The 46th annual Virginia Independent Schools State Cross Country Championships will be held on Friday at the Woodberry Forest School in Orange County. A group of seniors for the Bishop O'Connell girls will be attempting to win their fourth straight state team title together, while the one point differential between the Trinity boys and the defending state champions Woodberry Forest at last week's Prep League Championships foreshadows a great team battle to be revisited at the state meet.
Coached by Cindy Walls, the Bishop O'Connell girls should be heavily favored to win their fourth consecutive state titles. The team has been ranked consistently among the top 10 in the state of Virginia for the entire fall with a stellar front three in Sarah McCarthy, Devin Nihill, and Emily Blagg leading out front. O'Connell is capable of sweeping the top three places individually with the trio who have all ran under 19 minutes for 5K this season. The O'Connell senior McCarthy will be the individual favorite to win the Division 1 race after an impressive season to this point including an 18:18 5K performance at the Wendy's Invitational and recently winning the WCAC title. She figures to finish much higher than her race last year at Woodberry Forest, which she finished 81st overall with a time of 24:59. Blagg and Nihill had finished third and fourth respectively in the 2009 state race. O'Connell won the state team crown last year with 41 points and looks to post an even lower team score this year with six girls ranked among the top 12 in Division 1 with the Stumvoll twins Ashley and Brittany as well as sophomore Taylor Chamness capable of top 15 finishes individually as well.
St. Catherine's and Episcopal appear to be the two teams will racing for second place again following a heavy favored Bishop O'Connell 4-peat. The St. Catherine's girls were the 2009 runners-up and 47 points ahead of third place Episcopal, but a much closer team outcome is expected on Friday with an improved Episcopal squad. In their only head-to-head matchup this season on the same course used for the state meet at the Woodberry Forest Invitational, the Episcopal girls defeated St. Catherine's by 40 points. Both teams are coming off strong wins at their conference meet. The Episcopal girls inserted 6 runners among the top 15 at the ISL Championships, while the St. Catherine's girls accomplished the same feat with six girls earning All-LIS honors through top 15 individual finishes. Taylor Clevinger and Ali Doswell went 1-2 at the LIS Championships for St. Catherine's and an eighth grader in Keeilah Moseley stepped up in the number three spot with fourth place finish under 21 minutes. Episcopal's only senior is their varsity lineup is their seventh runner, so their ISL champion should be very competitive next year as well. Top runners for the team are junior Alessandra Gavin and sophomore Elizabeth Spruill, but their top five is not set in stone as earlier in the season sophomores Abby Halm and Virginia Wright ran well at the Wodberry Forest Invite with top 20 finishes.
The only two runners among the Division I girls who seem capable of breaking up a Bishop O'Connell sweep are the Bishop Sullivan duo in junior Taryn Schrader and freshmen Hannah Frazier. Schrader and Frazer have been finishing 1-2 in races all season long including the Virginia Catholic Schools State Meet and TCIS Championships last Friday. Both have dipped under 19 minutes in several races this season with season bests of 18:29 for Frazier and 18:30 for Schrader.
Other top individuals include Paul VI junior Meghan Blackstone, Flint Hill senior Katy Solas, and 2009 Division I state runner-up Julia Sroba of Collegiate.
The Woodberry Forest boys are doing their typical late season surge and despite losing the Prep League title to Trinity by one point, Coach Hale's squad is in great position on their home course to win a third straight VIS Division I team title. Woodberry Forest had been missing their top runner and pre-season top ranked Kevin Bennert for most of the season due to stress fracture injury, but Bennert's gutsy return at the Prep League Championships to finish third gave his team a needed jolt for championship season. A senior heavy group makes up Woodberry Forest's top five with Bennert, Thomas Garrison, Josh Trudgeon, and Matthews Laws as only junior Addison Winston will be back in the fall of 2011. With Bennert not at top fitness, the pack is much closer as only 16 seconds separated their scoring five at the Prep League Championships.
