Casey Lardner

Here are the top 1,000 girls times from the Great Meadow non-state meet course.

MileStat.com visited one of Virginia's most storied and successful cross country programs, Lake Braddock, on Monday at Burke Lake Park for the team's final workout prior to their big trip to California to compete at the Stanford Invitational against many of the top teams from one of the strongest cross country states in the country. Their workout broke up the historic Burke Lake 2.98 mile park into segments by running the first mile hard and then breaking up the rest of the course into 400 meter segments switching on and off with hard and recovery pace running. The Lake Braddock girls are the defending Group AAA state champions and the storied programs has won more state cross country titles than any other program spanning several decades of team and individual champions. The squad is currently led by potentially the most talented runner to ever come out of the program in sophomore Sophie Chase. Chase's remarkable freshmen year, which included a state title indoors and posting the fastest freshmen times ever by a Virginia high school distance runner in the 1600 and 3200 meter run, made her an easy choice to enter this season as the top ranked runner in the state of Virginia. Her talent is topped by her work ethic and desire to be great, which coupled together makes her a special individual athlete. At Stanford, Chase will be facing many of Cali's best including returning Foot Locker West champion and one of the nation's top ranked runners in Molly Grabill. Despite graduating several key members of their 2009 Group AAA state champion squad, do not be surprise to find the Lake Braddock girls as a state meet podium once again this November either as a top 3 finishing squad or state champions. Behind individual favorite Chase, a formidable top five is coming together with veterans Casey Lardner, Tara Landy, and Anna Markowitz as well as two exceptional ninth graders Hannah Christen and Katie Roche. Not to be overshadowed by their female counterparts after just missing the state meet podium with a fourth place finish at the 2009 state cross country meet are the Lake Braddock boys. Luke Sohl and Sam Rubenking have been inseparable since their freshmen year when the coaching staff noticed both as the top talents in their class and both enter their senior years with big goals of being two of the best in the Northern Region and led their team to another state meet. Rubenking has already garnered two strong runner-up finishes this season at Monroe Parker Invite and =PR= Kickoff Relays, while Sohl was racing and finishing right with some of the state's top ranked runners including Atlee's Andrew Catanese on first leg at the Sportsquest Relays this past weekend. Lake Braddock coach Mike Mangan is one of the longest tenured coaches now in the Northern Region as several of the region's top coaches have retired in recent years, so Mangan's experience and knowledge has helped continue the rich tradition of success for the Lake Braddock program within the competitive region. Coach Mangan has also assembled a large and great staff of coaches around him including former Gar-Field and Christiansburg coach Jeff Custer who coached Olympian Sheena Johnson, Lake Braddock's 2003 Group AAA state outdoor 3200 champion Steve Hoogland who also ran at the College of William & Mary, as well as other assistant coaches.   The Warmup Workout Video: Mile Hard, 400s On/Off, Trestle Finishes Interview w/ Sophie Chase, Casey Lardner, & Anna Markowitz Interview w/ Luke Sohl & Sam Rubenking Interview w/ coaches Mike Mangan & Jeff Custer

MileStat.com will be visiting various schools in Northern Virginia this week in the second round of pre-season team practices that we will be touring this month. We hope that you all are enjoy bringing you these visits as we show you how many of the top programs and individuals in the state train as well as how each program can does thing differently yet all be successful. Each visit also includes Interviews with the head coaches providing insight on their team and outlook for the upcoming season and also getting to know the top individual runners and leaders on these squads.   On Tuesday, we will be visiting the West Potomac boys and girls teams which begin a new chapter of the program with longtime coach Don Beeby retiring after getting both teams over the hump last year and qualifying the boys and girls to the state meet through the always competitive Northern Region Meet. Former Robert E. Lee runner Jenn Dietz takes over the head position with a very deep boys squad, which she was instrumental in developing during the past track seasons as well as a girls squad looking to build around their two key returnees from their 9:22 4x800 in Sarah Jane Underwood and Dale Lescher with four others who ran at least 5:35 or faster for 1600 meters this past spring.   The West Potomac boys have three sub 10 minute 3200 guys in Brady Corum (9:42), Mark Hanak (9:52 - pictured left by Ted Plunkett), and Ben Alexio (9:54) as well as a 4:35 1600 performer as a freshmen in Marc Lotterie and two more sub 4:40 runners in Khoki Bernier and Corey Rosenberg.     On Thursday, MileStat.com will be checking out the Colonial Forge boys and girls squads who had one of more impressive track seasons with their returnees than almost any program in the state with their shear depth. The Colonial Forge girls have an entire top seven who ran under 12 minutes for 3200 meters in the recent 2010 outdoor season with Hannah Somers (11:28), Shaina Manuel (11:28), Jenna Walker (11:43), Alyssa Devane (11:46), Lauren Benoit (11:53), Colleen Wade (11:53), Mackenzie McDonald (11:54), and Sara Myers (11:58).   The Colonial Forge boys definitely expect to show much better than their 13th place finish at last year's state cross country meet as the only team in the state with four runners back who have ran under 9:50 for 3200 meters in David Pennesi (9:32 - pictured left by Frank Locascio), Jordanis Lozier (9:39), Brian O'Loughlin (9:40), and David Klimek (9:49). The Eagles are guided by two young coaches and two of their program's all-time greats in 2003 graduates Michael Porter and Sean Leyh. Colonial Forge is capable of having two teams on the podium this November at Great Meadow with the boys as serious contenders for the state title.

The Potomac River Running Holiday Invitational, hosted on its rescheduled snow date of December 26th, had two state leading performances produced by Stafford freshmen Hannah Lowery in the girls distance races and South Lakes senior senior Adrian Vaughn in the boys' sprints. 

Great American: A significant day for Virginia girls teams in putting the state on the national map for the 2009 cross country season as three of the top five teams in the Race of Champions were from the state in runner-up Blacksburg (116 pts), third place Midlothian (130 pts), and fifth place Hidden Valley (137 pts).   Octoberfest: The top ranked boys individual and team in Group AAA went down at Great Meadow with Centreville's Yazid Zouaimia and the Mountain View boys (pictured left by Nicoll Knudsen) defeating #1 ranked Kevin Dowd of Fairfax and the Grassfield boys. Kaitlyn Davis and Katherine Walker had a great Northwest Region duel with Davis picking up the win. West Potomac girls won by a wide margin.   Results from elsewhere: Andrew McCullen and the Oakton boys had very impressive 2nd place finishes at Wendy's with McCullen (pictured by Ken Charnock, LandsharkPhotos.com) losing the individual title at the line with VA's fastest 5K time of 15:18. At the flrunners.com Invitational, the Lake Braddock girls take second place honors in the Race of Champions behind Winter Park of Florida with 114 points. In Greensboro, the Lee-Davis girls repeated as team champions at the Hagan Stone Park Classic with 3 runners among the top 5.