The view from Virginia
By Pearl Watts
A free plane ticket and also paid hotel accommodations to Walt
Disney World
in Orlando, Florida await 32 of the top boys and 32 of the top girl
cross
country runners in the country for the Foot Locker National Championships.
There is just one catch to that for everyone and it is not in fine
print
but rather boldly spelled out. To be eligible for the three days
of
festivities starting on Thursday, December 6 and continuing through
race day
on December 8, the lucky ones must finish in the top eight at one
of the four
designated regional sites representing their particular state.
Runners from Virginia will compete in the Foot Locker South Regional
Championship at McAlpine-Greenway Park in Charlotte, NC on Saturday,
November
24 with the girls race to start at 10:00 a.m. and the boys race
to begin at
10:30 a.m. in the quest for the hottest ticket of the year.
Also this Saturday, the Northeast Regional Championships will be
at Van
Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, NY and the Midwest Regional competition
will be
held in Kenosha, WI while the West Regional meet will be Saturday,
December 1
in Walnut, CA as the nation's top notch runners aim for Orlando.
The South Regional is comprised of the states of Virginia, Alabama,
Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina,
South
Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia and also have entrants
eligible
from the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
In recent years, the states which have enjoyed the most success
have been Virginia, Texas and Florida with Northern Virginia having
a representative in all but two of the years since the race's inception
in 1979.
Although the Northern Region cannot expect the dominance it had
as late as
1996 when 7 of the 16 boys and girls qualifiers from the South Region
came
from Fairfax County schools, the region will look to keep its streak
alive
with Oakton senior Keira Carlstrom looking to have the best chance
to make it
to Orlando. Last year Carlstrom finished 15th in the girls race
at the South Regional
meet, but the two time state AAA cross country champion, appears
to have a
very good chance to improve on that position this year with the
goal to at
least move up seven spots from last year's race.
Carlstrom said, "I'm a lot more confident about my chances
this year. Last
year I was pretty nervous for the race and then seemed to get out
of my race
plan after seeing more girls ahead of me in the first half of the
race than I
am used to."
Carlstrom is one of the faster runners expected for the race with
a
personal best of 4 minutes, 53.54 seconds for the mile and may need
to use
that foot speed to her benefit both at the start of the race where
the wide
starting line area eventually narrows down to about three runners
wide after
the first 600 meters and at the end, where there is a hard packed
dirt
surface for about 400 meters which loops around a lake to the finish
line.
Other top area runners looking for a solid performance and a possible
trip
to Florida include Lake Braddock junior Kelly Swain, the region's
top girl
finisher at last year's race when she finished ninth and missed
by just one
spot of qualifying for nationals; Herndon sophomore Kristin Hart,
who was the
third place finisher at the AAA state meet earlier this month and
Centreville
sophomore Dacia Barr.
Other top Virginians include Hylton junior Jemissa Hess, the Northwest
Region champ and AAA state runnerup this season and Jefferson Forest
senior
twin sisters Shannon Saunders and Kristen Saunders, the AA champion
and
runnerup respectively from two weeks ago.
Some of the other top competitors entered include three returning
Foot
Locker Finalists from last year in North Carolina senior Laura Stanley,
the
fourth place finisher in the South Region and who also placed 11th
at
nationals; Brooke Stewart of Texas, fifth at the region last year
and 29th in
Orlando; Valerie Lauver of Texas, eighth in the South Region and
19th at
nationals with North Carolina seniors Julia Lucas and Carly Mathews
along
with senior Julia Cathcart of Mississippi also expected to be factors.
Boys
On the boys side, no one is expected to have quite as much of a
chance to
make the squad as Carlstrom has on the girls side; partly because
the boys
South Region looks to be as strong as it has been in years.
The South returns three finalists from last year, all of whom are
ranked
among the top ten runners in the country.Heading the impressive
trio is senior
Bobby Lockhart from Winchester, Virginia's Handley High school who
was the
regional runnerup last year to South Lakes' Alan Webb in 15:07 on
the very
flat 5,000 meter (3.1 mile) McAlpine course. Lockhart should have
his hands
full with junior Bobby Curtis of Kentucky, who ran the fastest time
at the
Great American race in September on the same course as will be run
on
Saturday at 15:09 and finished tenth at nationals last year as a
sophomore
and also from senior Joe Thorne of Georgia, fourth at last year's
regionals
and eleventh in Orlando.
With those three virtually having spots locked up, only five coveted
positions remain with North Carolina junior Matt Debole, Alabama
senior Scott
Fuqua, Tennessee senior Andy Baksa, Florida sophomore Ryan Deak
and Florida
senior Rolf Steier also capable of making the squad.
The region's top hopes seem to lie with Herndon junior Rasheed
Thompson,
the fourth place finisher at the state meet and with Oakton senior
Phil
Gaeta, the Concorde District and Northern champ who finished fifth
at states
behind Thompson. Other top Virginia prospects include Thomas Dale
junior Alex Tatu and Ocean
Lakes senior Matt Keally from AAA along with senior Fleet Hower
from Marion,
Jamestown senior Bryce Ruiz and Rockbridge junior John Crews from
the AA.
Foot Locker South
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