VHSL State Cross Country Championships 2013

Blacksburg cross country coach James DeMarco will have his third team competing at the Nike Cross Nationals on Saturday after having top 10 finishing squads in Oregon in his previous two trips facing the nation's best programs. Before they qualified for the Nike Cross Nationals via a runner-up finish in the NXN Southeast Regional last weekend in Cary, the Blacksburg girls achieved another important and significant goal, which they made look easily in claiming the VHSL Group 3A state team title. We caught up with Coach DeMarco over the last month as he reflects on the incredible season by the Blacksburg girls, which still is not finished as they will line up one more time on Saturday at the starting line at Portland Meadows in Oregon. With only one senior among their top 7 lineup, the success from this fall and a hopefully strong finish in the 2013 national meet wil build only more to greater success and potentially become one of the state's best cross country squads ever. 

Maggie Walker coach Jim Holdren has coached high school cross country and track more years at 52 years consecutively than any current active coach in the state of Virginia. His longevity as a coach and consistency in producing great runners and teams annually has made him one of the state's most respected and highly respected coaches in the state of Virginia. However, it was not until last Saturday at Great Meadow that Coach Holdren achieved a coaching achievement first in having state champion teams for both boys and girls in the same state championship meet.

The Chantilly boys and their coach in Dr. Matt Gilchrist knew the road to repeat as state champions would not be easy.  Right off the bat, the Chantilly boys graduated their top three runners from last fall including two state champion individual runners Sean McGorty and Logan Miller. Their competition got tougher and deeper from a year ago as well. But never count out the heart of champions as the Chantilly boys proved coming out of top in fiercely contested 6A boys' state race last Friday at Great Meadow.

OaktonAfter being in the hunt and contention for several state titles over the past decade including state runners-up three times (2012, 2007, 2005), the Oakton girls finally got that monkey off their back and claimed their school's first state team title in girls' cross country in the first race of the 2013 VHSL State Championships in the Group 6A classification. The 2013 Group 6A state champions are coached by Alisa Byers, who was an assistant coach initially under Phil Tiller for the Oakton program before becoming the head coach for both boys and girls four years ago with the current seniors as freshmen.

A lot of coaches have to wait decades to have their first state champion team and some can coach ages yet never experience what is it like to have the best team in the state for their classification. Not the case for the 24 year old Drew Spicer as the Deep Run alum after his first full year with as the head coach of his former high school team following the indoor and outdoor track seasons got to enjoy being on the state meet podium with his 2013 Group 5A state team champion boys' squad.

After playing second fiddle or third fiddle to the likes of Midlothian and Maggie Walker in the Central Region over the past few years as well as some years finding themselves as the odd team out in fifth place at regional cross country meets or fourth place in regional track meet 4x800 meter relays, the Mills Godwin girls did not waste any time thriving out of the shadows of some of their former regional powerhouse rivals. The Godwin girls assumed the top ranking in Group 5A early on in the season and put together a successful invitational season of races with the most impressive team performance coming in a fourth place showing at the stacked MileStat.com Invitational, which they ironically beat both Maggie Walker and Midlothian squads to gain bragging rights as the best team in the Richmond area.

Lafayette coach Craig Wortman gave his boys' cross country team goal times to hit at the mile mark in the Group 3A state race on Saturday. They hit their times almost perfectly, but he didn't expect to find his team winning the meet by 60 points and find almost his entire top 7 taking up the top 10 or 15 places. The strategy ended up working out brilliantly for Lafayette as it was too much ground for the competition to make up and Lafayette's first mile splits were not too fast or took too much energy out of them to allow their runners to still finish strong enough to secure their school's first state team title in cross country.

  It was a dozen years since the Jefferson Forest girls won their last state title back in 2001 with a nationally ranked squad led by the Saunders twins, Shannon and Kristin. On the sidelines of Great Meadow on that day was their four year old kid sister Erin cheering on with family. It would take until Erin was all grown up for coach Jerome Loy and the Jefferson Forest program to celebrate another state team title on the podium at Great Meadow. 

Race videos from all 12 races at the 2013 VHSL State Cross Country Championships with at least 9 camera vantage points for each race.

