Ted Richardson

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.

Not every team is realistically fighting for a state title, in fact few are, but many have great stories.

While the CNU Showcase was happening in Newport News this past weekend, just down the road on I-64 East was a competitive meet at the two year old Boo Williams Sportsplex in Hampton. On the first day of Southeastern Invitational, two US #1's were produced by Joel Coleman of Oscar Smith in the 55 meter dash and Ricky Blake of Nansemond River in the triple jump. The second day followed up with some more impressive performances, especially on the track from two of the Eastern Region's top female sprinters in Shakeela Saunders of Great Bridge and Monica Williams of Green Run.

The 2009 All-MileStat.com Cross Country Team has been announced with a total of 42 athletes being selected among the 7 member first, second, and third teams for both boys and girls. Awards winners also announced for Runner of the Year, Coach of the Year, Team of the Year, Freshmen of the Year, Most Improved Runner of the Year, and Comeback Runner of the Year. Congratulations to all selections for this fall's All-MileStat.com Team!

While the Nike Cross Southeast Regionals has pulled away many of the state's top girls either competing on contending teams or trying to secure one of the 5 individual quaifier spots, tradition and dreams of sunny San Diego still keeps the best Virginia boys coming back to Foot Locker South as the top ranked half dozen runners in the state will be racing on Saturday at McAlpine Greenway Park in Charlotte with top 10 aspirations. While the best Virginia girls who will be racing in Charlotte will be considered long shots of making it to nationals, one upside for both Brooke Point senior Katherine Walker and Lake Braddock freshmen Sophie Chase is neither has any problem pushing the pace and running up front, which is necessary in order to put yourself in position for a top 10 national qualifier position on the fast and flat McAlpine 5K course. MileSplit US will have on-site coverage for MileStat.com led by scrunners.com webmaster John Olson as a total of 422 runners are entered in Foot Lockter South from the state of Virginia.

This year's VHSL State Championships could be a historic meet for the Northwest Region. The Northwest Region has arguably the greatest assembly of individual state title contenders with a big three in seniors Kaitlyn Davis of Mountain View, Ariel Karabinus of Osbourn Park, and Katherine Walker of Brooke Point. Meanwhile, the Mountain View boys will look to not only get on the state meet podium for the second time in three years, but also claim the school’s first state title. In the first cross country season without Thomas Porter leading the Wildcats, Mountain View is in its best situation since the school opened five years ago to win a state cross country team title.

The Midlothian girls have won the last four Central Region cross country titles to coincide with their four straight Group AAA state titles. Do not expect the regional streak to discontinue this weekend for the Lady Trojans, but Lee-Davis freshmen Bonny Turnage (pictured left by John Herzog) might attempt to spoil an individual three-peat for Midlothian senior Kathleen Lautzenheiser. However, a highly anticipated individual match-up between Grant Pollock of Mills Godwin and Ted Richardson of James River might be the top story coming into the 2009 Central Region Cross Country Championships. Pollock is also attempting to not only become Godwin's first boys individual champion in regional meet history but also lead his squad to their first Central Region team title ever.

It does not matter if their top boys' runner drops out. It does not matter if two of their top seven runners on their girls' team are missing. Midlothian is still going to find a way to win another Dominion District cross country season and still comfortably.

Several close and exciting finishes to determine the individual race winners in Charlottesville including an incredible course record 18:02 performance by Ariel Karabinus of Osbourn Park as runner-up Katherine Walker of Brooke Point was also under the old course record in 18:13. Despite not having their usual #3 and #5 runners, the Osbourn Park girls dominated the field by a 67 point margin and team average of 19:14 on the Panorama Farms 5K course. Meanwhile, the Hidden Valley girls traveled all the way down to Nike South in Texas and left the Lonestar State as champions as they defeated the top teams in Texas by a 30 point margin of victory. In Florida, the Mountain View boys knocked off one of the top ranked teams from the Sunshine State by 9 points at the Disney Classic. More to come from this weekend's meets!

Blake Theroux (pictured by Ted Plunkett) of Western Branch, Ted Richardson of James River, and Anthony Kostelac of Albemarle are the top three returnees from last year's AAA state race as five seconds separated them at Great Meadow. Theroux and Richardson will both be getting a head start on Kostelac, the star anchor leg for Albemarle's national record breaking 4x800 meter relay this past year who had been out for a while due to a stress fracture in the femur suffered at the end of the outdoor season. Theroux is the only returning sub 9:20 2 miler from track, while Richardson has been training hard over the summer and is the state's top returnee from last year's Foot Locker South regional race (25th).   Other returning All-State cross country finishers include Andrew McCullen of Oakton, Drew Paisley of Ocean Lakes, Chris Foley of Chantilly, and Jordan White of Great Bridge.

