Patriot District Meet 2001

As appeared in the Journal Newspapers of Northern Virginia on
10/23/01

The basically come one, come all, invitational season is now down to
a
three round season where there are not as many called to the starting
line,
and even fewer are chosen to advance.

The first round will begin tomorrow, October 24, with the start of
the
district championships to be held at Burke Lake Park's 2.98 mile
course. The
Patriot District will be the first of the four districts to race toward
the
region and state championship rounds as they start things off at 3:15
p.m.
with the girls and then follow with the boys race at 3:45 p.m. The
National
District championship will also be on Wednesday with the girls race at
4:15
p.m. and the boys running at 4:45 p.m.

Thursday, October 25 at Burke Lake finds the Liberty District girls
race
beginning at 3:15 p.m. followed by the boys at 3:45 p.m. The Concorde
will
conclude the district action with the girls race at 4:15 p.m. and the
boys
race at 4:45 p.m.

The top four teams in each district for both girls and boys and also
any
individual in the top fifteen who is not among the top four teams
automatically qualifies for the next round, the Northern Region
Championships, to be held at Burke Lake Park on Thursday, November 1.
The
girls regional race will begin at 3:30 p.m. with the boys to follow at
4:00
p.m.

The top four teams and top fifteen individuals for both girls and
boys will
then qualify for the ultimate round, the state AAA championship meet to
be
held at the Great Meadow course in The Plains on Saturday, November 10.

Patriot Girls: This is by far the toughest district of the four on
the
girls side with the four district team qualifiers to the regional meet
also
having a good shot at being the quartet of qualifiers for the state
meet; but
you have to get to the region meet first.

Robinson is the defending team champion and the favorite once again.
The
Rams squad under coach Jeremy Workman has an excellent front running
trio of
juniors Sam Ference, Joanna Rodgers and Lauren Hovland, all of whom
placed
among the top seven finishers at last year's district meet. Robinson
also
returns senior Michelle Awtrey and junior Kelly Givens as all district
performers from last year and if the Rams can somehow match last year's
impressive showing in which they had only a 31 second spread between
their
number one and number five runners, they will be very tough to beat.

Lake Braddock made Robinson work hard last year to capture the
Patriot
title as they scored just 48 points in the runnerup spot to the Rams
winning
total of 39. Lake Braddock junior Kelly Swain has put together another
stellar season and is the defending district individual champion,
having won
last year in 18 minutes, 14 seconds. The Bruins have lost the second
and
third place finishers from last year due to graduation but have filled
in
well behind Swain with freshman Sara Rothe and veterans Abbey McGrath
and
Kelly Dick.

West Springfield owns a higher place finish over Lake Braddock at the
Salesianum (DE) Invitational earlier this month with senior Mo Hagan
and
junior Huma Husain as their most dependable performers while Hayfield
has
been running well this season and will also be favored to get out of
the
district led by the threesome of Morgan Phelan, Jessica Weber and Neela
Balkisoon.

West Potomac returns junior Jamie Manner, who was fifth at disticts
last
year and the Wolverines also have senior Kelly Brown running well. An
improving Annandale squad is led by sophomore Lauren Edwards along with
freshman Samantha Muchmore while T.C. Williams has an all district
returnee
in Emerson Davis.

Patriot Boys: Robinson is the defending champion but West Springfield
appears
to be the pre-race favorite in what appears to be not nearly as
formidable a
district as has been seen in most years.

Robinson will not be ready to give up their title without a fight but
lost
their top two runners from last year to graduation, including district
individual champion L.A. Snead. The Rams do have senior Kevin McHale as
one
of the top returnees from last year's meet (7th; 15:52) and in their
most
recent outing at the Glory Days Grill Invitational had their next four
scoring runners of Sam Rhodes, Tim Renkiewicz, Adnrew Dumm and Brian
Graf
within ten seconds of each other.

West Springfield has looked like the second toughest team in the
region
behind Jefferson of the Concorde District and were second at Glory Days
behind metro area power Good Counsel (MD). The Spartans have junior
Jeff Day
capable of winning the individual title and are very solid behind Day
with
Bryan Witt, John Cook and Ryan David. West Springfield coach Vic
Kelbaugh is
also pleased to have senior leader James Feeney, who was the squad's
top
runner last year, on the recovery route from an early season battle
with
mononucleosis.

Hayfield has one of the district's top performers in junior Kevin
Camp as
the Hawks look to battle the Lake Braddock squad led by juniors Steve
Hoogland and James McLellan for the other regional qualifying spots.
West
Potomac will look to challenge Hayfield and Lake Braddock for one of
those
spots depending on sophomore Ahren Freund and senior Jake Torrey as
their top
two runners. T.C. Williams has a potential all district finisher in
Nulie
McCarthy while Annandale looks to move up led by Dawit Legesse, Mike
Flint
and Chris Hiatt.