We are pleased to welcome once again all the competitors, coaches, parents and relatives of the runners and all other interested followers of cross country to the 13th Annual Glory Days Grill Invitational here at Bull Run Regional Park.
Everyone concerned with the meet are again looking forward to an exciting afternoon of racing with approximately 1,500 runners representing almost 60 schools, scheduled to compete in one of the nine races on Bull Run\'s 5,000 meter (3.1 mile) layout.
For those who have been to the meet in previous years, you will notice that the course has had to be altered somewhat due to construction in certain areas which were once part of the course. Meet management has made as little change as possible to the original design of the course, but did have to make some alterations to maintain the length of 5,000 meters and to also keep the venue as much, or even more spectator friendly than it has been in previous years.
For those first time fans to the course, positioning yourself somewhere between the start and finish line area for the beginning of the races and then following the general flow of the crowd during the races should allow at least a half dozen times to be close to and encouraging, but please not impeding, any or all of the athletes competing.
The meet will once again try to fulfill high school runner and coaches needs with a variety of races scheduled. At each level of participation, the boys race will precede the girls race, beginning with the freshmen boys race at 11:30 a.m. The ninth grade races are important to many as the freshmen get to compete against their other first year peers.
The junior varsity races beginning at 12:30 p.m. benefit greatly the large number of hard working runners who are very involved in their school\'s distance running programs and like the freshmen races, can have an unlimited number of runners for each school.
The Varsity B races beginning at 2:30 p.m. will pit many of the schools with smaller enrollments against the second tier of the larger schools in the area and the Varsity Seeded races starting at 3:35 p.m. will highlight the days activities with many of the top individuals and teams in the greater metropolitan area squaring off.
This meet began in 1992 and was formerly known as the Bull Run Invitational at its inception, and for a few years beyond that. It has since become the Glory Days Grill Invitational due to the sponsorship of Glory Days Grill restaurants.
\"Glory Days\" is now in its seventh year of sponsoring the meet and restaurant co-founders Jeff Newman, Rich Danker and Bob Garner are once again pleased to be involved in the myriad of action and cooperation which is needed to pull off an event that has such a large number of people in attendance.
Jeff, Rich and Bob, along with the rest of the Glory Days staff, would like to thank in advance all of the volunteers involved in concessions, parking, results compilation and other necessary forms of meet management and would especially like to thank Mike Dobson, Mike Kiernan, Matt Murray, Matt Gilchrist and Scott Raczko for all of their extra time and help in putting on this meet each and every year.
VARSITY SEEDED PREVIEW: BOYS
Jefferson, always among the top area teams in recent years under coach Matt Ryan, won its first team title ever at Glory Days last year and come into the meet as favorites to repeat. The Colonials, one of the top ranked teams in the Southeast, were very impressive in winning the \"A\" Division race at last weekend\'s Octoberfest Invitational held at the Great Meadow course in The Plains. Jefferson is led by junior Paul Norland and senior Hersh Singh and had a forty five second spread between their first and fifth runners at Octoberfest.
Osbourn Park opened plenty of eyes last weekend in finishing second by just two points to Georgetown Prep in the seeded race at the William and Mary Invitational in Williamsburg. The Park has a very solid group led by Mitch Lopacki and Tyler Simmons and was impressive in having just a 20 second spread last week between their numbers one through five runners.
Oakton was the team champion two years ago and once again fields a very good squad headed by James Phillips and a consistently improving Matt Kroetch while West Springfield is fresh off a victory at the Salaesianum Invitational in Wilmington, Delaware.
Individually, senior Brad Siragusa of Chantilly is back to defend his title and is looking for his third individual victory of the season with previous wins at the Monroe Parker Invite and Octoberfest. Siragusa is known for having a very strong finish and if he runs in the style of last week where he made sure to stay close to the leaders from the start of the race, he will be tough to beat.
West Springfield junior Mike Spooner is expected to be one of Siragusa\'s main challenges. Spooner, the individual champion at Salaesianum, likes to take the race out hard and then makes sure to keep the pace honest throughout the race. Both Spooner and Siragusa seem capable of running in the 15:40 range if weather conditions are reasonable with a chance to move up on the Glory Days all time list.
Other top runners to watch include Ryan James of Gaithersburg, who was third at William and Mary; Chris Clark and Mark Hussa from Robinson, with the Rams capable of a top five team finish; junior Chris Tyson from Washington-Lee; West Potomac\'s Frank DeVar and John Boatner of Centreville.
GIRLS
Oakton is the defending team champion and will once again be one of the favorites led by senior Kayley Byrne. The Cougars will have plenty of competition just from their Concorde District counterparts Westfield and Fairfax.
Westfield won the Monroe Parker Invite a month ago in which neither Oakton or Fairfax chose to participate in the varsity section, so this should be the first matchup involving all three schools this season. Westfield was a strong second place to Blacksburg last week at Octoberfest led by Alexis Deegan while Fairfax was a solid third at the same meet with their number one runner being Anne-Marie Duncan.
Individually, Forest Park is entered and if Stefanie Slekis toes the line, she will be among the favorites as she has enjoyed a very good fall season thus far and was second at Great Meadow to Albemarle\'s Rachel Rose.
Erin Klein of Lake Braddock, the Monroe Parker champ, looks to bounce back with a good race this weekend and with Shelley Presley running well in the number two slot, the Bruins also look to close ground on Westfield and Fairfax after finishing just behind them at Octoberfest.
Other individuals expected to vie for a spot in the top ten include Stephanie Garcia of Broad Run, Kiersten Peterson from Potomac Falls, sophomores Danielle Canfield of T.C. Williams and Sarah Hadiji from W.T. Woodson and Stephany Reaves of Jefferson.
FURTHER REMINDERS
Concessions will be sold throughout the meet at the tables behind the press box area. There will also be a tent set up by the concession area for sales of tee shirts and hats. We appreciate the help and sponshorship of Nike in swooshing down to Manassas to help in that endeavor.
The team and individual awards ceremony will be at the pavilion down the hill and to the left of the press box area approximately fifteen minutes after the conclusion of the final race (Varsity Girls Seeded).
Please do not impede the progress of any of the runners during the race by being too close to the course\'s race line. This is important at all times and especially in the finish line area when some of the spectators invariably display a slight bit of overexuberance.
Team and individual results will be posted during the meet as soon as we have them. Complete results of all races will be sent to www.milestat.com immediately following the conclusion of the meet. We are certain that Brandon Miles will display his usual diligence in posting them on the net as soon as possible; if not by tonight, then by tomorrow morning.
Finally, please do not leave any trash discarded on the grounds of the park at any time during the meet. Mike Dobson has been working too hard these past two days to also have to be picking up other people\'s garbage as nightfall rapidly approaches.
Thanks in advance and good luck to all participants.