Virginia State Meet Wrapup
by Pearl Watts - for Northern Virginia readers
The Robinson boys team and Douglas Freeman girls team along with Alan
Webb of South Lakes and Lake Braddock's Erin Swain all rolled to impressively
easy victories at the state AAA championships last Saturday at Great Meadow
in The Plains.
The Robinson boys, ranked number eighteen in the nation, fulfilled the
season long expectations as the team to beat statewide in AAA as the Northern
Region champs placed four runners in the top twenty one overall and their top
five among the top thirty one in the team scoring to win with 79 points.
In a tight battle for second place, Northwest Region titleist Cave Spring
was second with 137 to edge Central Region champ Midlothian (138) by one
point with Northern Region runnerup Lake Braddock a close fourth at 144.
Robinson, which finished fourth at the state meet a year ago, had four
juniors and one senior account for their state points. Junior Brian Dumm led
the way with a seventh place finish overall in 16 minutes, 4.4 seconds on the
5,000 meter course and sixth in the team scoring as a result of individual
qualifiers from the regional meets being deleted from the team scores.
Dumm was followed by junior L.A. Snead (13th overall; 10th team; 16:11.6),
junior A.J. Renkiewicz (19th; 15th; 16:29.2); senior Andrew Dunnum (21st;
17th; 16:31.8) and junior Brian Crawford (44th; 31st; 16:55.8) for a team
average of 16:26.5.
The Rams went out fairly hard early in the race, lost a few spots
in the middle and then maintained their positions through
the deceptively long 600 meter finishing area for the convincing victory.
Robinson was certainly a notch above the rest of the field as evidenced by
the fact that if their number six runner Dan Marzluff (79th; 53rd; 17:23.8)
had in addition been counted in the scoring, the Rams still would have won.
Robinson coach Jeremy Workman said, "the team seemed a little more nervous
and apprehensive at the starting line than they usually are but I told them
that if they would just run to the best of their ability the title should be
theirs. It was a very satisfying victory; they have been under the gun all
year as the team to beat and under a lot of pressure since the district meet."
In the race for individual honors, Alan Webb of South Lakes put the
pressure on the rest of the field from the start and ultimately the course
record as he zipped to an excellent time of 15:08.7 to win by a whopping
forty seconds over the rest of the field and took away Sharif Karie of West
Springfield's 1995 state standard of 15:14.7. Webb went through the first mile
in a nothing to shout about 4:46 but then hit the fairly hilly
second mile of the course with half mile splits of 2:26
and 2:27 to go through the two mile mark in 9:39. The junior standout then
went through the toughest section of the course in 2:37 to clock 12:16 for
2.5 miles and cruised home to his 15:08.7 final time which was thirty three
seconds faster than he ran to win the title last year as a sophomore.
Webb said, "this race seemed easier for me than the regional meet. At the
region I had to work hard mentally to go fast. Here, it seemed more like my
legs just carried me through."
Oakton junior Matt Maline ran a very strong second half of the race to
claim second place in 15:50.8 to lead the Cougars to a fifth place finish
with 163 points. Team runnerup Cave Spring had their junior duo of Bill
Meador (15:52.7) and Mike Devaughn (15:58.8) grab third and fifth
respectively to edge third place Midlothian which was led by junior Austin
Smith's fourth place finish in 15:57.3.
Lake Braddock had juniors Dave Vitto (16:17.2) in fifteenth place and
junior Jimmy Judge (16:29.7) in twentieth overall to aid their fourth place
team finish while Jefferson had Dave Silver as the top senior finisher in
eighth place at 16:08.6 as the Colonials placed eleventh with 259 points.
The Douglas Freeman girls were also an easy team winner as they placed
their top five in the top thirty two overall and in the top twenty in the
team scoring to score 67 points with their district rival Thomas Jefferson of
Richmond second with 107 and Chantilly a close third with 115.
Freeman, the champs out of the Central Region, were paced by senior leader
Elizabeth Bugg who finished sixth overall in 19:12.6. Thomas Jefferson, the
Central runnerup who defeated Freeman in their district meet, were led by
senior Kerin Lanyi in fourth at 19:01.5 and junior Jeannie Addison's seventh
place finish in 19:13.0.
