Cabell Midland claims top team rankings for girls and boys. Some of the fast times were put up on the same course. As we get more into the season, a clearer picture will develop. Jorden Thornton, a freshman from Cabell Midland, moved into the top 3 rankings with her 19:12.59 at the Adidas Saturday Night Lights held at Centerville High School in Centerville, Ohio. The Cabell Midland girls sit atop the WVRunners team standings with an average time of 20:13.93 for the top 5 runners. Jefferson led by the top ranked runner, Alyssa Boucher, is in second, Hurricane is third, followed by University High School , Morgantown , and Preston As with all Cross Country rankings, it is not an exact science as courses and conditions are different for each meet. 2009 High School Girls Team Rankings. WVRunners team rankings for boys have Cabell Midland, led by freshman Jacob Burcham, on top with an average time of 16:46 for their top 5 runners. Jefferson is in 2nd place with an average time of 17:08. Jefferson is led by the 3rd ranked boy, Brandon Doughty, a junior. Doughty has constantly put up faster times each week as he raced to a 5th place finish in 16:12 at the Oatlands Invitational . Our current boy leader Cody Pelliccioni, junior from Morgantown, won the Oatlands race in 15:49 as he continues to dominate this Cross Country season. The rest of the boy’s team rankings show Fairmont Senior in 3rd place followed by University High School, Preston, Berkeley Springs, and Morgantown. 2009 High School Boys Team Rankings
Coverage
While the Blacksburg girls and boys became the first school ever to sweep the invitational team titles in meet history at Maymont on Saturday, the Hidden Valley girls (pictured by Hetzal Hartley) appear to be making up ground on their River Ridge district rival as shown with their impressive showing at the Greensboro Invitational. Meanwhile, the Osbourn Park girls and Oakton boys strengthened their Group AAA state title hopes with team titles at the largest meet in the state of Virginia, the Oatlands Invitational, with a total of 3,047 finishers. More coverage to come from this past weekend's meets. Meet summaries now posted from Maymont, Oatlands, Chesapeake, Greensboro, Bristol Cross, and Carlisle.
Chantilly senior Chris Foley was knocking on the door of elite company two weeks ago at the Monroe Park Invitational with his 15:03 victory. The sub 15 list at Burke Lake Park includes a list of many past Foot Locker/Kinney finalists from the Northern Region. Many of which did not run as fast at Burke Lake as Foley did early in the season at Monroe Parker. Last year, Foley outkicked Leoule Degfae of Thomas Edison to win the Monroe Parker Invite. Degfae later that fall went onto qualify for Foot Locker Nationals and earn All-American honors in San Diego. After a great indoor state meet last March with a third place finish in the 3200 meter run, Foley had to shut his spring season down at the outdoor district meet. Learning from the highs and lows from his junior year, the Northern Region runner is ready to apply lose lessons and experiences to finish his senior season of cross country on a high note.
The 2009 Oatlands Invitational should prove to be one of the biggest and most competitive meets in the state of Virginia this year with another great field of teams assembled by meet directors Derek Farrey and Matt Oblas. The meet will feature team of all classifications and different regions throughout the state of Virginia as well as schools from the states of Maryland and West Virginia. At last count, close to 90 schools in all will be represented on the Oatlands Plantation 5K course in Leesburg on Saturday, September 26th.