Forest Park senior Stefanie Slekis was a convincing winner in the girls\' race as she won by 33 seconds over Oakton\'s Kayley Byrne (19:12.25) in a time of 18:38.55.
Byrne was the lone top 15 finisher for the Lady Cougars, a team which had high expections leading into this season. Rounding out the third place finishing Oakton squad\'s top five were Rebecca Berlin (18th, 20:20.24), Carly Hudson (20th, 20:26.96), Meredith Tighe (24th, 20:42.47), and Hallie Eilerts (29th, 20:56.92).
The Brentsville girls actually had a really good team showing. It just so happened that Midlothian is a surprisingly a lot stronger than people had previously though. The Lady Tigers were especially strong through four runners and matched up even a little better than Midlothian through four with Becky Stewart as the top team finisher and Julia Mitchell (13th, 20:08.02), Alex Kulifay (15th, 20:11.30), and Lauren Bussian (19th, 20:25.59) also had solid top 20 finishes. However, with fifth runner Stephanie Hutson in 39th place at 21:24.42, Midlothian was able to put six and almost seven runners ahead of Brentsville\'s fifth to take the team title.
The Brentsville boys, a NTN SE #3 squad, also were upset at Great Meadows as the defending Group AA state champions (82 pts) finished second to the Oakton boys (70 pts). The Oakton boys were led by race champion James Phillips who had a strong individual run of 15:54.71 to win the boys\' 5K race. Matt Kroetch (5th, 16:24.54), Tommy Mason (14th, 16:46.04), and Alex Nissen (19th, 16:56.66) also had great individual races for Oakton with top 20 finishers. Russell Fielding (31st, 17:30.22) ran in the fifth spot for the squad, while teammate Scott Maxfield (32nd, 17:30.88) was just a step behind him.
Brentsville still looked very strong as a team despite taking second place honors. Nick Gehlsen (4th, 16:21.10), Adam Henken (7th, 16:26.37), and Henry Melius (12th, 16:41.05) were a solid front three for the Tigers, while Ray Delgado (29th, 17:21.66) and Eric Ekholm (30th, 17:22.59) rounded out the scoring five for the squad. Brentsville still looks clearly like the team to beat by far in Group AA as shown by finishing well ahead of a Jamestown squad (4th, 115 pts) that looks like the Region I team title favorite and a contender as a top three state meet podium finisher. The Jamestown boys could possibly even be the second best team in Group AA if they keep up the pace they have been setting early on as at Great Meadows they had a solid five with Kirk Aldridge (15th, 16:48.77), Tom Horley (16th, 16:53.11), Andrew Mearns (21st, 17:00.63), Raymond Hutchinson (28th, 17:20.42), and John Holt (35th, 17:33.76).
The Jamestown boys were edged out by one point from third place on Saturday by Midlothian as Coach Morgan appears to have put together yet another strong Trojans squad after last year\'s squad was the first Midlothian squad in six years not to finish top three at the state meet. Midlothian certainly has one of the stronger top three\'s in the state with sophomores Jason Witt (8th, 16:33.32) and Mark Merritt (10th, 16:38.09) and junior Jonathan Mellis (11th, 16:40.62). The team\'s success later in the season will rely though on how strong the team is in the number four and five positions. Tommy Reese (27th, 17:18.65) had a solid run as Midlothian\'s fourth man on Saturday, but fifth runner Mike Waite (60th, 18:20.01) killed any chances of Midlothian finishing closer to Oakton and Brentsville as the squad lost nearly 30 points alone at the fifth spot to both teams.