Herndon's Hiruni Wijayaratne flew through the mud, rain, and wind at the Fork Union Invitational for a decisive 18:59 victory. (Photo by Tom Hoerner) Despite many of the schools originally entered unable to attend due to travel restrictions from Tropical Storm Hanna traveling through Virginia on Saturday, the Fork Union Invitational still happened with over a dozen schools willing to brave the weather and travel to compete at the Hardy National 3 mile course. Herndon was making a rare appearance of a Northern Region school to compete at Fork Union and the Hornets made the best of the conditions with first place team finishes for both boys and girls. Herndon and Spotswood had a very close race for the boys' team title as Herndon knocked off the #9 ranked team in Virginia by four points with a team score of 47 points. With the Great Meadow Invitational canceled, Hortonville High School from Wisconsin was stuck in Virginia without a cross country meet to compete in. However, Fork Union coach Winston Brown was willing to accomodate and allow a last second entry for the out-of-state team. Horntonville is coached by former Manchester cross country coach Kevin Sours, who led the Lancers to a state championships in the late 1990s with both boys and girls teams. This was certainly the first time that any of the Wisconsin runners can say that they ran in a tropical storm as tropical storms or hurricanes are geographically impossible of occuring in their homestate. Hortonville girls and boys both placed fourth in the team standings. Fork Union Invitational Results: Boys - Girls - Middle School
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This Saturday's Fork Union Invitational could feature many of the future state cross country champions this fall with Herndon's Hiruni Wijayaratne, Glenvar's Megan Marsico, and Trinity's Barbara Strehler in the girls race, while it should be a great duel between Atlee's Ben Dejarnette and Western Albemarle's Tyler Stutzman in the boys race. A total of 40 schools will be represented at the Hardy National 3 mile course this weekend.
According to Fork Union coach Winston Brown, this Saturday's Fork Union Invitational is still on. Current weather forecast for Saturday in Fork Union, Va calls for winds around 15 to 20 mph and rainfall close to an inch with a high of 80 degrees. Fork Union, VA Weather Forecast