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DyeStat Virginia
11/11/00 at Great Meadow VA
Cross Country State Meet
Preview
Girls A - Boys A - Girls AA - Boys AA - Girls AAA - Boys AAA
by Pearl Watts
Brentsville is the defending team champion and will be gunning for its sixth consecutive team title. Last year Brentsville more than halved second place Galax and their 115 point total with their score of 56 points as Brentsville's top five runners all placed among the top twenty one team scoring finishers. Could they possibly do it again ?
Brentsville was impressive last week at the Region B championships in totaling just 30 points to claim the team title at the New Market Battlefield course. Coach Rob Dulin's squad put all five of their runners among the top ten, led by Mindy Peele in second place overall at 20:45. Brentsville also received top five finishes from Bethany Kitonis and Heather Waters; had Carrie Canda along with Jennifer Page in the top ten and also had number six runner Kathleen Sulivan chip in with a 13th place finish. Brentsville looks especially strong with Peele as one of the front runners and with less than a minute spread between their number two through six runners at New Market; six in a row is a strong possibility.
New Kent was the fourth place finisher at the state meet last year and almost ran the table at the Region A meet this year in scoring 21 points for the victory. They swept the top three spots individually with Eileen Wicker, Emily Wheeler and Sarah Davis and took three of the next six spots with Julie Smith, Emily Anne Evelyn and Kristina Preisner. 1999 state runnerup Galax looks strong once again after winning the Region C title at 51 points with Giles scoring 80 in the runnerup spot. Galax's Elizabeth Mattson was the individual runnerup at the Sugar Hollow Course in Bristol at 19:26, the same time as winner Ashley Eshagi of Parry McCluer. J.J. Kelley was the Region D team winner with 44 points and will be looking for a top five team spot led by junior Cassie Creech and senior Erica Collins. Other top individuals to watch include Leslie Grant of Strasburg, who broke her own course record in the Region B meet of 20:37 with her time of 20:25 and in so doing beat Brentsville's Mindy Peele for the first time this season with Peele finishing in 20:46 and another to watch is Garden's Shannon Brown, who won the Region D meet by almost two minutes.
At last year's state meet Clarke County scored 89 points to win in a tight three team battle over runnerup New Kent (100) and third place Brentsville (107) with Page County fourth at 122 points. This year could see the same four squads at the top but not necessarily in the same order.
At last week's Region B meet Page County was a decisive winner in scoring 37 points with Brentsville second (70 points) and Clarke County scored 92 points for third. Page County put four runners in the top ten paced by the runnerup finish of Todd Somers and their numbers two through four runners, Jonathan Frazier, Jeremy Gray and Brandon Price, were all less than 25 seconds behind Somers. Brentsville has a front runner in senior Matt Truschel but Page County was able to place their top four runners ahead of Brentsville's second runner at the regional meet. Clarke County has one of the pre-meet individual favorites in senior Dustin Sweeney and also return senior Tim Tomblin, who finished fifth overall at last year's state meet. Patrick Henry-Glade Spring easily took the Region C meet with 46 points with a squad which includes just one senior and had the individual champion in junior Michael Buchanan. J.J. Kelley made it a sweep of the team titles in Region D with their 39 point score and have a strong top three of James Eller, Henry Shapiro and Brandon Justice.
New Kent also took the Region A boys title in addition to the girls crown as their 33 point total easily outdistanced runnerup Essex and their 78 points. New Kent put four runners in the top ten and are led by sophomore Cameron Cox and senior Aaron March as they look to duplicate or better last year's second place state finish. Some of the other top individuals to watch include senior William James of Mathews, who set a new course record of 16:44 to win the Region A title; Edward Bowis from Northumberland; Region D champion Michael Cozzolino of Castlewood, Floyd County's Marc Quesenberry, Greg Weinerth of Parry McCluer, George Mason's Andrew Montgomery and Brett Kendrick of Patrick Henry.
There will certainly be a new champion this year as 1999 winner Louisa County, one of the top teams in the South last year, was hit hard by graduation and failed to qualify out of Region II.
Potomac Falls was the Region II winner with 48 points to turn back a strong second place Turner Ashby squad which scored 59 points with 1999 state team runnerup Western Albemarle third at 93 points. Potomac Falls showed they were for real after winning the Glory Days Invitational at Bull Run Regional Park last month over a number of strong AAA schools and the Panthers had the regional individual winner in freshman Katie Endres. Potomac Falls also had two other runners in the top ten at the Region II meet in Christy Dannenburg and Meredith Cleveland to help offset the top five finishes by the Turner Ashby duo of Betsy Kain and Rachel Haley. In Region I Grafton won their first ever regional title with 59 points to edge second place Lafayette (65) with Jamestown a close third with 77 points.
