Virginia State Meet Preview

by Pearl Watts

The Northern Region will have the daunting but not improbable task of 
sweeping the individual and team state titles as they did last year at the 
AAA state championship meet tomorrow.   The quest for the state titles 
are being held now for the sixth successive year at Great Meadow in 
The Plains on their all grass, increasingly hilly 5,000 meter (3.1 miles) course.

Racing will begin at 10:30 a.m. with the Girls AA championship followed by 
the Boys AA at 11:15. The Girls AAA is scheduled for 11:45 a.m with the Boys 
AAA to begin at 12:15 p.m. The Girls A race is set for 1:00 p.m. with the 
final race the Boys A, at 1:45 p.m.

The girls AAA race finds Lake Braddock coming in as the defending champion 
and one of a half dozen or so schools that has a legitimate shot at winning 
in what should be a very tight team title battle. Lake Braddock was a close 
but disappointed third at last week's regional championships. Veteran Bruin 
coach Marshall Windsor said, "the team has done everything in practice this 
week that I feel like they needed to do. Whether or not that will transfer to 
the meet on Saturday... we'll have to see."

One thing Windsor has a good chance of seeing is Erin Swain putting on 
another good performance. The Bruin senior dominated the region meet last 
week with a victory by over thirty seconds and with good weather expected for 
tomorrow, Swain looks to have a decent shot at Liz Awtrey of Robinson's meet 
record of 17 minutes, 59.9 seconds set last year.

For Lake Braddock to repeat as team winners, the Bruins will also need the 
continued good efforts from freshman Kelly Swain, Heather McCarthy and Cheryl 
Carr at the number 2-3-4 spots respectively and in what many times is the 
difference at the state level; get the number five runner to the finish line 
before the opposition's number five.

Robinson was a surprise winner at the regional meet and has been enjoying 
an excellent season ending ride. Robinson coach Jeremy Workman said, "the 
girls team went into the region meet with no pressure on them as the team to 
beat and have the same feeling as states. It's already been a successful year 
but they expect to do well. We have no front runners but we pack together 
pretty well.   The Rams lost their top three runners from last year's state third place 
team due to graduation in Liz Awtrey, Kim Milbourn and Wendy Wagner, all of 
whom are running Division I cross country but have rebounded nicely this 
season with juniors Amy Wagner and Michelle Gregory along with a talented 
freshmen Sam Ference and Lauren Hovlund. 

Besides Lake Braddock and Robinson, Chantilly along with Thomas Jefferson 
of Richmond and Douglas Freeman should all be in a fight for the top five.
Chantilly was the region runnerup last week, defeating Lake Braddock by 
nine points at 107-116 but falling three points shy of Robinson. The Chargers 
have a good chance at a low score that is greatly aided by having two front 
runners in senior Carin Miller and junior Laurie Yarger.  

Thomas Jefferson looked plenty tough in winning the Georgetown Prep Classic 
in mid-October and defeated both Lake Braddock and Robinson at Prep. They are 
led by Kerin Lanyi, the third place finisher at last year's state meet and 
are very solid at the next two spots with Jeannie Addison and Ashley Seaton. 
Douglas Freeman is also a team to be reckoned with out of the strong 
Central Region and were state runnersup last year led by Elizabeth Bugg with 
Oakton, the fourth and final region qualifier, looking for the next spot in 
line.

Some of the top individuals to watch include Meghan Hoffman of West 
Potomac, the state sixth place finisher last year as a freshman, Christina 
Burleson of Mount Vernon, Marshall's Lauren Chaikin, Marjorie Censer from 
W.T. Woodson, Gar-Field's Dionne Evans and Colleen Connell of Brooke Point.

The boys race has Robinson as the favorite for the team title and Alan Webb 
South Lakes as the odds on individual favorite. The Robinson boys squad is 
currently ranked #18 in the country according to the Foot Locker-Adidas poll 
published by The Harrier and have been running well all season long in the 
quest for their first state crown since 1982.   

Robinson coach Jeremy Workman said, "the team feels like they are two 
thirds of the way there after winning the district and region. The group 
knows they are the team everyone is going after but they have been in that 
position all season long and are used to it."

Workman said the best news is that everyone is healthy and ready to line up 
with the Rams starting seven consisting of L.A. Snead, Brian Dumm, Andrew 
Dunnum, A.J. Renkiewicz, Dan Marzluff, Brian Crawford and Kevin McHale.
Looking to upset the Rams is a group that includes Lake Braddock, 
Jefferson, Oakton, Midlothian and Potomac.

Lake Braddock ran a close second to Robinson at both the Patriot District 
and Northern Region meets and will hope that their top two runners in Dave 
Vitto and Jimmy Judge can run with Robinson's top two and then put John Bates 
and Tim Oliver close behind.

Jefferson will be looking for a chance at a top three to five spot led by 
one of the top runners in the state in senior Dave Silver as will Oakton with 
junior Matt Maline as a potential top five individual finisher.

Midlothian won the Central Region title and have perhaps the number two 
finisher behind Webb of South Lakes in junior Austin Smith while Potomac can 
spell trouble with a strong front four led by Jason Lewis and Jamaal Saunders.
Individually, Alan Webb is back to defend his title and nobody is betting 
against a repeat win for the South Lakes junior. 

Last week the webmaster became the number four performer all time in the 26 
year history of the Burke Lake course with his time of 14:30 over 2.98 miles 
and is looking to greatly improve on his winning time at state's last year of 
15:41.3.   South Lakes coach Scott Raczko said of Webb, "he's really psyched up and 
raring to go for this meet."

Others to watch in the other classifications include George Mason's Colleen 
Winzeler in the Girls A where her time should stack up favorably against the 
top AA and AAA runners and in the Boys A race the always tough Brentsville 
squad coached by Rob Dulin and led by defending state champion David Aleman.
In the Girls AA race Louisa County is one of the top ranked teams in the 
mid-Atlantic region with their duo at the top of Charissa George and Jill 
Wilson while the Boys AA race is one of the best ever in years.