A new course for the Region III Championships at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds proved to be a perfect venue for runners across the board to either end their season with a personal or season best or extend their season another week by qualifying for the VHSL State Championship's Group AA race. Leading the barrage of PR's in the meet as she flew on the downhills and pushed through the uphills was Northside senior Erin Wheeler. Wheeler clocked the ninth fastest 5K time in the state of Virginia this fall with an 18:09 performance as she dropped 35 seconds from her last race on the same course at the October 13th regional preview meet. After a 5:26 first mile with Jefferson Forest's Leigha Schimmoeller, Wheeler was able to continue to hold the hot pace for the next 2.1 miles to become the regional champion following a runner-up finish in 2009. The #5 ranked runner in Group AA has come a long way from her junior season of cross country in which she was running over 20 minutes for 5K in most races as Wheeler appears to be one of the top challengers following top ranked and favorite Mattie Webb of Western Albemarle in next Saturday's state finals.
With her first sub 19 minute performance, Leigha Schimmoeller (2nd, 18:55) led a dominant team showing for the Jefferson Forest girls to claim another regional title. The Lady Cavaliers were decisive champions in 2009 with 48 points, but won by an even larger margin this year with a team score of 36 points. The Jefferson Forest girls conceded first place individually to Northside's Wheeler, but then took the next three places with Schimmoeller, sophomore Hannah Owen (3rd, 19:17), and 2009 regional champion Mary Deis (4th, 19:25). Their next three finishers were just on the fringe of top 15 All-Region honors with Anna Carter (15th, 20:26), Katie Vann (16th, 20:31), and Carsen Wilkerson (17th, 20:31) to complete their team scoring and send them to the state meet as the top team representing Region III.
Erin Wheeler led the Northside girls to a runner-up finish with 78 points and only their school's second state meet appearance in 35 years. The Harrisonburg girls (3rd, 104 pts) bounced back from losing the Massanutten District title to Turner Ashby to grab a spot in the state meet with top runner Tabea Zimmerman returning back to top form to finish 7th individually in 19:59 and be followed closely behind by teammate Maria Rose (8th, 20:00). Wilson Memorial (4th, 139 pts) has only been competing in Group AA for a short time after competing as a Group A school for years, but now find themselves to be a Group AA state qualifying team for a second straight season with an underclassmen loaded lineup including four sophomores and a freshmen.
Based off district meet times alone, the William Byrd boys would not be the team considered to challenge for the team title. However, after running a difficult and slower district meet course, the William Byrd team relished in the opportunity to run fast at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds on Tuesday afternoon. Jefferson Forest boys had been the pre-meet favorites and defeated William Byrd decisively in their last matchup at the Runnin With The Wolves Rocktoberfest by 45 points. William Byrd did not run with their top runner Kevin O'Connor in that race though and inserting him back into the lineup made a huge difference to close the gap on Jefferson Forest. Both O'Connor (13th, 16:29) and Nick Leffell (4th, 16:09) finished among the top 15 to earn All-Region honors to lead William Byrd (91 pts) to a close nine point victory over Jefferson Forest (100 pts) in the 16 team regional field.
Outside of Blue Ridge District's William Byrd as the team champions, the Seminole District dominated the team standings with three of the four state meet qualifiers from the district with Jefferson Forest, Brookville (3rd, 160 pts), and E.C. Glass (4th, 175 pts) shutting out any teams from the Massanutten or Southern Valley districts from moving onto to Great Meadow. It was slightly surprising for neither Robert E. Lee (5th, 183 pts) or Rockbridge County (7th, 199 pts) to qualify after both Southern Valley District teams ran well and posted fast times at the regional preview race on the same course in the middle of October.
A sophomore is currently leading Region II with Skyline's Thomas Madden and now a tenth grader has ascended to become the best in Region III also. Broadway's Daniel Richards seems to have made the sophomore jump as he went from 21st place with a time of 18:18 at the regional meet (different course) as a freshmen to becoming to the Region III individual champion with a new personal best time of 15:54. Richards had a group of upperclassmen to deal with throughout the race with Staunton River junior Stuart Robertson (2nd, 15:58), Rustburg junior Kyle Bibler (3rd, 16:06), and William Byrd's Leffell, but was able to pull away late for a four second advantage by the finish line over Robertson.
Region III Championship Results: Boys Race - Girls Race