Barbara Strehler

 More than 80 schools will be represented at Saturday's William & Mary Invitational as many outstanding cross country runners and teams from Virginia, Maryland, DC, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and North Carolina will be spread out among the three varsity race divisions. Leading the individuals will be newly minted stars with Foot Locker South rankings in Virginia private school runners Johns Ross (pictured above by Linda D'Amato) of The Potomac School and Barbara Strehler of Trinity. The Jamestown boys will be the overwhelming team favorites with none of their fellow NTN regionally ranked Virginia squads present to take on the NTN Southeast #3 ranked Eagles on their home course at Eastern State Hospital. Meanwhile, Eastern Region title contenders in the Western Branch and Ocean Lakes girls look to clash for the first time this season with several Northern Virginia teams looking to make things interesting.

 Among the 24 runners featured in MileSplit US national editor Scott Bush's Foot Locker South Region Power Rankings, one-third of the listed runners come from the Commonwealth with five Virginian boys and three Virginian girls. Griff Graves of Abingdon leads the boys with a #4 ranking as he is followed by #5 Jason Witt of Midlothian, #6 Peter Dorrell of Blacksburg, and #8 Thomas Porter of Mountain View. Making his first splash into the rankings as a Foot Locker contender is Potomac School's Johns Ross at #12. Another private school runner has made an impression with her recent performances to earn a #9 ranking among the South Region girls with Trinity junior Barbara Strehler, a 35 second winner at Woodberry Forest over a returning All-South performer in Liz Barclay of Albemarle. Two other Virginians ranked with Strehler are defending FL South champion Aurora Scott at #2 and Chantilly junior Lia DiValentin rounding out the top 12 rankings. MileSplit's Foot Locker Power Rankings - South Region

After picking up a huge win at the Notre Dame Peoria Invitational held at the Illinois state meet course at Detweiler Park, Abingdon senior Griff Graves (pictured right by John Herzog) has taken over as the #1 ranked runner in Virginia from Peter Dorrell of Blacksburg. Graves clocked in at 14:19 on the three mile course over strong competition including Foot Locker contender Kevin Havel. Meanwhile, Dorrell opened his season up at the Knights Crossing Invitational with a 15:37 5K win, which included four runners ranked in the top 15 this week including #10 Tim Smith, #14 Nathan Brame, and #15 Brian Landry. The anticipation continues to build for Maymont and the pending battle with Graves, Dorrell, Witt, Porter, and others as the event is now less than two weeks away. Landry's TJ squad made the largest jump in the team rankings as they ran at full strength for the first time to move from 10th to 4th in Virginia. Coaches took notice of Barbara Strehler's decisive 35 second win at Woodberry Forest over previous #2 ranked Liz Barclay with the defending private school state champion now as the second ranked runner in Virginia behind Aurora Scott.

Thankfully for Albemarle's Liz Barclay, the road to a Group AAA state cross country title does not run through the Woodberry Forest course or Trinity junior Barbara Strehler (pictured left by David Fleenor). As this past Saturday showed at the Woodberry Forest Invite, both are formidable obstacles as the top ranked private school runner (#15 in Virginia) in Strehler defeated the top ranked AAA ranked runner (#2 in Virginia) in Barclay by a sizeable 35 second margin. Strehler clocked in at 19:11, while Barclay finished a distant second in 19:35 as Trinity also beat out Albemarle for second place as a team with 96 points. The Chancellor girls took home first place hardward quite easily with five runners among the top 15 finishers as their top finishers were Elisa Zappas (5th, 20:53), Sam Huffman (6th, 20:56), Leah Schubel (9th, 21:23), Peyton Lowe (11th, 21:34), and Theresa Basilica (15th, 22:09). The Albemarle boys (43 pts) were on the other end of surprises as they used a 49 second spread among their top five to upset of Virginia's #7 ranked squad in Fork Union (2nd, 56 pts) with Luke Noble as Coach Buz Male's top finisher in third at 17:01. Coach Male appears to know how to have his troops ready to compete at Woodberry Forest as while coaching at Miller School last fall, his team finished second on a sixth man tiebreaker for the Division II title. Fork Union was led by race champion Jeremy Haney, who clocked in at 16:47 on the Woodberry Forest 5K course.

Photo by David Fleenor   Pre-season rankings for the private school girls by the coaches of Virginia place Trinity's Barbara Strehler (pictured above, left) as the unanimous #1 ranked individual with qualified credentials as the defending Division I state champion in cross country as well as state winner at 3200 meters both indoors and outdoors to along with a sub 5:10 mile. Meanwhile, defending Division II champion Jane Gay is close behind ranked #2 among private school girls as Gay won her state race last year 30 seconds faster than Strehler's top time. Megan Fitzpatrick (pictured above, center) leads what should be an even more powerful front lineup for the Bishop O'Connell girls with Gloria Roberts (19:14 5K best) transferring in from Archbishop John Carroll (DC) to join two of the top five returning runners from the VIS State Meet in Fitzpatrick and Katie Walls. O'Connell takes the top spot for teams. Read on for full rankings!    

