Thomas Edison

Here are the award winners for the 2017 XC season. 

In his final high school XC race, Edison's Yared Mekonnen decided he wanted one more race.

Seven races down and only one to go for US #1 team Loudoun Valley.

Here are the teams and individuals entered in this Saturday's NXN-Southeast Regional Championships.

The Thomas Edison Eagle boys brought their own dose of double trouble to the 5A boys’ state championships last weekend at Todd Stadium.

Thomas Edison senior Louis Colson ventured up to the Big Apple this weekend to race in the New Balance Games high school invitational mile with a ticket on the line for the Millrose Games Mile race on February 15th back at the New York Armory. The 2013 Group AAA 3200 indoor state champion and Group 5A state cross country champion as well as Foot Locker finalist this past fall, Colson closed strong over the last lap to win in a season best time of 4:18.49 (US #16), which is the fastest time in the state of Virginia so far this season. The victory earns him an automatic place in the field for elite high school mile race to be assembled for the historic Millrose Games three weeks from today.

Louis Colson of Thomas Edison was the state's undisputed best runner among boys for the entire cross country season and will look to continue to carry that banner into the Foot Locker Nationals race in San Diego this Saturday and compete for All-American honors.

Video highlights from the 2013 cross country season for Thomas Edison (Alexandria, VA) senior and Foot Locker Nationals qualifier Louis Colson. Enjoy!

MileStat.com visited the top ranked runner in the state, Louis Colson, and the Thomas Edison High School cross country team on Tuesday afternoon in Alexandria for a sweltering hot workout following Colson's sensational 14:43 effort at Burke Lake Park this past weekend at the Monroe Parker Invitational. With rest averaging around 1:30, Colson ran 6 1000 meter repeats ranging from 2:58 to 3:11 on a loop at Lee District Park. Behind Colson, the Edison boys are looking to put up a top 5 together which can compete for a state meet spot out of the 5A North Region

Preview for today's =PR= Kick Off Invitational to be held at Bull Run Regional Park in Centreville, Virginia. An opening meet for dozen Northern Virginia schools as they run a series of 2 mile races separated by grade levels (freshmen, sophomore, and junior/senior races), which will likely spread out several team's varsity seven that might include underclassmen. The junior/senior boys' race will be the most anticipated in an early matchup between VA #1 pre-season ranked Louis Colson of Thomas Edison and VA #2 ranked Mackenzie Haight of George C. Marshall.

Top 25 pre-season "Cream of the Crop" all-classification XC team rankings for the upcoming season as we attempt to rank the best 25 high school cross country squads in the state of Virginia.

  The state of Pennsylvania ruled the high school DMR races on Friday at William & Mary with the LaSalle College boys picking up the W with a fine time of 10:17, while Germantown Friends were the girls winners at 12:11.54. However, there were some impressive splits among the Virginia girls' squads including a 3:47 lead-off 1200 meter leg for Grafton's Nicole Goff. Other notable splits included a 2:18 800 split from Mountain View's Jean Rouse as well as a 5:08 1600 PR for Megan Rebholz of Colonial Forge to help her team likely qualify for the Penn Relays in the event in third place at 12:29.

    The return or comeback of several top distance runners seems to be the prevailing theme for the high school races at this weekend's Colonial Relays in Williamsburg which includes both Penn Relays 3K champions from a year ago in Lake Braddock's Sophie Chase and Skyline's Thomas Madden.

    A final rankings list of the top 25 boys' performances in each event from this past 2012-2013 indoor track season. Links to full rankings are included as well as the state leaders in each event being highlighted. The Thomas Edison boys 4x800 meter relay ran the state's fourth fastest time in indoor history with a 11 second improvement from their state meet performance (a fourth place 7:58 season best race) by finishing third at the New Balance Indoor Nationals with a remarkable 7:47.07 performance.  

    US #5 performer Anna Williams of Thomas Edison leads all competitors into this weekend's state championships in the girls' triple jump. The Northern Region champion Williams earlier this winter joined a select group of past Virginians to have leaped over 40 feet in the event with her 40'3" win at the Virginia Tech Invitational. Williams is coming off a regional title against one of her toughest challengers for the state meet in multi-event star Felecia Majors. The Columbia University recruit Williams hit her second best mark of the season at 39'6.50" last Saturday.

The Washington Post honors the area's top high school athletes from football, cross-country, field hockey, soccer and volleyball. (via The Washington Post)

  One of the state's top returning cross country runners for next fall will be current Thomas Edison junior Louis Colson. Despite being an All-State runner on the track, Colson had never broken 16 minutes for 5K prior to this cross country season. Colson was able to achieve that feat a handful of times this season including a most recent PR of 15:28 for 29th place in the seeded race at Foot Locker South. 

  Group AAA boys virtual meet pre-season preview for the upcoming 2012-2013 indoor track & field season. Virtual meet pre-season preview includes the top 8 returning individual performers from the 2011-2012 indoor season performances (relays are not included). Forest Park junior Mustaqeem Williams won two state titles last year as a 10th grader with a swift 6.37 clocking for the Group AAA 55 meter dash state title, while taking the 100 meter dash title in the spring. The 7th fastest returnee in the 55 meter dash nationally, Williams will attempt to lower that 6.37 personal best into VA top 25 all-time territory this winter, which has a current cut-off at 6.33.

  The Lake Braddock girls did not qualify for the state meet last year, but as far as regional dominance through the years, no team can compare to the Bruins. Since the regional team championship and state qualifying process was instituted on the girls side beginning in 1978, Lake Braddock has qualified for the state meet an astounding 30 of the 34 years it has been in existence.

