Mary Catherine Sowder

Here are the girls all-time rankings for 5K according to our database.

Here are the top times from VA athlete ever run at Great American.

Here are the all-time top 1,000 times on the Sugar Hollow course.

With the Blacksburg and Hidden Valley girls making the trip today to Portland, Oregon to compete this weekend at the Nike Cross Nationals, MileStat.com releases a feature including the top 7 runners of each team filling out a questionnaire survey to get to know better each team and their team members.

The Hidden Valley girls, ranked #19 in the nation according to MileSplit US recent national team rankings, began their 2009 season with a victory in their home invitational in the second annual Clash with the Titans. The Hidden Valley girls were competing without three of their top five runners, but still were able to hold off Christiansburg by 10 points for a first place team finish with 47 points. Mary Catherine Sowder (pictured by John Tyree), a runner-up in last year's Clash with the Titans, won easily without her other teammates in the race with a time of 20:56. Coming from the flat land of Tidewater Virginia, Greenbrier Christian Academy's Michael Bailey sure had no problem tackling the hills on Hidden Valley High School's home course. Bailey pulled away for 17:10 win with Christiansburg's Andy Eddleton 12 seconds back at 17:22.

At the Clash With The Titans, VA #1 ranked Hidden Valley girls will open their season in their home invitational against teams in the Roanoke Valley area. Hidden Valley should win big if all five of their top 5 returnees are racing led by 2008 Group AA state runner-up Annie LeHardy. LeHardy won last year's inaugural Clash With The Titans with a one second victory over teammate Mary Catherine Sowder in 20:45.   The top three boys teams coming into the meet feature a strong #1 runner each who will be battling for first individually on Saturday in Group AA #5 ranked Andy Eddleton of Christiansburg, Group A #3 ranked Jared Miller of Radford, and Group AA #14 ranked Cody Seymour of Cave Spring.

The first annual Clash with the Titans was held at Hidden Valley High School in Roanoke this past weekend on their home cross country course, which saw runners face a moderately challenging 5K course with an always fun flowing creek crossing for runners to attempt to run through. Photo by Janis Lewis The Hidden Valley girls, one of the top teams in the state according to MileStat.com's pre-season rankings, ran without two of their top four returnees but still managed to impress with a home invite victory and a close 1-2 finish between teammates Annie LeHardy (20:45) and Mary Catherine Sowder (20:46). Sowder could potentially be the team's fourth runner based on last year's results, but finished well ahead of an All-State caliber runner in Alisha Royal of William Byrd (3rd, 21:29). The William Byrd boys also had a great upfront running from Caleb Kingery and Kyle O'Conner as the Terrier duo clocked in at times of 17:47 and 17:50 respectively for first and second place finishes on the Hidden Valley 5K course. However, E.C. Glass proved to have superior depth to William Byrd and the rest of the field including three runners in the top ten led by John Adams in fourth place at 18:31. More.... Clash with the Titans Photo Gallery by Janis Lewis - 419 photos total Clash with the Titans Results: High School Boys - High School Girls - Middle School Mixed

Photo by Tom Hoerner Outside of the three-time Group AAA state champions from Midlothian, the next two best teams in the state of Virginia could come from the same district in Group AA's River Ridge District in the Blacksburg and Hidden Valley girls' squads. Blacksburg has won two consecutive state titles in Group AA, while Hidden Valley became a quick upstart last fall with the addition of two star freshmen in Annie LeHardy and Haley Cutright. Both teams possess a great deal of depth and talent which will make them major players not only the state stage, but possibly nationally with Nike Cross Nationals aspirations. Blacksburg's sixth runner Trinity Foreman has ran sub 5:10 for 1600 meters, while Hidden Valley's fifth runner Mary Catherine Sowder runs a 11:44 for 3200 meters.