John Horst

Here are the all-time rankings on the boys side for 5K

Check out the Virginia boys' all-time performances at McAlpine Park.

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

The Liberty Christmas Invitational turned out to be the meet of the weekend as seven state best performances were found at the first annual meet. The Blacksburg girls (90 pts) and Hermitage boys (55 pts) won team titles as the Blackburg girls blew out the field with their dominance in the distance events and relays, while the Hermitage boys barely squeaked out the win over three other teams in the hunt.

The selection was very tough as always for the All-MileStat.com Team. As this cross country season like any other, anything can happen. What you expect to happens never seem to does and what happens you never would have expected. One week someone is hot, the next week that person is out of the picture. A star runner goes down, a newcomer comes out of nowhere. There were many deserving athletes to be on this list. Looking at this year\'s group, there are probably a dozen or so runners who are probably in a group of their own and then 3 dozen or more runners who could beat each other on any given day. Some of the runners missing from this list definitely deserve recognition for their fine seasons. Let these All-MileStat.com selections serve as a way to recognize the great accomplishments of the state\'s top athletes this fall, while serving as motivation and providing drive for those left off or returning next fall to strive for greater excellence in the future.

Midlothian girls (63 pts) simply destroy NTN southeast #4 ranked Oakton (115 pts) for the AAA girls\' state team title. A NTN berth would be well deserved for the Lady Trojans (19:09 team average) after such a dominating performance with four runners hovering in and out of All-State honors with M.C. Miller (11th, 18:52.33), Paige Johnston (14th, 18:56.08), Erin Stehle (16th, 19:04.06), and Samantha Dow (18th, 19:13.86). Anne Tenser (40th, 19:41.45) ran a solid fifth for Midlothian. Rachel Rose runs the second fastest time of the day to win the AAA girls\' race in 17:57.77. The fastest time of the day belonged to Northside\'s Catherine White as she defends her AA state crown in 17:48.66. AA runner-up Becky Stewart (18:32.38) leads her Brentsville squad (19:19 team average) to their first AA state crown by a 25 point margin over Blacksburg. Craig County senior Lori Crotts surprised everyone in winning the girls\' Group A race over her Region C rival Kelly Clark of Glenvar (2nd, 18:55.11) as she did it in convincing fashion with a time of 18:15.45. No shocker in the girls\' team scores for Group A as Clarke County won by a 63 point margin. The Group AAA boys race sees a crazy finish with Chantilly senior Brad Siragusa (15:21.64) finally come up big in his final state meet as he outkicks favored junior Mike Spooner of West Springfield (15:25.26) for the win. The team battle was pretty wild as well as a mere four points seperated the top three teams in state champion Oakton (95 pts), state runner-up Thomas Jefferson (16:20 average, 98 pts), and state third-place finisher Midlothian (99 pts). Abingdon sophomore Griff Graves (15:51.34) got the last laugh on Christiansburg senior John Horst (16:01.40) in winning the Group AA individual state crown, while the Brentsville boys (16:24 team average) had a dominating team showing with 63 points putting them well-ahead of runner-up Western Albemarle. The Clarke County boys certainly showed they belong ranked among the top teams in Group AA and AAA with a dual meet-like score of 20 points to win the Group A state title with nearly 7 all-state individuals with their top 7 all in the top 17 places. Clarke County junior Simon Biddle-Snead successfully defending his title in 16:09.19, while senior teammate Michael Leonard was the race runner-up in 16:29.75. More detailed state meet summary to come later.

Road racing in Virginia during the summer has become a place where high school runners test their training, race competitively, and enjoy the chance to race against some of the top

The River Ridge District from southwest Virginia is staking a claim as one of the best and most competitive AA districts in the Commonwealth. Numerous athletes from the River Ridge are on top of the double A rankings. Four of the State

The state of Virginia will be sending two representatives to this year\'s Foot Locker Nationals in Hayfield senior Melissa Dewey and Western Branch freshmen Aurora Scott. Dewey and Scott were among the top eight nationals bound finishers in the girls\' seeded race at the Foot Locker South Regional Meet held at McAlpine Greenway Park in Charlotte, North Carolina. Foot Locker South Photo Gallery by Lee Dick

The great thing about high school cross country is the fall colors. Take Wednesday\'s Region III championships at Green Hill Park, for instance. There was the maroon hair of Pulaski County\'s Will Frye and Lance McDaniel. There were the gray disguises worn by Jefferson Forest. However, in the long run the day belonged to the Blue Demons of Christiansburg on the boys\' side, the Blacksburg girls\' team and Northside\'s Catherine White.

The 14th annual Blue Demon Invitational, which was hosted by Christiansburg High School, has sent some strong messages regarding this year

The annual Draper Mile, held on a fast downhill course in Blacksburg, put out some impressive performances, but not by any high school or college athletes, instead by college and high school coaches! The runners at VMI, Virginia Tech, Christiansburg, Rockbridge, and Washington & Lee better be doing their training over the summer because their coaches sure are!

In the wake of Hurricane Isabel\'s destruction, many weekend invitationals were cancelled or postponed, but several invites in the Southwestern part of the state were able to go off as the area was not hit terribly hard by the storm.

The first true weekend of racing action for high schoolers kicked off with several in-state invitationals with plenty of top teams and individuals squaring off with one another in early season contests.

With over 800 cross -country runners competing in various varsity and developmental races, Radford University

There appears to be eight elite runners that should make All-State. However, the next seven spots are wide open. The race for the top spot looks to be a two-man race unless a dark horse emerges.