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Northern Region

by Pearl Watts

Meet held Thursday, November 7 at Burke Lake Park on 2.98 mile course.
Good running conditions with just a slight breeze under partly cloudy skies
with temperatures in the low 50's.
Top four teams and top fifteen individuals in both races automatically
qualified for the Virginia AAA state championships to be held at the 5,000
meter Great Meadow course in The Plains on Saturday, November 16.
In girls race, leaders out at 2:45 for the first half mile. Rodgers and
Phelan together at two miles at around 11:50 with Rodgers pulling ever
gradually away in the final mile. Herndon girls go 9-15-16-17-18 with just a
20 second spread to claim the victory.
In the boys race, Day sets the early pace of 2:18-4:47 and 7:12. Thompson
and Landry forge to slight lead over Day at two miles (9:52-9:53) with
Thompson lengthening his lead over Landry in final 200 meters. Jefferson boys
with impressive team score of 47 points and raw score of 53 after going
2-3-9-17-22.

Boys Team Results: 1. Jefferson 47; 2. Lake Braddock 90; 3. Oakton 113; 4.
West Springfield 135; 5. Herndon 140; 6. Hayfield 145; 7. Westfield 150; 8.
Madison 199; 9. Robinson 213; 10. W.T. Woodson 249

Individual Results: 1. Rasheed Thompson (Herndon) 14:58; 2. Christo Landry
(Jefferson) 15:02; 3. Keith Bechtol (Jefferson) 15:09; 4. Jeff Day (West
Springfield) 15:14; 5. Steve Hoogland (Lake Braddock) 15:19; 6. Steven Tobin
(West Springfield) 15:23; 7. Bryan Buckland (Westfield) 15:23; 8. Danny
Howick (Lake Braddock) 15:27; 9. Brian Hanak (Jefferson) 15:28; 10. Sean
Reilly (Hayfield) 15:29; 11. Kris Cruz (Oakton) 15:29; 12. Ben Beiter
(Oakton) 15:29; 13. Peter Quinzio (Wakefield) 15:32; 14. Dawit Legesse (Lee)
15:33; 15. Shane Young (Herndon) 15:37

Girls Team Results: 1. Herndon 75; 2. Lake Braddock 86; 3. Jefferson 90; 4.
Robinson 107; 5. Hayfield 112; 6. West Springfield 144; 7. Westfield 180; 8.
Madison 211; 9. Lee 246; 10. Yorktown 261

Individual Results: 1. Joanna Rodgers (Robinson) 17:41; 2. Morgan Phelan
(Hayfield) 17:46; 3. Shauneen Garrahan (Jefferson) 18:01; 4. Kelly Sherrard
(Lake Braddock) 18:09; 5. Sam Ference (Robinson) 18:09; 6. Melissa Dewey
(Hayfield) 18:14; 7. Kelly Swain (Lake Braddock) 18:17; 8. Jenn Dietz (Lee)
18:22; 9. Kristin Hart (Herndon) 18:23; 10. Sarah Levine (Jefferson) 18:24;
11. Huma Husain (West Springfield) 18:28; 12. Becca Shinners (Yorktown)
18:30; 13. Nicole Pederson (South Lakes) 18:32; 14. Kelly Ann Osborn (West
Springfield) 18:35; 15. Heather Fisher (Herndon) 18:36

US#12 Jefferson boys placed six runners under 15:50; 15:02, 15:09, 15:28,15:42,15:45,15:48 for a 5-man avg of 15:25.

Northern Region Preview
by Pearl Watts

The Northern Region Championships will be held Thursday November 7 at Burke Lake
Park on their 2.98 mile course with the boys race to begin at 3:30 p.m. and
the girls race to follow at 4:15 p.m.
The top four teams and top fifteen individuals in both races will
automatically qualify for the AAA state championships at the Great Meadow
course in The Plains on Saturday, November 16.
While the air seems to be cleared as to the Thomas Jefferson boys squad
being installed as the overwhelming favorite in their race, everything
certainly seems to be up in the air as to which three other boys teams will
join Jefferson as qualifiers, which four of six potential teams will make it
on the girls side and the air also seems to be hazy as to the predicted
individual winners on both the boys and girls side.

The Jefferson boys team, currently ranked third in the South Region by The
Harrier Magazine, has been the dominant team in the state all season long and
certainly solidified their status after a decisive victory in the Concorde
District Championships two weeks ago on Fort Belvoir's flat, 3.3 mile course.
The Colonials have a convincing one-two punch in junior Christo Landry and
senior Keith Bechtol. Landry was the Concorde winner in 16 minutes and 46
seconds with Bechtol right behind Landry in the runnerup spot at 16:48. Both
Landry and Bechtol are among a group of about five runners with a chance at
the individual victory and if they are not the pacesetters through the two
mile mark at Burke, certainly figure to at least be among the lead pack.
Jefferson also appears to have the strongest runner in the state at the
number three team spot with senior Brian Hanak continuing to maintain a very
solid season. The Colonials have also been able to offset a season ending
injury to senior Joey Bylund with strong running at the 4-5-6 spots from
junior Chris Mocko, sophomore Kyle Smith and senior Tarik Jones and go into
the regional meet with six of the top eighteen times, based on the four
district meets at Fort Belvoir.