Chantilly, the Concorde District titleist and Northern Region runnerup
concluded a highly successful campaign under coach Scott Bergquist in
grabbing the third place trophy as they had junior Laurie Yarger (9th;
19:20.6) and senior Carin Miller (14th; 19:30.6) perform well once again and
the Chargers also received a big boost from junior Tracy Williams running her
best race of the year in placing 19th at 19:42.8.
Robinson was the next highest region finisher in fifth place with 142
points led by freshman Sam Ference (22nd; 19:47.4) with Lake Braddock seventh
(169) while Oakton scored 224 points for eighth place with sophomore Alison
Cole their top finisher (25th; 19:53.7).
Just as Webb was the overwhelming favorite on the boys side going into the
meet, so was Erin Swain of Lake Braddock on the girls side and the Bruin
senior did not disappoint as she won by over thirty seconds in 18:07.5 for
the second fastest time ever in the six years the course has been run at the
Great Meadow site.
Swain led an all Northern Region front pack which included West Potomac's
Meghan Hoffman, Marshall's Lauren Chaikin and Mount Vernon's Christina
Burleson through the first mile in 5:45. Shortly after the mile mark Swain
took over an opened up a fourteen second lead over the rest of the field at
two miles which she covered in 11:42. She lengthened her lead through 2.5
miles (14:40) and finished well in now only having Robinson's Liz Awtrey at
17:59.9 (1998) ahead of her for the top state meet time.
Swain said, "the race went like I thought it would. The second mile went
really well and the hills didn't hurt as much as I thought they would today.
I worked to maintain on the hills and not overdo it so I would have something
left at the end."
West Potomac's Meghan Hoffman improved on her sixth place freshman finish
of a year ago with a strong burst on the homestretch to claim second in
18:38.9 and the Northern Region made it a sweep of the top three spots with
continually improving senior Lauren Chaikin of Marshall holding onto her
strong early position to finish third in 18:52.2.
W.T. Woodson junior Marjorie Censer had another very solid race in nabbing
fifth place (19:10.2) and all state honors were also claimed by freshman
Kelly Swain of Lake Braddock (10th; 19:22.2), West Springfield senior Maria
Barber (11th; 19:23.8) and Mount Vernon senior Christina Burleson (15th;
19:35.) as the Northern Region took nine of the top fifteen spots.
In the girls A race George Mason junior Colleen Winzeler dominated the race
from the outset, establishing an early lead at the mile, extending it through
two miles which she hit at 11:53 and finishing in a class A record of 18:54.8
for the fourth fastest time of the day among the three classes in winning by
almost 400 meters. Brentsville had their way in the team race with 56 points
to more than halve second place Galax and their 115 point total.
In the boys A race Clarke County was the winner with 89 points followed
closely by runnerup New Kent with 100 points and Brentsville at 107 for third
place with the individual winner senior Russ Rodriguez of Page County
(16:58.3).
The boys AA team title was never in doubt as Western Albemarle, the number
sixteen ranked team in the country, put four runners in the top thirteen
overall paced by senior Jeremy Cadle (6th; 16:14.5) and junior Philip Delong
(7th; 16:18.5) to win with 50 points with a top five runner average of
16:30.1 with Lafayette the runnerup at 103 and Jamestown edging Louisa County
for third by 138-139.
Handley sophomore Bobbie Lockhart easily defended his 1998 state title with
the second fastest time of the day at 15:39.0 with splits of 4:42 for the
first mile; 7:13 at 1.5; going through two miles at 9:53 and then the 2.5
mile mark in 12:39 enroute to the victory. Harrisonburg junior Jorge Ruiz
passed a half dozen runners in the second half of the race
to grab second in 15:53.8 followed by Jefferson Forest senior Brad Fitzgerald
in third at 16:03.3 and Jamestown sophomore Bryce Ruiz in fourth with a 16:05.1 clocking.
The girls AA race saw Louisa County score 62 points to prevent a sweep by
Western Albemarle as they finished second with 77 points. Louisa County went
one-two in the individual race with senior Jill Wilson winning in 19:05.2,
just ahead of her senior teammate Charissa George (2nd; 19:08.5).
