A group of Richmond Track & Field Club runners enjoying a photo opportunity with Olympic 1500 meter silver medalist Leo Manzano.
A contigent of Virginias competing for the Richmond Track & Field Club under the direction of Maggie Walker cross country and track coach Jim Holdren traveled all the way out to Alburquerque, New Mexico to compete at the USATF National Junior Olympics Cross Country Championships. Competing at altitude for the first time for many of these Richmond area runners (majority of team being made up Maggie Walker runners), a total of six Virginians earned All-American honors with top 25 finishes in their respective age group races. Leading the way with the top performance of the day belonged to Maggie Walker senior Rachel Galton. Galton was a USATF national runner-up in the young women's 5000 meter race in a time of 19:26.78. Also breaking into the top 25 in the same race with Galton was Patrick Henry senior Malina Richardson in 17th place (21:10.22).
The Strehler twins of Trinity Episcopal were USATF All-Americans in the young men's race with Virginia Independent Schools state champion Reider Strehler placing 13th in a time of 17:11.98, while VIS state runner-up Mac Strehler was 24th overall with his 17:20.55 effort. Maggie Walker had a total of three USATF All-Americans in New Mexico with young women's race runner-up Galton as well as Alex Flecksteinstein in the intermediate boys' race (17th, 17:11.98) and Daisy Banta in the intermediate girls' race (25th, 20:24.67).
USATF National Junior Olympics XC Championships Meet Page & Results