Chase shatters meet record in 17:23!
Photos by Jon Fleming
After going through an already brisk first mile with a loaded field in the varsity A race including last year's race champion and course record holder Megan Moye of Cosby, Lake Braddock junior Sophie Chase took it to another notch in the second mile to run well under 11 minutes at 3200 meters. Chase slowed a tad in the final mile, but not by much as she rolled out an dominating 18 second victory with a new meet record performance of 17:23. Her time is the fastest 5K time in Virginia this fall.
Last year's meet champion Megan Moye, actually bettered her meet record time from a year ago for second place in 17:40. Joining Chase and Moye under 18 minutes on the Pocahontas State Park 5K course were Ocean Lakes senior Audrey Batzel (3rd, 17:57) and one of North Carolina's best in Darby Middlebrook (4th, 17:58) of Watauga. Following the top four finishers was a battle between three super sophomores in James Robinson's Macey Schweikert (5th, 18:01), Hanover's Molly Breidenbaugh (6th, 18:10), and Lake Braddock's Hannah Christen (7th, 18:12). Schweikert did not run cross country last fall as a freshmen, but has caught up quickly over the track season and this fall on the leading runners in her grade in Virginia.
Blacksburg girls did not have a single individual among the top 15, but a wave of four runners came shortly after that in Kate Buss (16th, 18:58), Claire Ewing-Nelson (20th, 19:09), Jennifer Fleming (22nd, 19:14), Hannah Brown (26th, 19:22) to claim the team title ahead of a hard fought tiebreaker battle for second between Thomas Jefferson (2nd) & Ocean Lakes (3rd) with both teams tallying 162 points. Blacksburg notched a significant win and confidence builder heading into championship season in topping a field including a handful of AAA state meet podium hopefuls in TJ, Ocean Lakes, Lake Braddock (4th), and Maggie Walker (7th). Watuaga, the first out-of-state school to attend the MileStat.com Invitational, is currently ranked #5 in North Carolina's largest classification (4A), which was ironically their team finish on Saturday. The Ocean Lakes girls were impressive in only losing as sixth runner tiebreaker for second place to Thomas Jefferson, despite running without one of their top runners in sophomore Olivia Bethune.
The boys' race held together in a tigh pack approaching the two mile mark before Blacksburg's Nick Link made a charge up the hill at two miles to try and separate himself from a field of challengers. Link held onto the lead until the final stretch when Princess Anne's Matthew Schwartzer reeled him in to continue his undefeated streak this cross country season with a personal best time of 15:31. Trailing not far behind Schwartzer and Link (2nd, 15:32) were Lake Braddock junior Nick Tuck (3rd, 15:34) and Albemarle senior Adam Visokay (4th, 15:38) both under 15:40. Already a favorite within the Eastern Region, Schwartzer's streak of invitational victories has to insert him now among a short list of contenders to defending Group AAA state champion Ahmed Bile of Annandale.
Visokay's VA #1 ranked Albemarle squad were upset by their district rivals from Stafford High School, who successfully repeated as MileStat.com Invitational champions after an excellent start to establish themselves early in the race. Stafford averaged 16:09 as a squad with three runners under 16 minutes and among the top 10 finishers in Greg Bohmke (5th, 15:45), Ian Macleod (6th, 15:46), and Joey Abbatiello (9th, 15:57). Three of the top 5 teams could be state champion squads next month with Albemarle (2nd) and Stafford (1st) as two of the top contenders in Group AA, Blacksburg (3rd) as the top ranked and defending champions in Group AA, and Trinity (5th) as the top ranked and defending champions in the private schools.
More to come from the MileStat.com Invite including full meet summary, photo gallery, and race videos!
Results
- JV Boys #1
- JV Boys #2
- JV Girls #1
- JV Girls #2
- Middle School Boys
- Middle School Girls
- Varsity A Boys
- Varsity A Girls
- Varsity B Boys
- Varsity B Girls
Chase shatters meet record in 17:23!
Photos by Jon Fleming