The Bishop O'Connell girls won their sixth straight Virginia Independent Schools Division 1 state cross country title last Friday at Woodberry Forest, which keeps them as the longest active streak of consecutive state titles. This season may have been O'Connell head coach Cindy Walls' best coaching job during the last six years as the team had several questions entering the season who who would step up and fill out their top 7 seven behind 2011 individual state champion Devin Nihill, while the St. Catherine's girls returned a formidable lineup and then the Trinity Episcopal girls came on strong at season's end as well. Those questions and challenges were answered in a resounding way last Friday as It ended up being a runaway sixth state title for the O'Connell girls by a margin of 54 points.
Articles
Despite being a school size under 300 students for grades Kindergarten through 12th grade and their cross country program only being a few years old, coach Christian Cuthbert has built something great out of something small at Veritas School in Richmond. At last Friday's VIS State Cross Country Championships, the boys' squad not only repeated but completely dominated the Division 2 boys race by a huge winning margin of 101 points.
After last year winning Peninsula Catholic's first girls state team championship in any sport (the school opened in 1903), coach Susan Bender's cross country team did not wait another century to bring home a second state team title in holding off a challenge from TCIS rival Walsingham for the Virginia Independent Schools Division 2 cross country team championship.
A former Trinity Episcopal School cross country runner himself, Marcus Jones came back to the school he graduated from to coach and elevate the program to become of the private school's best as shown with his boys' team winning their third straight Virginia Independent Schools Division 1 state cross country team title last Friday at Woodberry Forest School.
Results and coverage from the 2012 Virginia Independent Schools State Cross Country Championships held Friday, November 9th at Woodberry Forest School in Orange County.
Updated private school rankings prior to Friday's Virginia Independent Schools State Cross Country Championships at Woodberry Forest School.
Virtual meet preview for the Division 2 girls race at the 2012 Virginia Independent Schools State Cross Country Championships based on the season best 5K times in the MileStat.com database. Third in last year's Division 1 race as an 8th grader, Madison Hunter of St. Anne's-Belfield School will be racing for her first of hopefully four state cross country titles. She will first have to dethrone the reigning champion in sophomore Martine Hunnicutt, who leads the favored defending state team champions from Peninsula Catholic
Virtual meet preview for the Division 2 boys race at the 2012 Virginia Independent Schools State Cross Country Championships based on the season best 5K times in the MileStat.com database. The TCIS conference individual champion and VA Catholic Schools state meet runner-up Philip Harpen of Peninsula Catholic will be one of the top runners in Friday's Division 2 race at the Virginia Independent Schools State Cross Country Championships.
Virtual meet preview for the Division 1 girls race at the 2012 Virginia Independent Schools State Cross Country Championships based on the season best 5K times in the MileStat.com database. The transition for Molly Breidenbaugh from Hanover High School to Trinity Episcopal School has not only been smooth, but dominating. Breidenbaugh breezed through to the LIS conference title last week at Panorama Farms with a 18:43 performance.
Virtual meet preview for the Division 1 boys race at the 2012 Virginia Independent Schools State Cross Country Championships based on the season best 5K times in the MileStat.com database. From his 15:49 8th place finish at the competitive and fast Glory Days Grill Invitational, Bishop O'Connell senior J.J. Lapointe has the fastest 5K time among all private school runners this fall.