Scott, White, and Siragusa qualify for Foot Locker Nationals

Scott finishing. Photo by Jesse Hutcheson of linktrackphotos.com

CHARLOTTE, NC -- Aurora Scott, Catherine White, and Brad Siragusa have alll punched their tickets to San Diego for Foot Locker Nationals with top ten finishes at the Foot Locker South regional meet in Charlotte, North Carolina. Scott, who qualified as a freshmen last year for Foot Locker Nationals, will be making her second trip to San Diego with a third place finishing time of 17:15. White, the two-time Group AA state champion from Northside, will be making her first appearance at Foot Locker Nationals as a junior with a sixth place clocking time of 17:19. Group AAA state champion Brad Siragusa of Chantilly qualified for Foot Locker Nationals by finishing sixth in the boys\' seeded race with a personal best time of 15 flat.

Siragusa with Coach Gilchrist. Photo by Jesse Hutcheson of linktrackphotos.com Siragusa ended a two year drought of Virginian boys failing to send a representative to Foot Locker Nationals as Fork Union\'s Kippy Keino was the state\'s last qualifier in 2002. In typically Siragusa racing fashion, he sat back in early and middle portions of the race and put forth a strong kick around the lake to move from 11th to 6th place and earn his way to San Diego.

Despite finally getting an individual qualifier, Virginia was lacking in depth this year though in comparison to year\'s pass as only Siragusa and Oakton\'s Matt Kroetch earned All-South honors as the Cougars senior finished 23rd in a time of 15:31. The Northern Region was well represented in not only Foot Locker Nationals qualifier Siragusa and All-South performer Kroetch, but with the next four Virginian finishers also coming from the region in Herndon junior Abe Dagnachew (32nd, 15:39), Oakton senior James Phillips (35th, 15:41), West Springfield junior Mike Spooner (39th, 15:45), and Herndon junior Ermin Mujezinovic (46th, 15:52) all going under 16 minutes on the McAlpine Greenway course.

Foot Locker was clearly an off-day for Spooner who had been a strong contender coming into the race as a possible top ten Foot Locker Nationals qualifier as he was defeated by three regional rivals who he had beaten all season.

The seventh finisher for Virginia in the seeded boys race was two-time Group A state cross country champion and Clarke County junior Simon Biddle-Snead as he had a strong showing to run his first sub 16 clocking with a time of 15:55 for 53rd place.

Bouncing back from his collapse and hospital visit at the state meet, Culpeper senior and Virginia Tech bound Devin Cornwall had a solid run to finish 55th in a time of 15:56, but he clearly was not in his early season form which found him ranked number one in the state and a possible Foot Locker Nationals qualifier.

White in the signing tent. Photo by Jesse Hutcheson of linktrackphotos.com For the second consecutive year, the state of Virginia is sending a duo of girls to Foot Locker Nationals. Last year, Hayfield\'s Melissa Dewey and Western Branch\'s Aurora Scott qualified for Foot Locker Nationals. This year, Aurora Scott (now at Oaktree Academy) will be returning to San Diego for a second trip along with two-time Group AA state cross country champion and Northside junior Catherine White. The girls\' race stayed tight and congested till the end as nine seconds separated seventh place finisher White (17:19) from race winner Nichole Jones (17:10) of Texas.

The state showed plenty of depth in the seeded girls\' race with 22 girls under 19 minutes on the 5K course and a total of nine runners in the top 50 with Martinsville senior Anna Chase (31st, 18:14), Colonial Forge sophomore Kaylan Comer (33rd, 18:15), Lake Braddock senior Erin Klein (38th, 18:26), Oakton senior Kayley Byrne (42nd, 18:27), Forest Park senior Stefanie Slekis (44th, 18:28), Blacksburg senior Ariel Burbey (48th, 18:32), and Craig County senior Lori Crotts (49th, 18:33).

Miller leading the junior race. Photo by Jesse Hutcheson of linktrackphotos.com The Midlothian girls proved for the second time in the most important month of cross country, November, that then can run well when it matters. After being passed over for Nike Team Nationals despite a dominating state meet performance, the Midlothian girls took their entire top seven to race individually in the non-seeded races at Foot Locker South to make a statement and they certainly did that. Midlothian junior M.C. Miller won the junior/senior girls race in a time of 18:47, while sophomore Samantha Dow was the first Virginian finisher and had the fastest time of the day on the team finishing sixth in the freshmen/sophomore girls\' race in a time of 18:43. Also racing in the freshmen/sophomore race were Midlothian sophomore Erin Stehle (12th, 19:07), freshmen Paige Johnston (19th, 19:25), freshmen Mariah Landry (23rd, 19:28), freshmen Anne Tenser (55th, 20:09), and sophomore Tierney Willard (67th, 20:24). With all seven runners returning and sophomore Christine Selander coming back as she ran her first race of the year at Foot Locker (20:52) as a stress fracture sat her out this fall, the Midlothian girls should be in tougher next year.

Porter winning the freshmen race. Photo by Jesse Hutcheson of linktrackphotos.com Virginia had another class race winner in freshmen Thomas Porter of Mountain View. Porter has had a sensational freshmen year of cross country including an All-State performance two weekends ago and added a race victory at Foot Locker to his credentials as he crossed the line first in the freshmen boys race with an impressive 15:46 clocking.

Virginia definitely has a strong pipeline of young talent to replace the current top stars with Porter and Clarke County freshmenBen Veilleux, who posted a time of 16:12 to finish third in the freshmen race.

In the junior boys\' race, a cluster of Virginians finished within close distance of one another to allow them to finish second in the team scoring behind Texas with Marion\'s Jason Yonts (5th, 16:02), Fort Defiance\'s Daniel Alonso (6th, 16:05), Cox\'s Eddie Judge (8th, 16:09), Colonial Forge\'s Blake Arnold (9th, 16:12), and Manchester\'s Andrew Duty (12th, 16:16).

No other state stood in the way of the Virginians in the senior race as they won with ease by having five runners in the top ten with Nottoway\'s Skeeter Morris (16:02) leading the way in third place. Finishing behind Morris from Virginia were Fort Defiance\'s Derek Hizer (4th, 16:04), Osbourn Park\'s Mitchell Lopacki (5th, 16:07), Fort Defiance\'s Matt Bailey (7th, 16:10) and Gonzaga\'s Matt Chandler (10th, 16:19). Gonzaga is a Washington D.C. private school, but Chandler resides in Virginia and thus counted towards the state team scoring.

The most impressive Team Virginia showing though came in the junior/senior girls\' race with five of the top six finishers coming from the state with race winner Miller of Midlothian, Colonial Forge junior Molly Hawkins (2nd, 18:50), Jefferson Forest senior Lisa MacPherson (3rd, 18:51), Fairfax junior Jessica Trapeni (5th, 19:08), and Lake Braddock junior Michelle Presley (6th, 19:09).

Midlothian sophomore Jason Witt was the state\'s top finisher in the sophomore boys\' race with a 16:06 clocking for third place honors. His time ranks him third in the Witt family at McAlpine with older brothers Ryan (15:51, 2003), and Kurt (16:04, 2004) having posted faster times. However, he does have two more years to outdo both.