Jay Jarrels

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Jamestown's Colin Mearns will look to become Jamestown’s second individual state champion in a row and follow in the footsteps of last year’s Group AA champion Andrew Colley, who set a new course record. Mearns appears to be taking his running to another level at season’s end similar to last fall when he had a great stretch of races extending into December for the Nike Cross Nationals.  Mearns is the top returnee from last year’s state race with his 15:28 fourth place finish among a collection of stars in the outstanding class of 2009 runners.

Spotswood's Jay Jarrels (pictured by Ted Plunkett) has shown his potential early in high school with some quick track times as an underclassmen, but appears to be finally putting it together in cross country for a strong senior season. He starts his championship season today at the Massanutten District Championships as he looks to lead his Spotswood squad to another district team title with a first place individual finish for himself. Spotswood could put five runners among the top 7 places. The Harrisonburg girls expect to remain on top of the district behind individual favorite in freshmen Tabea Zimmerman.

It was a tight district meet for the boys team title at the 2007 Massanutten District Meet. The first ever Massanutten District Cross Country Championships had three teams separated by only five points with Spotswood in first with 42 points, Harrisonburg in second with 46 points, and Turner Ashby with 47 points. Spotswood is the back with a squad ready to defend their district title and hopefully with a little bit more breathing room this year as the team has aspirations to not only win a growingly more competitive Region III Meet, but be a team to be reckoned at Great Meadow for the state meet. Photo by Tom Hoerner With two of the district's top returning individual runners in Caroline Young and Molly Skidmore, the Turner Ashby girls return as favorites to repeat their district team title from a year ago. Skidmore is the only returning female with a sub 20 minute 5K performance to her credit with a 19:58 run at Foot Locker South last November, while Young proved herself as the top miler in the Massanutten District with a 5:15 1600 and won district titles in both the 1600 and 800.

The Spotswood boys entered this season with a collective goal to defend their Massanutten District and Region III champion titles, and improve upon their 7th place finish at the 2007 state meet. With 9 of their top 10 runners returning from last year, a strong team dynamic pushes the team. They recently won the Rocktoberfest Invitational and have moved to the 6th spot on the AA rankings list. As cross country season comes to a close, with Spotswood winning both the JV and varsity race divisions of the Rocktoberfest Invitational at their last regular season meet, the team prepares for the Massanutten District meet on Wednesday, October 22. Read full story by MileStat.com junior staff writer Emma DiNapoli (Harrisonburg HS)