Jennifer Flack wins the Octoberfest Invitational in 18:22. Chantilly takes boys’ title behind Sean McGorty. (via Washington Post)

A 9:22 3200 All-State runner in the spring of his freshmen year and current VA #10 pre-season ranked Louis Colson of Thomas Edison High School recalls his very first high school cross country race.

Myah Hicks  (pictured right by John Herzog) is a junior at Thomas Edison High School who returned this year as one of the state's top returning half milers as she nearly pulled out the Group AAA state title last spring in the 800. Hicks has gone undefeated this spring in the 800 meter run with a most recent victory and season best performance of 2:14.01 at the MileStat.com Elite Track Classic. In her latest race, Hicks nearly joined the sub five minute club in the 1600 meter run as a runner-up at the Nike Spring Invite with a time of 5:01. Hicks returns back to Sports Backers Stadium this Friday as the top seed in the 800 meter run at the Southern Track Classic, which she hopes to run closer her to season goal of a 2:10. Read more for Hicks interview with MileStat.com intern Hannah Lieberman.

Virtual meet preview for the 2010 National District Indoor T&F Championships based on performances currently in the MileStat.com database as of February 2nd.

Myah Hicks and Thomas Edison girls should be able to steamroll through the National District Championships today at Burke Lake. The Glory Days Grill Invitational champion Hicks (pictured by Ted Plunkett) could post a fast time today and send a message to the other top individual contenders in the Northern Region. The Thomas Edison boys without the graduated Degfae twins will have to work a little harder for another district team title with Hayfield challenging in their first year in the National District. Falls Church senior Alex Howe will attempt to be his school's first district champion in years.

#1 and #2 ranked teams face off for the first time this season to settle the debate (for now at least) at Saturday's Manhattan Invitational. Jamestown and Oakton boys have been head and shoulders better than the rest of the competition so far this fall, but both will have their hands full when they race against each other and a loaded field at the Manhattan Invitational. Meanwhile, Glory Days Grill Invitational will feature 6 schools which are ranked among the top 10 currently led by the Octoberfest champs from James Robinson, who are racing in their fourth major invitational in as many weekends and so far have improved their team performance each weekend.

The 50th annual William & Mary Invitational will be contested this weekend at Eastern State Hospital. The longest running high school cross country invitational might not be as large and competitive in past years with meets such as Oatlands and Maymont growing to fields of 100 plus schools, but the meet still has a large gathering and will feature some of the state's better runners and teams including matchups of VA #1 Jamestown and VA #9 Western Branch as well as VA #4 Andrew Colley and VA #8 Bobby Peavey. More...

James Robinson senior Jared Berman scored a major individual win over the Degfae twins of Thomas Edison in Wednesday's scrimmage at Burke Lake with a 16 second PR of 15:28 at home course for the Northern Region Championships. Berman looks to lead his team to bigger things this fall and make a state meet podium run. (Photo by Ted Plunkett) Chantilly, James Robinson, and Thomas Edison gathered their cross country teams at Burke Lake Park's 2.98 mile course on Wednesday, August 27th for a final scrimmage prior to the start of the official season next week. The results showed a highly competitive scrimmage which had two ranked AAA squads in #3 James Robinson and #9 Thomas Edison facing off, while the girls' team scores showed an even more tightly contested meet with only one point separating the three schools and a sixth runner tiebreaker determining the winner.

The rain that many welcomed this past week in Virginia to give temporary relief to the drought our state is experiencing was nothing compared to the drought that the Thomas Edison boys cross country team broke this past Wednesday at National District Meet which spanned decades. In winning the National District team title in dominant fashion with a team score of 19 points, the Edison boys won their first district title since 1979. Current University of Tennessee coach George Watts was the star of those great Edison teams back in the 1970's. The 2007 Edison squad was led by a junior twin pair of Leoule (pictured right by Ted Plunkett) and Tihut Degfae as the individual district champions and runners-up.Degfae as the individual district champions and runners-up.

 After taking a narrow early season defeat to AA squad Potomac Falls at the Frank Keyser Invite earlier in the season, the Thomas Jefferson boys will be looking to even the score with a win at the Oatlands Invitational. Thomas Jefferson competed without their top runner Brian Landry against Potomac Falls, and showed their true potential with Landry in the lineup at Knights Crossing two weeks ago with a convincing win and nearly five under 17 minutes for 5K. Landry will also find himself in the same race this Saturday with two fellow contenders for the Northern Region title in Thomas Edison's Leoule Degfae and T.C. Williams' Bradshaw Kenimer. Kenimer (pictured above by Ted Plunkett) is looking to defend his Oatlands title from a year ago and re-assert himself as the Northern Region title favorite.

Photo by Ben Hovis The state of Virginia was expected to qualify several boys for the Foot Locker Nationals with the strong contigent being sent to compete at the South regional race over Thanksgiving weekend, but Thomas Edison senior Leoule Degfae was not on that list of potential qualifiers. Despite being a Northern Region champion and third place finisher in the AAA state race, his name was overlooked compared to others from Virginia leading up to the race. While some of expected qualifiers are sitting in their classrooms on Thursday, Degfae will be flying out to San Diego, California to compete at the 30th Foot Locker Cross Country National Championships as virtue of his surprising fifth place finish in Charlotte. Degfae anchored home a 4x800 indoor state title for Edison last March and his determination to anchor himself a position in the lead pack at Foot Locker South seeded race has earned him another honor in becoming a Foot Locker finalist. MileStat.com's Brandon Miles interviewed Degfae prior to his trip to Foot Locker Nationals.