It took 25 years of coaching high school cross country for Galax head coach Tony Quesenberry to finally realize a long dream of his in producing a state champion team. After competing in the final race of the 2013 VHSL State Championships on Saturday at Great Meadow, the Galax boys knew it would be close between them and last year's Group A state champions Radford. When Radford was announced as the runner-up squad in a delayed awards ceremony due to timing issues, the Galax boys could celebrate and their coach Tony Quesenberry could finally relax after checking off one of the top things on his lifetime bucket list. Coach Quesenberry probably thought the first state title would have came sooner after leading a squad to a state runner-up finish in one of his first years at the helm back in 1989, but the wait made it much sweeter for him and his most talented and deepest group of runners led by individual Group 1A state champ Cliff Conley.

Radford High School cross country Mike Carrow had led his boys' team to two state titles in 2007 and 2012, but finally got his girls to achieve the same success at the state level with their first state title in school history on Saturday. The Radford girls won the Group 1A title by 37 points and were led by two underclassmen in freshmen Mary Elliot and Cameron Schafer taking two of the top three places individually in the race. After an unusual and difficult season for them following the controversial decision of their local goverment banning them from running on their city streets and roads, the Radford girls were able to overcome that adversity and distraction with a youthful squad and no seniors among their top 5 to claim their first state cross country team title and set themselves up well to go for a state title repeat in 2014.

  When adding in teams and point scorers from the other 5 classifications, the Group 6A girls state champions from Oakton come out as the top team in the results merge of competing teams at the 2013 VHSL State Cross Country Championships. Does Oakton now overtake nationally ranked and 3A state champions Blacksburg as the new #1 ranked team in Virginia? The Oakton girls impressively put their entire top 5 under 19 minutes at Great Meadow in the 6A race with a team average of 18:33 and a time spread under 1 minute.

When adding in teams and point scorers from the other 5 classifications, the Lake Braddock boys go from runners-up in Group 6A state race to first in the results merge of teams from the 2013 VHSL State Championships.

Our Path to the State Meet series focuses on a random selection of individual qualifiers and their seasons and path leading up to qualifying to compete at this weekend's VHSL State Championships. Chancellor junior Neil Schubel qualified for the state meet with a 8th place finish of 17:02 at Loriella Park in the 4A North Regional Meet.

Our Path to the State Meet series focuses on a random selection of individual qualifiers and their seasons and path leading up to qualifying to compete at this weekend's VHSL State Championships. Yorktown junior Kelly Hart qualified for the state meet with a 25th place finish of 18:42 at Burke Lake Park in the 6A North Regional Meet.

Our Path to the State Meet series focuses on a random selection of individual qualifiers and their seasons and path leading up to qualifying to compete at this weekend's VHSL State Championships. James River junior Freddie Shashaty qualified for the state meet with a 11th place finish of 16:42 at Bells Mill Park in the 6A South Regional Meet.

Our Path to the State Meet series focuses on a random selection of individual qualifiers and their seasons and path leading up to qualifying to compete at this weekend's VHSL State Championships. Hermitage junior Abby Bellows qualified for the state meet with a 10th place finish of 19:13 at Bells Mill Park in the 5A South Regional Meet.

Our Path to the State Meet series focuses on a random selection of individual qualifiers and their seasons and path leading up to qualifying to compete at this weekend's VHSL State Championships. West Springfield sophomore Owen Buck qualified for the state meet with a 6th place finish of 15:24 at Burke Lake Park in the 6A North Regional Meet.

Our Path to the State Meet series focuses on a random selection of individual qualifiers and their seasons and path leading up to qualifying to compete at this weekend's VHSL State Championships. John Handley senior Ashden Personius qualified for the state meet with a 12th place finish of 20:14 at Loriella Park in the 4A North Regional Meet.

Our Path to the State Meet series focuses on a random selection of individual qualifiers and their seasons and path leading up to qualifying to compete at this weekend's VHSL State Championships. Tuscarora sophomore Jarred Silverman qualified for the state meet with a 16th place finish of 16:56 at Oatlands Plantation in the 5A North Regional Meet.

Our Path to the State Meet series focuses on a random selection of individual qualifiers and their seasons and path leading up to qualifying to compete at this weekend's VHSL State Championships. West Potomac senior Katie Genuario qualified for the state meet with a ninth place finish of 17:53 at Burke Lake Park in the 6A North Regional Meet.

Our Path to the State Meet series focuses on a random selection of individual qualifiers and their seasons and path leading up to qualifying to compete at this weekend's VHSL State Championships. Douglas Freeman junior Peyton Artz qualified for the state meet with a ninth place finish of 16:18 (PR) at Bells Mill Park in the 5A South Regional Meet.