Octoberfest Invitational 2007

 The Octoberfest Invitational to be held on Saturday, October 6th at Great Meadow is now filled to its capacity of 70 accepted teams and meet management is no longer accepting entries. Over 90 teams competed in the 2006 meet, but awful weather conditions (see above picture by Ted Plunkett) last year made a move to cap off the number of teams to a lower number more logical. A list of teams who be competing on October 6th at Great Meadow is now found on MileStat.com.

Team list for Saturday's Octoberfest Invitational to be held Saturday, October 6th at Great Meadow in The Plains, Virginia. MileStat.com will be on-site with coverage from Brandon Miles.

The weather should be a bit more pleasant than last year's Octoberfest Invitational when a nasty day of cold and rainy weather made for slow times and anything but fun day for any meet director attempting to run off a meet with over 90 schools in such conditions. A partly cloudy day with temperatures starting just below 70 degrees for the first race of the day in the Varsity A girls race at 9 AM, but rising over 80 for the bulk of the meet's races, will insure that it will be the performances of the individuals and teams that will be story of the meet versus the weather or course.

  Even before taking her place on the starting line, Megan Fitzpatrick's body was in shambles. Her stomach was doing somersaults. Her legs felt like lead weights. At yesterday's Octoberfest Invitational -- after running in two grueling meets earlier in the week -- Fitzpatrick nearly was depleted and on the verge of giving in. But on the final hill on the five-kilometer course in The Plains, the O'Connell runner's competitive spirit overrode every notion she had of easing off the throttle. Fitzpatrick mustered one last burst and powered past the race leader. She held off one more challenger down the stretch to earn a split-second victory in 18 minutes 26.85 seconds, a career-best time. Read full story...