The next three state qualifying slots look to be among Patriot District
champion Lake Braddock, Patriot runnerup West Springfield and the 2-3-4 teams
from the Concorde District in Oakton, Westfield and Herndon.
Lake Braddock, the 2000 team state runnerup but a non qualifier last year,
will be looking to get back to Great Meadow next week led by a front
threesome of Steve Hoogland, James McLellan and Danny Howick while West
Springfield is led by senior Jeff Day, who posted the top time at districts
of 16:44. The Spartans have also had junior Steve Tobin running well in the
number two spot but will need their numbers three through five runners to
close the gap on the other contenders to have a shot at states.
Even though Jefferson is the most widely known team from the Concorde this
season, that district also boasts a trio of teams with state qualifying
potential. At the district meet which Jefferson won with 28 points, the
battle for second was close with Oakton grabbing the runnerup spot with 68
points and Westfield edging Herndon 75-76 for third place.
Oakton has one of the top emerging runners in the state with junior Kris
Cruz and are tough at the next two spots with Ben Beiter and Karl Lang.
Westfield has senior Bryan Buckland as their season long leader and as one of
the top runners in the region with juniors James Scheiner and David Groff a
strong interchangeable duo at the second and third spots. Herndon has
talented senior Rasheed Thompson looking almost fully recovered from a leg
injury which had sidelined him from this past February through the outdoor
season and as one of the region individual co-favorites and the Hornets also
are looking for another good race from their number two runner, junior Shane
Young.
Other top individuals to watch include Wakefield senior Peter Quinzio, who
was the National District champ; junior Jes Barron of W.T. Woodson who
claimed the Liberty District title and Madison's Andrew Waring, the Liberty
runnerup who will lead the Liberty team champion Warhawks in their darkhorse
bid to be in the fight for one of the four qualifying state spots.

The battle for the girls team title as well as the four state slots looks
to be among Jefferson and Herndon from the Concorde and the Patriot quartet
of Lake Braddock, West Springfield, Robinson and Hayfield. The regional title
would certainly be a nice feather in the cap for any of these schools but the
premium will be on being sure to run well enough this week in order to run
the following week at states.
With the Northern Region strong once again, getting to the state meet is a
priority; where anything could happen, as evidenced by Lake Braddock two
years ago and West Potomac in the early '90's when in an equally balanced
field they both went from fourth at the regional meet to winning the state
team championship.
Jefferson, which waged a tight battle with Herndon and defeated the
Hornets by 27-32 at the Concorde meet, ran as well as they have all season
and will be looking to carry that momentum successfully through the regional
meet. The Colonials had senior Sarah Levine run her best race of the fall in
winning the individual title and also had the district runnerup in Shauneen
Garrahan in addition to strong races from Jen Dolson and Leah McKay at three
and four.
Herndon, although the district runnerup, looks capable of being as strong
as anyone coming into the region meet after placing their top five among the
first nine at the Concorde meet. The Hornets have junior Kristin Hart, the
third place finisher at the state meet last year, back close to her form of
last year after being sidelined for the outdoor track season from leg
injuries and Herndon had only a 24 second spread in the next four scoring
positions behind Hart at districts with Colleen Lear, Heather Fisher, Jenny
Miller and Jessie Erickson.
Lake Braddock won a tight battle over Robinson and West Springfield to
notch the Patriot District title and are once again led by senior Kelly
Swain, with Swain backed up at the 2-3-4 spots by Kelly Sherrard, Abbey
McGrath and Kelsey Snowden.
Robinson is the defending state AAA team champion and have to be considered
as dangerous as any team if they can get it all to click on the same day. The
Rams have one of the individual co-favorites in Patriot champ Joanna Rodgers
and Robinson also has the reliable Sam Ference in the number two spot but the
Rams need to close some time in the next three spots from their recent
district performance.
West Springfield will be trying to get back to the state meet from a year
ago when they finished a solid third. The Spartans are led by seniors Huma
Husain and Kelly Ann Osobrn and look to be a factor once again this year.
Hayfield looks to rebound from a somewhat subpar performance at districts
from their numbers three through five but certainly had to be elated at the
continued strong running at the top two spots with Morgan Phelan and Melissa
Dewey while Liberty team champ Madison assumes the darkhorse role on the
girls side and are led by freshman Megan Ginley, the Liberty individual
winner.

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