The Octoberfest Invitational saw some heavyweight matchups with some of the state\'s best racing against one another. The Thomas Jefferson boys proved their legitimacy as the top ranked team in the state with a convincing win by 55 points over second place Herndon with five runners under 16:50 on the Great Meadows hill course for 5,000 meters. Chantilly senior Brad Siragusa proved just why many are considering him the best runner in the state this year by getting revenge on Herndon\'s Abe Daganchew and beating Group AA\'s best in John Horst of Christiansburg and Zac Edwards of Northside in a time of 15:44.10. Horst finished a strong second in 15:48.09 for his second consecutive victory over a Group AA #1 ranked runner in Edwards (3rd, 16:01.43) this week and Abingdon\'s Griff Graves at Bristol Cross last weekend. Dagnachew, a race leader and with the lead pack for most of the race, faltered badly in the latter portion of the race to a 20th place finish. Another upset in the AA ranks was the Sherando boys (216 pts) knocking off Fort Defiance (247 pts) for fourth place honors. On the girls\' side, the individual and team winners were probably surprises to most, but no shocker for those who have seen Albemarle\'s Rachel Rose and the Blacksburg girls race all season. Albemarle junior Rachel Rose took a convincing victory over Group AAA #1 ranked Stefanie Slekis (18:16.41) with a winning time of 17:58.96. Rose had previously been ranked #2 in Group AAA behind Slekis. Meanwhile, the Group AA #3 and #9 state ranked Blacksburg girls defeated four higher ranked teams in #4 Westfield (2nd, 161 pts), #5 Fairfax (3rd, 185 pts), #6 Lake Braddock (4th, 206 pts), and #7 Brooke Point (5th, 209 pts) with a team score of 150 points. With a strong top four that all finished in the top 20 places in Ariel Burbey (7th, 18:56.64), Allison Homer (15th, 19:36.83), Laurel MacMillan (19th, 19:41.84), and Cate Berenato (20th, 19:42.06), the Blacksburg girls were able to negate a weak fifth runner to take it to the larger Group AAA schools from northern Virginia.
Coverage
26 miscellaneous shots taken by John Herzog from the 2005 Octoberfest Cross Country Invitational held at Great Meadows in The Plains, Virginia on Saturday, October 1st.
19 total shots taken by John Herzog of the junior varsity boys race from the 2005 Octoberfest Cross Country Invitational held at Great Meadows in The Plains, Virginia on Saturday, October 1st.
57 total photos taken by John Herzog of the varsity B boys race from the 2005 Octoberfest Cross Country Invitational held at Great Meadows in The Plains, Virginia on Saturday, October 1st.
119 total photos taken by John Herzog of the varsity A girls race from the 2005 Octoberfest Cross Country Invitational held at Great Meadows in The Plains, Virginia on Saturday, October 1st.
50 total photos taken by John Herzog of the varsity A girls race from the 2005 Octoberfest Cross Country Invitational held at Great Meadows in The Plains, Virginia on Saturday, October 1st.
The League of Independent Schools Championship was held on November 4th on the very flat campus of Norfolk Academy.
The selection was very tough as always for the All-MileStat.com Team. As this cross country season like any other, anything can happen. What you expect to happens never seem to does and what happens you never would have expected. One week someone is hot, the next week that person is out of the picture. A star runner goes down, a newcomer comes out of nowhere. There were many deserving athletes to be on this list. Looking at this year\'s group, there are probably a dozen or so runners who are probably in a group of their own and then 3 dozen or more runners who could beat each other on any given day. Some of the runners missing from this list definitely deserve recognition for their fine seasons. Let these All-MileStat.com selections serve as a way to recognize the great accomplishments of the state\'s top athletes this fall, while serving as motivation and providing drive for those left off or returning next fall to strive for greater excellence in the future.
Find out which cross country girls from the state of Virginia were selected to this year\'s All-MileStat.com team. Runner of the Year, Coach of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, and Most Improved Runner of the Year awards were given out as well as the first, second, and third teams consisting of seven runners each.
Photos taken by John Herzog from the 2005 Octoberfest Invitational held at Great Meadows in The Plains, Virginia on Saturday, October 1st.