Grafton put three runners in the top fifteen led by Amanda McHenry's fourth place finish and Lafayette also had three of the top fifteen paced by Ashley Reyher in sixth and teammate Brian Kearney one second behind in seventh.
Region IV brings two solid squads to Great Meadow in team champion Marion (36 points) and runnerup Abingdon (45 points) while Region III fields two of the tougher teams in the AA field in Jefferson Forest and Rockbridge County. At the regional meet, Rockbridge County claimed six of the top twelve spots in scoring 36 points but was still defeated by Jefferson Forest. Rockbridge's depth could tell the tale as they had less than a minute separation from their top two runners of Heidi Fishpaw and Kelly Evans through their number six runner.
Jefferson Forest, the third place team at states last year, is very strong at the top though and took the top three spots individually at the region meet in winner Shannon Sauners, runnerup Jennifer Templeton and third place finisher Kristin Saunders. Top individuals to look for in addition to those aforementioned include junior Ann Lee Cole of Nottoway, who was the Region I winner by just one second over sophomore Stacy Potter of Massaponax; Amanda Musick of Lebanon, who was the Region IV winner for the fourth consecutive year; Chelsea Henderson of Stonebridge and Handley's Joanne Britland.
Western Albemarle dominated the meet last year in scoring just 50 points and will be among the favorites once again. Western Albemarle was impressive once again last week in claiming the Region II title with just 40 points. They were led by Phillip DeJong in fifth place overall and then took four of the next seven spots with Charlie Hurt, Peter Burch, Owen Morrison and Josiah Cadle. Western Albemarle should prove to be pretty tough to beat with less than forty seconds separating their top five runners at the regional meet at Dardin-Towe Park last week while averaging an impressive 16:43 aggregate over the 5,000 meter layout.
Jamestown may be the squad with the best chance of challenging Western Albemarle. Jamestown was a convincing winner at the Region I championships in scoring 32 points and has a serious penetrator in Bryce Ruiz. The lanky junior broke none other than Lafayette legend Seneca Lassiter's course record on the grounds of Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg with his winning time of 15:03 over the 3.05 mile course. Jamestown also placed Tony Davila, Jeff Magner and Brandon Miles among the top ten and had their number five runner, Phillip Cooke, finish 15th overall.
Marion High bears mentioning after their perfect score of 15 points to dominate the Region IV meet. Marion not only had the first five runners but seven of the first eight finishers, paced by junior James Hower, who won the individual title by almost a full minute.
Rockbridge County was the other regional winner, claiming three of the top five spots enroute to the Region III crown. Rockbridge County had the individual winner in sophomore John Crews, who cruised his 3.1 mile home course to a nearly thirty second win in 16:22 with teammate Chris Patterson the runnerup at 16:51 and Roger Williams chipping in with a fifth place finish.
Individually, the odds on favorite is junior Bobby Lockhart of Handley. Lockhart set a new course record of 15:29 in winning the Region II meet at Darden-Towe Park and ran 15:14 the previous week at Great Meadow to claim his district's title. Lockhart is shooting for his third consecutive state title and appears en route to another berth in the Foot Locker National Championships next month. Lockhart went out extremely fast last year at the state meet in clocking 4:42 for the first mile before settling down to a two mile split of 9:53 en route to a fourteen second victory in 15:39.0. Look for Lockhart to go significantly under that mark and possibly challenge the course record set last year of 15:08.7 by Alan Webb of South Lakes. Other top individuals entered besides Lockhart of Handley, Bryce Ruiz of Jamestown and Rockbridge County's John Crews include 1999 state runnerup Jorge Ruis of Harrisonburg, Evan Kays of Stuarts Draft, Louis County's Daniel Kane and Allen Carr of York.
Douglas Freeman is the defending team champion and Thomas Jefferson of Richmond was the 1999 state runnerup and expect both of those squads to be near the top again.
Thomas Jefferson squeezed out a two point victory in the Central Region championships over Douglas Freeman at 67-69 and those two squads may not be separated by much more than that at the state meet. T.J. has one of the pre-meet individual favorites in senior Jeannie Addison, who won the Central Region title by almost a thirty second margin over her fellow senior teammate Ashley Seaton. Thomas Jefferson is also strong at the next two spots with seniors Lauren Comet and Tiffany Cross and if they get a solid showing at their number five slot, they will be tough to overtake.