The Virginians fared well and were great hosts for the 2008 USATF National Junior Olympic Championships held at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville on Saturday. The Richmond Track & Field Club, consisting mainly of athletes from the Central Region and RIchmond area, saw three of its girls teams finishing among the top three with the youth girls, intermediate girls, and young women division teams all placing third in close team battles for the national title in particular for the intermediate girls and young women. Barbara Strehler of Trinity ran the fastest time among all Virginians to lead the Richmond T&F Club in the young women's division with a third place time of 18:46. Also earning All-American honors in the race with Strehler from Virginia were Herndon's Hiruni Wijayaratne (6th, 19:08), Maggie Walker's Susannah Piersol (11th, 19:26), Cosby's Jenna Moye (17th, 19:49), and Lee-Davis' Stephanie Cario (20th, 20:01). In the intermediate girls' race, Clover Hill sophomore Abby Badura was the top finisher from Virginia and the third place Richmond T&F Club with a 13th place effort of 19:26. Earning All-American honors with Badura were club teammates Clarissa Schick (15th, 19:31) of Maggie Walker and Lindsi Arrington (21st, 19:32) of Gar-Field. Two of the state's best freshmen girls this fall competed in the youth girls 4K race with Sarah Stites (7th, 15:10) of Thomas Jefferson and Megan Moye (14th, 15:19) of Cosby both earning All-American honors with their top 25 finishes in one of the most competitive races of the meet. None of the boys' teams were able to crack into top 3 award finishes, but there were several outstanding All-American individual performances. The young men's 5K race had three All-Americans from Virginia with Thomas Baker of Louisa leading the way in 3rd place with a time of 16:00 and then closely followed by Jefferson Forest's Josh Morris (7th, 16:02) and James River's Ted Richardson (8th, 16:03). It was a great post-season for all three runners as Baker and Richardson both ran well at Foot Locker South in the seeded race with PR runs, while Morris was not far away from qualifying for NXN at the regionals in Cary two weeks ago. Harrison Tucker of St. Christopher's had a busy Saturday as he earned All-American honors in the young men's race early afternoon with a 16th place finish (16:16) and then made it back over to St. Christopher's for a home quad meet and ran sub 10 in the 3200 to place second. He then finished his day accepting his All-American award at Hanover High School on Saturday evening. Ben Dejarnette may be one of the best runners in the state and hold numerous honors, but Atlee teammate Andy Hesse can brag to him that he's now an All-American over him after Hesse took one of the final All-American spots in the intermediate boys race with a 24th place run of 16:42. Another star runner is on his way to join Coach Morgan and the stellar Midlothian program with 8th grader Sean Willard, who earned All-American honors with a time of 13:47 to place 15th in the youth boys' 4K race. USATF National Junior Olympic Championships Photo Gallery by Brandon Miles - 2,124 total photos from all 10 races. USATF National Junior Olympic Championship Race Videos: Young Men 5K - Young Women 5K - Intermediate Boys 5K - Intermediate Girls 5K - Youth Boys 4K - Youth Girls 4K - Midget Boys 3K - Midget Girls 3K - Bantam Boys 3K - Bantam Girls 3K Post-Meet Audio Interviews: Barbara Strehler - Megan Moye - Ted Richardson & Josh Morris - Andy Hesse - Sean Willard Pre-Meet Video Interviews: Coach Holdren Results from USATF.org Bantam Girls  results Bantam Boys results Midget Girls results Midget Boys results Youth Girls results Youth Boys results Intermediate Girls results Intermediate Boys  results Young Women results Young Men results

Photo by Ted Plunkett       For years the Dominion District, consisting of schools from Chesterfield County, has been one of the most competitive districts in the state for cross country, producing a plethora of great runners. Manchester had the state champion boys and girls teams in 1997, and James River won the girls championship in the fall of 2002, but however recently the team to beat recently has been Midlothian High School. With the last four girls state championships, and numerous state championships on the boys side too, Midlothian has had a grip on the Dominion District. Their streak of individual champions in the district however came to an end this year as James River junior Ted Richardson stepped out from Midlothian’s shadow and onto the podium and into the state spotlight.

Young Women 5K Winner - Barbara Strehler (Trinity) Young Men 5K Winner - Ted Richardson (James River) Intermediate Boys 5K Winners - Silas Frantz (Douglas Freeman) & Andrew Catanese (Atlee) Intermediate Girls 5K Winner - Clarissa Schick (Maggie Walker) Youth Girls 4K Winner - Sarah Stites (Thomas Jefferson S&T) Youth Boys 4K Winner - Sean Willard (Midlothian MS) Complete results, photos, video, and meet summary are now posted from the USATF Virginia Association Cross Country Championships. USATF VA Association Championship Results: Boys - Girls USATF VA Association Championships Photo Gallery by Brandon Miles - 527 total photos USATF VA Association Championship Race Videos: Young Men/Women 5K - Intermediate Boys/Girls 5K - Youth Boys/Girls 4K