Photo by Steve Lee of delawaretrackxc.com
Albemarle's Adam Visokay (2nd, 15:10) and Princess Anne's Matthew Schwartzer (5th, 15:20) qualify individually for the Nike Cross Nationals. Albemarle boys are the top finishing VA squad in 4th place followed by Stafford (12th), Blacksburg (22nd), Midlothian (27th).
Visokay, a senior at Albemarle, ran a personal best 5K time of 15:10 and fourth fastest time in Virginia this season behind only the three individual national qualifiers (Bile, McGorty, Madden) at Foot Locker South. While Visokay never really challenged the race winner Elliott Clemente from Florida, the defending Group AAA 3200 meter outdoor state champion, had another strong finish to his race to move ahead of the chase pack to take individual runner-up honors. Visokay did his job to try and bring along his Albemarle Patriots teammates for the trip to Portland, Oregon. Albemarle had two other runners break 16 minutes in sophomore Ryan Thomas (15:50) and senior Ben Deal (15:54), but after three runners struggled to match-up with the top two finishing squads to seriously contend for a national team berth.
Albemarle did however get the win in the last match-up of the season with their district rival Stafford, who defeated them for both regional and state titles in the last two races. The Stafford boys still riding high from their Group AAA state team championship from two weeks ago over Albemarle and the rest of the 16 team field, ended up a disappointing 12th place at NXN Southeast. They had an off day from one of their top runners in Joey Abbatiello, who ran over a minute off his season best, which buried them back in the team standings. Nonetheless, a great season for the Indians for becoming state champions.
Also competing as full squads at NXN Southeast in the championship race were the Group AA state champions Blacksburg (22nd), private school Division 1 state champions Trinity (25th), and last year's NXN Southeast champions Midlothian (27th).
Adding an exclamation point on an already breakthrough season was Princess Anne senior Matthew Schwartzer, who after maintaining an undefeated season up until the state meet (placed 4th in the AAA state race), has extended his stellar fall by qualifying for the Nike Cross Nationals next weekend. Schwartzer was part of the chase pack following race leader Clemente and able to secure his national berth with a personal best time of 15:20 for fifth place. Schwartzer is the first runner from the Eastern Region to qualify for a national championship race since Matt Keally of Ocean Lakes competed at the Foot Locker Nationals in 2001. The state of Virginia has not gone too many years recently without a team qualifier in Oregon, but at least will have four individuals including girls' qualifiers Hidden Valley's Carolyn Bethel and Midlothian's Kara Dickerson along with Albemarle's Visokay and Princess Anne's Schwartzer.
NXN Southeast - Championship Boys Results