Photo by Tim Hagen
The Potomac Falls boys and Coach Null made it the number 10. For the tenth straight year, the Potomac Falls boys are the cross country team champions in the competitive Dulles District. At the district meet held Wednesday afternoon at the Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg, Potomac Falls defeated two quality challengers in Loudoun County (2nd, 53 pts) and Freedom (3rd, 72 pts) with their entire top five earning All-District top 15 honors and team score of 36 points. While continuning their string of district titles to an incredible 10th year is impressive, more important to the Potomac Falls will be their performance next month at Great Meadow to get back on the podium and potentially challenge Blacksburg for the Group AA state title.
Photo by Tim Hagen
Defending individual champion Tommy Curtin of Loudoun County was able to break away from from Potomac Falls top runner Juan Campos (2nd, 16:31) and Freedom's Thorpe Lichtenberg (3rd, 16:36) in the final mile for a 13 second victory in 16:18. Curtin will attempt to repeat in two weeks as a Region II champion, but should come into the race as an underdog to Skyline sophomore Thomas Madden as well as other top challengers in Derek Armstrong of Western Albemarle, Thomas Delaney of John Handley, and Seumas O'Reilly of Warren County.
Photo by Tim Hagen
The Potomac Falls girls (2nd, 64 pts) were trying to join their teammates for a sweep of the team titles, but an up and coming Freedom program (1st, 39 pts) was not going to be denied their school's first district title. Led by a freshmen duo of Callie O'Connnell (1st, 19:46) and Siobhan O'Toole (2nd, 19:49) taking the top two places individually after competing much of the race with another freshmen in Sarah Dillistin (3rd, 19:59), the Freedom girls ended up winning by a fairly decisive margin of 25 points. The 2010 Dulles District champions which feature three freshmen and two seniors among their top five, will now enter the regional championships in two weeks at Kernstown Battlefield in Winchester with high hopes of potentially cracking inside the top four and earning a state meet berth.