Adrian Sitler

Photo by Brandon Miles Despite being one of the state's best cross country teams and possessing two of the state's top distance runners in Kyle Satterwhite and Tyler Stutzman on their roster, the Western Albemarle boys could certainly not coast through the Jefferson District Meet with a formidable Louisa County squad as well as another top individual in AA 1000 and 800 meter state champion Logan Collins from Orange County. With Collins and several members of Louisa's squad now graduated, the Western Albemarle boys might not have to go into full throttle mode at the district meet this season as they approach bigger championship races at the Region II Meet, VHSL State Championships, and possibly NTN regional qualifier race.

Photo by Jeff Sitler Not all of Virginia's best will be at Southern Track Classic on Friday night (hard to believe when looking at the entry list for the boys mile). Western Albemarle coach Lindy Bain has made it an annual trip to take his top distance runners to the Loucks Games in White Plains, New York to compete against some of the top teams in the state of New York. The distance medley relay assembled for Thursday afternoon in three-day meet was simply of epic proportions. Already in the race were the top five finishing teams from DMR at the National Scholastic Indoor Championships. Meanwhile, Western Albemarle had won a national title in the DMR at the "other national meet" at Nike Indoor Nationals. The New York teams finishing in the top five in the DMR race and competing on the faster New York Armory banked track at NSIC all had ran faster than Western Albemarle's winning time at NIN of 10:25.73. When Western Albemarle got a chance to match up with those same NSIC teams for the first time on Thursday at the Loucks Games, they showed full well that they had much faster than a 10:25 in them from their national title in Landover by winning in a US #4 time of 10:11.32. Despite three solid legs with a 3:08.7 1200 split from Kyle Satterwhite, 49.0 400 split from Nick Ward, and 1:59.0 800 from Adrian Sitler, Western's 1600 anchor leg Tyler Stutzman received the baton with two teams ahead of him in Shenendehowa and Colonie of New York. Stutzman did not panic, he just ran fast. With a 4:14.5 split, Stutzman put Western Albemarle in the lead and brought home the big win as well as one of the faster times in state history in the DMR. More on ArmoryTrack.com with story on Western Albemarle boys DMR by Chris Hunt.  

Video interview at the 2007 Ragged Mountain Cup with Western Albemarle coach Lindy Bain. Coach Bain's Western Albemarle boys, currently ranked #4 in Virginia, opened their season with a win at the Cup over last year's champs from Fork Union. Western Albemarle had three runners well under 11 minutes for their two mile splits with Tyler Stutzman (10:02), Kyle Satterwhite (10:14), and James Howard-Smith (10:22).