Photo by Ted Plunkett A top 15 watchout list by Brandon Miles of individual girls to keep tabs on for this fall as some of the state's best returning cross country runners. While the Virginian boys have some proven Footlocker National contenders with the likes of Griff Graves, Thomas Porter, Peter Dorrell, and Jason Witt, the Virginia girls seem to be just below that bonafide contender consideration level as of the season's beginning. However, certainly many have the potential to make the jump. Three girls who were in the exciting 2006 AAA state race finish are found within the top four ranked positions with Albemarle's Liz Barclay at #1, James River's Kristen Wolfe at #3, and Midlothian's Kathleen Lautzenheiser at #4. US #2 ranked Midlothian girls have three in the top 15 with Lautzenheiser, Leia Lautzenhsier at #8, and Paige Johnston at #10. Blacksburg girls nearly have two in the top 15 with Laurel MacMillan at #7 and Allison Homer as the first honorable mention. Only six seniors are found among the top 15 with plenty of youth leading up front. Note: Aurora Scott was left off the list as we are still attempting to confirm her status for this cross country season (not just school, but which state she will be living in this fall).

Fork Union Track & Field: 20 Years of State Champions       The Fork Union boys (team picture above by David Fleenor) made history, which is on a completely different atmospheric level from what any team in Virginia high school track and field has ever done. At Saturday's VISAA State Championships in Richmond, Fork Union extended their streak of private school outdoor track and field state championships to an incredible number of 20. Calling their run as a dynasty is an understatement! Could this be the most impressive streak in Virginia high school history??? Debate it on the forum! Coach Winston Brown's squad accomplished it common theme at many of the past 19 championships with complete domination of the other private schools. FUMA tallied  179 1/2  points on the day with Woodberry Forest in a distance second place with  94 points. Fork Union swept all three relay races and had a total of six individual state champions including their 800 meter national champ Axel Mostrag (pictured left by John Herzog), who clocked a state leading time of 1:54.02 in the 800 meter run. Meanwhile, The Potomac School girls (131 pts) stopped a streak in finally getting over the hump to beat St. Catherine's (112 pts) as Michaeline Nelson led the squad with a tough triple in the 1600, 400, and 800 meter races. Nelson won the 1600 and 800, while placing third in the 400. More to come from the VISAA Championships including large photo galleries from John Herzog and David Fleenor as well as video clips from Brandon Miles. VISAA State Championships Boys Complete ResultsVISAA State Championships Girls Complete Results VISAA State Championships Photo Gallery by John Herzog - 710 total photos.VISAA State Championships Photo Gallery by David Fleenor - 750 total photos.

Photo by Brandon Miles The 3200 meter run concluded the first day of events at the 2009 St. Christopher's Invitational and those who left prior made a poor decision as the missed out on witnessing two sensational national caliber times posted by two athletes in impressive solo efforts. Trinity senior Barbara Strehler started things off in the girls' 3200 by running away from the field to a state leading and US #5 performance to 10:58.42. Strehler was 31 seconds ahead of the next finisher in her first sub 11 minute race ever. Photo by John Herzog Atlee senior Ben Dejarnette refused to let Strehler be the only national standout performer of the night as the defending Virginia 3A state champion motored his way around the 200 meter indoor track found within the St. Christopher's School Field House for 16 laps en route to a US #4 time of 9:12.83. Dejarnette went for it as he checked in through 1600 meters at 4:31 and likely could have ran faster with competition to pull him along. The state of Virginia currently has four of the nation's fastest five 2-milers this indoor season with Dejarnette joining Millrose Mile selections Tyler Stutzman, Bobby Peavey, and Leoule Degfae in the top five. Both performances by Strehler and Dejarnette broke meet and facility records at St. Christopher's. The first day of events were filled with meet and facility records as a total of 10 of the 14 events saw new records set.  Many of the record breaking performances were just outside of US top 10 rankings as shown below. Girls 55 - Brittney McCants (Kempsville) 7.14 US #12 Girls 4x800 - Midlothian 9:35.29 US #13 Girls Pole Vault - Emma Dejarnette (Atlee) 12'0" US #10 Girls Long Jump - Elaine Derricott (Henrico) 18'5" US #12 Boys 55 Meter Dash - Mitchell Shiflett (Cosby) 6.40 US #13 Boys Long Jump - Ryan Beaver (Princess Anne) 23'1" US #11 St. Christopher's Invitational Day 1 Results St. Christopher's Invitational Day 1 Photos by John Herzog Plenty of photos and video coverage from the two day meet on the way!