Douglas Freeman is also in a strong position to defend their 1999 title. Freeman lost some key runners from last year's squad but are led by junior Julia Siegel, the third place finisher at the Central Region meet, have seniors Elizabeth Lee and Lauren Hoffman at the next two spots and will rely on freshmen Tyler Wallace and Megan Donohue at the fourth and fifth positions.
The Northern Region also features two strong squads in Thomas Jefferson of Alexandria and Robinson. Jefferson ran their best race of the season to upend Robinson at the regional meet by the narrowest of margins at 82-83. Jefferson has one of the top runners in the race with senior Kelley Otstott, a 1998 Foot Locker finalist who ran her best race of the season to win the individual region title by eleven seconds. Jefferson then forms a close pack behind Otstott with Hilary Goss, Ana Avramovic, Andrea Lopez and Jennifer Dolson.
Robinson finished fifth at last year's state meet with a very young squad and although they do not have a true front runner, Robinson goes a strong seven deep with Joanna Rodgers, Sam Ference, Lauren Hovland, Amy Wagner, Michelle Awtrey, Kelly Givens and Bonnie Axman.
Brooke Point should also be a factor after winning the Northwest Region meet by 66 points over their closest pursuer with their total of 50 points. Brooke Point is led by their lone senior among the top seven, Colleen Connell, and match up well at the next two spots with Jessica Hoppe and Amanda Mascarenas.
Individually, there could be as many as a half dozen runners barreling down the final homestretch with a chance to win. That group could include Jeannie Addison of Richmond's T.J.; Kelley Otstott of Jefferson, Oakton's Keira Carlstrom, Kelly Swain of Lake Braddock; C.D. Hylton sophomore Jemissa Hess, who was the Northwest Region winner; and Centreville freshman Dacia Barr with Kristin Novara from James Wood, Gar-Field's Dionne Evans, Kristyn Shiring of North Stafford and Chantilly's Tracy Williams also in the mix.
The boys team title appears to be wide open with Midlothian, Oakton and Albemarle among the favorites but being pushed by Woodbridge, Cave Spring, Lake Braddock and Robinson.
Midlothian finished third at states last year with a young squad and a year later look much stronger than in 1999. Midlothian crushed at the Central Region meet with their win at 36 points and is led by Austin Smith, their lone senior, who finished fourth at Great Meadow last year. Midlothian is also very capable at the next two spots with junior twin brothers Anthony D'Amato and Michael D'Amato and do not drop off appreciably after that with junior Jason Call and sophomore Andrew Baker with their entire top five finishing among the top fifteen at the regional meet.
Oakton has also been running well and were the Northern Region champs with 63 points. Oakton has the 1999 state runnerup in senior Matt Maline and can just about match Midlo at the next two spots with junior Phil Gaeta and Justin Simcox. Albemarle prevailed by ten points over Woodbridge in the Northwest Region meet at 57-67 with Cave Spring third with 79 points. Albemarle is led by senior James Atchison with the next two spots filled by juniors Travis Lambert and Joseph Murray.
Woodbridge is tough at the top with junior Michael Lyng who was the Northwest runnerup and with sophomore Derek Grotheer while Cave Spring also has a tough duo in Northwest winner Bill Meador, who was the third place finisher at states last year, and with senior Mike DeVaughn who placed fifth last year at Great Meadow.
Lake Braddock ran their best race of the seaon in finishing as the Northern Region runnerup with 74 points. Lake Braddock has a good front three of Dave Vitto, Jimmy Judge and Steven Hoogland while defending state champion Robinson will count on experienced seniors L.A. Snead and Brian Dumm to lead their squads.
Individually, it is not usual for elite runners to adopt a defeatist strategy going into a race but with Alan Webb of South Lakes in the field, the question will probably be about who will finish second. Webb, the course record holder at 15:08.7 and two time AAA champion, has been running even better this year than last and is certainly capable of going below 15 minutes on the course, especially if Bobby Lockhart of Handley posts a top mark in the earlier AA race. Others to watch include Central Region champ John Piersol of Richmond's Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Dale sophomore Alex Tatu, Eastern Region champ Matt Keally of Ocean Lakes, Sherando's Jared Prunty; state outdoor 800 meter champ Curtis Parker of Woodside and Kempsville's Jeff Hedley.
Many thanks to www.trackfirst.com for a lot of this information contained on their website. www.trackfirst.com will have race results, wrapups and feature stories within 24 hours of the meet's conclusion.
Finally, congratulations and good luck to all the participants at this year's edition of the Virginia State Cross Country Championships.
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