Trinity boys won their first Prep League title since 1981 in a hard fought battle with Woodberry Forest and now will be attempting to go for their first state title under the guidance of Coach Marcus Jones. A remarkable fact is there is not a single senior among their top ten runners with junior and Prep League runner-up Guy Shelby leading the Titans. Shelby with a 16:06 5K season best, will look to rebound from being dropped considerably by Collegiate junior Scott Newton at Prep Leagues and potentially be in contention late for the individual title. Trinity is the only private school team, which has an entire top five who has broken 17 minutes for 5K this season with Shelby, Mac Strehler (16:42), Reider Strehler (16:43), Alden Knipe (16:48), and Chris Cantone (16:56). Part of the reason why Trinity has been ranked among the top 15 teams in the state regardless of classification at various times during the season.
Bishop Ireton and Episcopal should battle for the third place team trophy. Ireton won their second straight Catholic Schools state title with a tight pack performance and despite not having a runner who has broken 17 minutes for the 5K this season, Liam O'Connor and Michael Andersen are capable of breaking into the top 10 individually and top 15 at least. Episcopal boys finished third in a competitive IAC Championships, while senior Reid Nickle won the individual title by two seconds with a 16:34 performance. Nickle finished fifth in the 2009 state meet and raced well against Trinity's Guy Shelby at Great American when he finished ahead of Shelby with a season best time of 16:13.
Nickle expected to be contending for the state title this fall after taking runner-up at the VISAA State Indoor Championships last February with personal bests of 4:24 in the 1600 and 2:34 in the 1000. Collegiate junior Scott Newton had similar expectations based of his track performances after running a 9:33 for 3200 last spring, but had started off slow this fall coming back from a summer injury. Newton hit his stride at the Prep League Championships by breaking away from two of the best private school runners in Shelby and Bennert for a 16:10 PR win. The junior Newton earned the top ranking heading into this meet, but Nickle, Shelby, and Bennert all expect to challenge.
The St. Anne's-Belfield girls will be in the driver seat to win their second consecutive Division 2 state team title after finishing second at the LIS Championships to Division 1 school St. Catherine's. Two underclassmen in freshmen Megan Pritchard and sophomore Sam Moore are the top runners for the defending Division 2 champs with season best times just under 21 minutes. The Division 2 race will be very competitive among girls' individuals as a group of four individuals who could have finished high in the Division I race will join two top returnees from last year in 2009 state runner-up Bethany Barclay of Norfolk Christian and third place finisher Alicia Fox of Covenant. Barclay finished fifth in a loaded TCIS race behind Bishop Sullivan's Schrader and Frazier as well as another tandem in Katelyn Mccracken and Maya Venkataraman. Mccracken and Venkataraman will both be featured in the Division II race. Venkatarman is only an eighth grader.
Stonebridge senior Emily Dinning and Denbigh freshmen Madison Strickland both have dropped fast times on fast courses this season with Dinning at 18:51 and Strickland at 19 flat from their performances at the Norfolk Academy course, but both will need to prove they can run fast on a challenging course at Woodberry Forest. Strickland had a much faster time than most of her competitors entering last year's Division II race, but ended up sixth with a time of 22:01.
The Peninsula Catholic boys are expected to repeat as Division 2 champions with another team who relies not on any star runners, but a team of depth and numbers to beat their competition. Peninsula Catholic finished second to Division 1 school Bishop Ireton at the Catholic Schools State Championship last month with six top 15 finishers.
Broadwater Academy senior Van Lewin has an opportunity to become his school's first state champion in the Division II race. Lewin has been consistently running under 17 minutes this season with a Division 2 leading 16:40 season best. Richmond Christian senior Josh McNamara has been racing in the middle of pack against top public school runners the past few season at L.C. Bird, but now will be racing up front for an individual title. McNamara ran well last time at Woodberry Forest with an eighth place 17:36 performance at the Woodberry Forest Invite. Several of the top finishers from the TCIS Championships will be in the Division 2 state race with the Norfolk Collegiate pair Ryan Lanoue and Devin Tupper as well as Walsingham Academy's Adam Link. Lanoue and Tupper are no strangers to first places finishes as have both won several small invitationals this season, while Link finished in between the two in the TCIS race with a fourth place effort.