass gate.
There will be absolutely NO bus drop offs allowed for kids, coaches, tents, coolers when immediately entering the park at the upper field where the main part of the course starts or finishes. We cannot have that entrance backed up with traffic trying to enter the park as well as regular traffic flowing through Beach Rd. Buses must continue to drive through the main park rd and go through the park pass gate. Immediately to your right as you go through the pass gate there will be a small parking lot which will be the designated area for buses to drop off teams and their equipment. After the buses drop off their teams, they will continue to go straight down the main park road to the very end where there is plenty of parking available for buses in the numerous lots found at the bottom portion of the park.
It will only be a quarter mile walk for teams and equipment at this bus drop off point in a path found to the left of the park office and to the right of the white house. It is pretty close to the distance which you would walk from the being dropped off at the upper field to the designated team tent area (see below)
TEAM TENTS
We would like to keep the team tents area restricted to the tree line area behind the starting line area. Last year a lot of teams set up despite being asked not in emails sent out by me to coaches in the open area in between the finishing stretch of the course and the first 100-200 meters of the course. We want to keep this area as an obstructed free view as possible for both spectators and meet officials. There is plenty of room for team tents to be set up in the grass area behind the starting line area and tree line behind it.
COURSE
An accurate and well marked 5K course (every 400 meters is marked with permanent stake and sign of current distance). Spikes are recommended on this course with only one short road crossing that is repeated twice with the rest of the course either grass or crushed dirt/gravel trails.
Course Maps
A close but not completely accurate course maps on mapmyruns.com can be found below
High School 5K Course
Middle School 4K Course
Course Video Tour
Last year, we did a video course tour for teams, coaches, athletes, and spectators. Video is broken into three segments with the first mile (start to 1 mile mark), second mile (1 mile mark to 2 mile mark), and third mile (2 mile to 5K finish). Watch course tour videos below.
1st Mile of Course - https://va.milesplit.com/videos?id=12988
2nd Mile of Course - https://va.milesplit.com/videos?id=12989
3rd Mile of Course - https://va.milesplit.com/videos?id=12990
TIME SCHEDULE
7:00 AM
Course Opens
7:30 AM
Packet Pick-Up
8:00 AM
Coaches Meeting
8:30 AM
Middle School Girls 4K
9:00 AM
Middle School Boys 4K
9:30 AM
Varsity "A" Girls 5K
10:00 AM
Varsity "A" Boys 5K
10:30 AM
Varsity "B" Girls 5K
11:00 AM
Varsity "B" Boys 5K
11:30 AM
JV Girls Race
12:00 Noon
JV Boys Race #1
12:30 PM
JV Boys Race #2
1:15 AM
Awards
T-SHIRTS
Meet T-Shirts will be sold on-site. Pricing is $14 for white short sleeve, $15 for grey or pink. $17 for long sleeve. $20 for tie dye or sweatpants. $35 for hoodies and $14 for cheer style shorts.
CONCESSION
Concession stand will be selling drinks (gatorade, water, soda) and food (healthy food for runners and regular concession food for spectators).
TRASH
Please have your athletes police their area and make sure no trash is left when your team is leaving the park. We are fortunate to have this venue to host this event and we need to make sure we keep this beautiful state park clean!
DIRECTIONS
Pocahontas State Park. Located at 10301 State Park Rd, Chesterfield, VA 23832. In Chesterfield County, about 20 miles from Richmond. It's easily accessible from Interstate 95, Route 288 and Route 360. See below for detailed directions.
Drive Time: Northern Virginia, two hours; Richmond, half an hour; Tidewater/Norfolk/Virginia Beach, two hours; Roanoke, three hours
Directions:
From Interstate 95 south of Richmond: Take exit 61 onto Route 10 west, then left onto Route 655 (Beach Road). Go about four miles to State Park Road, which is on the right.
From Interstate 95 north of Richmond: Take Interstate 295 south to Route 10 west (Iron Bridge Road) to Route 655 (Beach Road) to State Park Road.
From 64 west of Richmond: Take Route 288 south to Route 10 east (Iron Bridge Road) to Route 655 (Beach Road) to State Park Road.
From 64 east of Richmond: Take Interstate 295 south to Route 10 west to Route 655 (Beach Road) to State Park Road.
Click here for a Google map.
Good luck to your teams this weekend as we are hoping for a great meet! See you on Saturday!
Sincerely,
Brandon Miles
Meet Director, MileStat.com XC Invitational