Coverage from this weekend's meets will be delayed as our main focus leading up to in the planning and execution on raceday is putting on a quality cross country invitational at Pocahontas State Park. No time for a preview for even our own meet! Look for results, meet summaries, photos, and videos from the MileStat.com Invitational and other invitationals this weekend including Runnin With the Wolves Rocktoberfest, Stallion Stampede, Third Battle Invitational, and Georgetown Prep Classic to come later on Saturday into Sunday.
MileStat.com XC Invitational - For full meet summary and coverage....click here.
Runnin With the Wolves Rocktoberfest - A sixth runner tiebreaker was needed to decide the winner between the Thomas Jefferson and Blacksburg girls, which Blacksburg only had five finishers and no sixth runner so the Thomas Jefferson girls were able to claim the title at the Runnin with the Wolves Rocktoberfest over the Group AA top ranked Blacksburg squad with 53 points. Making the long trip from Alexandria to Forest (near Lynchburg), the Thomas Jefferson girls had seven girls finish among the top 25 places including three in the top ten with Stephanie Marzen (3rd, 19:30), Sarah Stites (5th, 19:34), and Kelly Rogers (8th, 20:01). Blacksburg ran a smaller squad but ran their top runners including Hannah Brown (19:05) finishing runner-up to Cave Spring freshmen Katie Fortner, who dipped under 19 minutes on the Wolf Branch Farm with an 18:50 victory.
The boys' race saw a great individual battle between Cody Seymour of Cave Spring and George Carter of Blacksburg. Carter had the win in sight as he was nearing the final hill and final stretch, but Seymour summoned one final burst of energy to kick past Carter (2nd, 16:07) for a 16:05 win over his district and regional rival. Blacksburg cruised to another win in a local invitational for them in the Southwest region of Virginia, but nearly as dominant as some earlier season invitationals with 54 points and team average of 17:00. The team ran all of their top seven with the exception of Caman Skelton, but had the team's largest top five spread of the season with 1 minute and 25 seconds separating Carter and their team's fifth and final scorer. Patrick Henry boys were runner-ups with 90 points to edge out Thomas Jefferson with 91 points. Patrick Henry had a nice 1-2 punch finishing among the top 10 in Patrick Woodford (6th, 16:32) and Hartnel Paultre (7th, 16:33).
The Stampede Cross Country Classic - Potomac Falls made a clean sweep of the team titles at the Stampede Cross Country Classic. Chantilly's Sean McGorty held off Potomac Falls' top finisher Juan Campos (2nd, 16:19) for an 16:18 win. Campos led Potomac Falls (81 pts) to a team win over a solid squad from Maryland in Good Counsel (108 pts) as teammate Connor Wilson (8th, 16:41) joined him in the top 10 individually
Nicole Carter and the Battlefield girls (66 pts) ran well with Carter winning her first major invitational in a time of 19:23 on the Meadowood Park 5K course in Lorton, but the Potomac Falls girls were too much to pull off an upset win despite averaging identical times of 20:26. Potomac Falls had four girls in the top 10 with Sarah Dillistin (4th, 19:57), Kaeley Brady (8th, 20:28), Rachel Hagen (9th, 20:30), and Mackenzie Barclay (10th, 20:34) for a team score of 47 points.
Third Battle Invitational - Two of Region II's best in Tom Delaney of John Handley and Seamus O'Reilly of Warren County pressed each other two some great times in their last invitational races of the season with Delaney claiming the win in 15:39. O'Reilly had to settle for second in a personal best time of 15:43 as Delaney also led the John Handley Judges to the team title with 56 points. Skyline ran their varsity lineup with the exception of top runner Thomas Madden as they finished third as a team with 70 points behind James Wood's 68 points.
Sherando's Krista DeCault continued her exceptional senior season by breaking 19 minutes with a 18:54 performance on the Third Battlefield 5K course and 15 seconds ahead of her closest finisher in Kayla Gibbons (19:09) of Warren County. The Warren County girls have finished high in several major invitationals against larger schools and finished their regular season as a champion in the Third Battle Invite hosted by Millbrook with a low team score of 29 points and team average of 20:00. Warren County had five girls finish among the top 11.
37th Annual Georgetown Prep Classic - The Bishop O'Connell girls won yet another major invitational this season after finishing a rare second place last weekend at Glory Days with 13 point team victory at the Georgetown Prep Classic against Maryland's Walt Whitman (2nd, 100 pts). Their front three runners were once again running strong near the front of the field with Sarah McCarthy (5th, 19:39), Devin Nihill (8th, 19:50), and Emily Blagg (10th, 20:08) all finishing among the top 10 individuals in the varsity seeded race. Also in the meet were two teams competing for state meets in the Northern Region in West Potomac and Langley girls' squads. For the first time this season, the Langley girls (121 pts) finished ahead of West Potomac (125 pts) by four points for fourth place. Langley had three girls in the top 16 with Courteney Weast as the top finisher from Virginia in a fourth place effort of 19:32.
The West Potomac boys finished third in the team standings at Georgetown and only 18 points off third place, despite not having a single individual run under 17 minutes with their top finisher being sophomore Marc Lotterie in 17th place with a time of 17:14. Only 27 seconds separated Lotterie and West Potomac's fifth finisher Khoki Bernier (32nd, 17:41)
Trailblazer Invitational - Lebanon High School runners highlighted the performances from Virginians at the Trailblazer Invite in Tennessee. Lebanon junior Tabitha Arwood finished in a strong second place finish behind Science Hill's (TN) top runner Molly Foster (19:20) with a time of 19:38. Arwood's teammate in sophomore Paige Campbell (3rd, 20:40) had one of her best races to finish among the top three with Arwood as the Lebanon girls were the top school from the state in seventh place (224 pts). The Lebanon boys faired much better as a team in second place with 99 points behind the top ranked team from Tennessee in Morristown-West (31 pts). Lebanon had three top 15 finishers in Bradley Rasnake (8th, 17:10), Jon Ulrich (14th, 17:37), and Jordan Smith (15th, 17:39).