MECHANICSVILLE, VA -- Pole Green Park has never been kind to the Midlothian boys and girls\' cross country teams. In years\' past at the regional meet, the Trojans have had sub-par days and sometimes even just complete breakdowns at the 5K course found in Mechanicsville. However, a minor course change due to park scheduling conflicts, was enough to erase those bad memories as the girls dominated the region with four of the top five finishers, while the boys had their first regional individual champion on the four year old regional meet host site in sophomore Jason Witt (16:08). James River sophomore Kristen Wolfe was able to prevent a top four sweep from the Lady Trojans as she won the regional title in the second fastest time ever recorded on a Pole Green 5K course in 18:43 (Aurora Scott ran 18:13 earlier in the season). The Hermitage boys won their first regional title since 1979. John Vial was the team\'s top finisher in second at 16:23, but Alex Bowman had been the team\'s top runner and race leader down the final stretch on pace to possibly break 16 minutes, but collapsed and ended up gathering himself enough to cross the line in 16:29 for fifth place.
The Midlothian girls were an impressive sight throughout the race as a pack existed at the start behind wire to wire winner Wolfe and all the way to the finish. Midlothian junior M.C. Miller tried to give Wolfe an honest challenge early on, but ended up falling back with her team pack to finish third in 19:22 as teammates in sophomore Erin Stehle (4th, 19:24) and freshmen Paige Johnston (5th, 19:27) finished closed behind her. Sophomore Samantha Dow ran with the pack early on of Midlothian runners, but moved up in the latter portion of the race to take individual runner-up honors in 19:08. Midlothian nearly got five runners under 20 minutes on Pole Green, which has never been done on any course at the venue with freshmen Mariah Landry finished 10th overall in 20:01. Fellow freshmen Anne Tenser gave Coach Morgan\'s squad six runners earning All-Region honors in 15th place at 20:18, while sophomore Tierney Willard (19th, 20:31) finished not far behind in the seventh spot for the incredibly deep squad. Midlothian finished with an incredible low team score of 24 points and 61 points ahead of second-place Douglas Freeman. After both his boys and girls\' squads won regional crowns on Thursday at the Northern Region Meet, Oakton coach Scott Raczko was on hand at Pole Green Saturday to scout out the biggest threat to his team\'s state championship chances next weekend at Great Meadows. He certainly had to walk away from what he witnessed on Saturday knowing that a state title will not come easy with Central Region champions like the Midlothian girls and Hermitage boys.
The Douglas Freeman girls (85 pts), a team hampered by injuries this season, was able to come together at Pole Green on Saturday to take regional runner-up honors. Freshmen Jamie Machich was the Lady Rebels\' top finisher in sixth with a time of 19:36. Senior Christi Harsha, the defending 800 meter state champion, is one of the team\'s runners who has been missing in action due to injury, was able to earn All-Region honors in a time of 20:11 for 12th place. Teammate Meredith Cox was close behind in 14th with a 20:16 clocking, while sophomore Anne McKinnon just missed All-Region honors in 16th place (20:27).
The Maggie Walker girls (3rd, 91 pts) finished sixth points behind Freeman as they could have had a larger point swing themselves if they had not dealt with injuries of their own. The second fastest returnee from last year\'s Central Region Meet, Maggie Walker senior Samantha DeAlto, just recently got cleared to run after having to deal with a mid-season stress fracture. The loss of fitness from that time on the shelf showed as she finished 32nd overall in a time of 20:57 as the team\'s fifth runner. The team had two All-Region performers in senior Tracy Jennings (7th, 19:43) and sophomore Natalie Davis (9th, 19:58).
After taking third at their district meet, the James River girls were able to bounce back to take the final state qualifying meet spot with fourth place honors (155 pts). Senior Jenny Eisenberg (11th, 20:04) and sophomore Sarah Reid (13th, 20:14) joined regional champion teammate Wolfe on the All-Region squad.
The Midlothian boys finished a distant runner-up by 29 points with a team score of 74 points, but not so distant when you consider they sat out one of their top runners in sophomore Mark Merritt due to achilles problems. With Merritt in the line-up and running in the usual number three spot for the Trojans, a 30 point swing could be found. Merritt is slated to race in next week\'s state meet, which should make things very close and interesting between Midlothian and Hermitage as well as all four squads qualifying from the Northern Region Meet. Winning the region title as a sophomore, Jason Witt could accomplish something that has never been done in Central Region history in winning three consecutive regional individual titles for boys. Witt seized the lead from Bowman on the final stretch after Bowman seemed to be pulling away for a possible sub 16 clocking win when the Hermitage junior collapsed. Midlothian junior Jonathan Mellis ran solid as the team\'s number two runner to earn his second consecutive All-Region honor in a time of 16:28 for fifth. Junior Tommy Reese joined Witt and Mellis on the All-Region team with a PR run of 16:54, while sophomore Thomas Cole also stepped up with a PR day in 17:01. Junior Mike Waite was the team\'s fifth finisher in 48th place with a 17:44 clocking.
Led by a third place individual run by junior Andrew Duty (16:24), the Manchester boys (139 pts) edged just ahead of Maggie Walker (141 pts) for third place honors, while James River sat outside of the group of four going to states in fifth with 147 points.