Julia Ghiselli didn’t know much about Heather Holt before the Monroe Parker Invitational, except that she was fast.
A lot of people are getting to know Ghiselli now, and she’s pretty fast herself. And Ghiselli was pleased to learn that Holt was also “very nice.”
The Annandale freshman ran 17:29 on Burke Lake’s 2.98 mile course to win, reaching the threshold to make the all-time list for the course, where will soon be 37th.
From left: Peter Morris, Jacob Windle, Chase Dawson, Noah Hunter, Kevin Carlson, Conor Wells, Colton Bogucki, and Sam Affolder. RunWashington photo by Ed Lull.
As last season came to a close in North Carolina, Loudoun Valley’s disappointment felt cushioned by potential.
Though the Vikings failed to make Nike Cross Nationals, they were on the cusp. They made up ground on a team that had beaten them soundly seven weeks earlier and one junior, Peter Morris, had qualified for the finals with another, Colton Bogucki, one spot away. Jacob Hunter, just a sophomore, was 20th.
“We weren’t good enough to go,” said coach Marc Hunter. “It would have taken one of those other teams to fall off. We ran well but we didn’t run great, but everybody improved, and as a coach, that means everything.”
With all of those runners and more returning, the clouds that hung over the team started to fade.
Then, in December, they parted. Jacob Hunter got a message from a kid he knew from Pennsylvania.
It’s cross country season again, and even though preseason practices have only been going for a few weeks, thoughts of this Fall’s harriers and their potential have been racing through the minds of coaches and athletes alike.
Following a cross country season that saw one local team and two individuals make the Nike Cross Nationals meet and three qualify for Foot Locker, RunWashington’s coaches panel gathered to select the All-RunWashington Postseason teams. Here are some, but not all, of their highlights. If someone has committed to run in college and we haven’t noted it here, please comment or email at [email protected].
The coaches panel includes Steve Hays, Walt Whitman; Cindy Walls, Bishop O’Connell; John Ausema, Gonzaga; Mike Mangan, Lake Braddock; Scott Silverstein, Winston Churchill; Anthony Belber, Georgetown Day; Kevin Hughes, Georgetown Visitation; Chris Pellegrini, West Springfield and Kellie Redmond, T.S. Wootton.
In addition to top 10 boys and girls for the entire D.C. area, the panel selected teams for each state and district:
Rohann Asfaw, junior, Richard Montgomery
Rohann Asfaw got what he came for this season — a state championship and a trip to the Nike Cross Nationals meet, where he finished 94th. He has committed to the University of Virginia, where he’ll run with another tw0-time Montgomery County champion — Poolesville’s Chase Weaverling. At the Oatlands Invitational, he beat fellow All-RunWashington postseason honorees Peter Morris, future college teammate Saurav Velleleth and Patrick Lynch, along with Millbrook’s Alec Schrank, who later edged Asfaw on an incredibly muddy Glory Days course.
Ahmed Hassan, junior, Oakton
Oakton doesn’t usually race many other local teams, but when the postseason came along Ahmed Hassan was near the top, winning the Conference 5 meet, finishing second at the Northern Region meet and fifth at the 6A state meet.
Ryan Lockett, junior, Poolesville
After a year at Gonzaga, Ryan Lockett brought his long shorts back to his native Poolesville and took off as the season went on, finishing third at the DCXC junior race, second at the Montgomery County championship and then first at the Maryland 3A championship.
Patrick Lynch, senior, George C. Marshall
Saurav Velleleth, senior, Thomas Jefferson S&T
Saurav Velleleth started off hot, winning the Monroe Parker and DCXC Invitational senior races. Patrick Lynch broke out of a funk at the Glory Days Invitational and the two staged a great stretch run at the end of the Virginia 5A race, with Lynch building a three-second lead to take third place over Velleleth, who was fourth, and later 27th at the Foot Locker South meet to Lynch’s 21st. Like Asfaw, Velleleth will run at Virginia. Lynch will run at William and Mary.
Conor Lyons, senior, Lake Braddock
Lyons lost second place by a lean, according to the results but not most eye witnesses, at the Virginia 6A meet. He rebounded to finish 22nd at the Nike Cross Southeast meet. Strong second place finishes at the Monroe Parker and Conference 7 races, along with the Frank Keyser meet in Maryland, gave this Indiana native a strong season-long resume.
John Mackey, senior, T C. Williams
John Mackey kicked off the season with a hard effort on a miserably hot morning at the Monroe Parker Invitational and saw he had what it took to hang on at the end of races, finishing a close second to Saurav Velleleth at the DCXC Invitational and finshing sixth at the Virginia 6A championships.
Brandon McGorty, senior, Chantilly
Not content to be simply a two-lap sensation, Brandon McGorty took a chance in some cross country races and it paid off to the tune of a fourth place finish. He won the 6A North regional title. He likely won’t be pressed into service to run 10k cross country at Stanford next year.
Harry Monroe, senior, Gonzaga
Harry Monroe won the DC state meet, starting off scoring for the Eagles to win their first title. He also led the way at the WCAC meet. His third place finish in the DCXC senior race showed how competitive he was on the local scene.
Peter Morris, junior, Loudoun Valley
Morris took control of the Loudoun Valley team, leading it to its second straight 4A title and winning the individual title along the way. Two weeks later, he qualified for Nike Cross Nationals, where he finished 55th.
Olivia Beckner, junior, South Lakes
After two years of injuries, Olivia Beckner finally got to run cross country and capitalized on the opportunity. She finished third at the Third Battle Invitational, fourth at the Virginia 6A meet and 18th at Foot Locker South.
Abigail Green, junior, Walter Johnson
Abbey Green repeated as Montgomery County champion and Maryland 4A runner up, but then followed WJ great Sally Glynn and qualified for the Foot Locker Cross Country championships, where she led D.C.-area finishers in 21st place.
Heather Holt George C. Marshall
After a rare 5A loss at the state meet and an 11th place Foot Locker South finish in 2015, Heather Holt came back stronger and faster in 2016, winning a slew of local invitationals (Monroe Parker, Oatlands, Glory Days, Third Battle) and trailing only Kate Murphy at Great American. She dominated the Virginia 5A race, leading Marshall to its first team title in only its third appearance at the state meet.
Taylor Kitchen, senior, Lake Braddock
On a deep Lake Braddock team, Taylor Kitchen was a model of consistency, finishing 10th at the Virginia 6A meet and 32nd at the Nike Cross Southeast meet to help the Bruins to a return trip to Portland.
Page Lester, junior, National Cathedral
Meghan Lynch, freshman, Georgetown Visitation
On top of winning the D.C. state meet, Page Lester was the first girl from a D.C. school to qualify for the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships, where she finished 31st. An injury layoff after her summer triathlon season gave her a late start to cross country, which she credits with keeping her from burning out mentally in October and November. She was frequently chased by Megan Lynch, winner of the DCXC Invitational fresman race and a basketball and lacrosse player who was running her first season. She wound up second to Lester at the D.C. state meet.
Rachel McArthur, senior, Patriot
Kate Murphy, senior, Lake Braddock
Rachel McArthur and Kate Murphy have had a monopoly on the Virginia 6A race and Nike Cross Southeast titles over the last three years. Over the same time, they’ve established themselves to be even better track athletes than cross country, and at a certain point, sandwiched between late summer seasons (Murphy’s trips to the U.S. Olympic Trials and World Junior Championships in July and McArthur’s trip to Junior Nationals in June) and looming indoor seasons, cross country just doesn’t get the same emphasis. They both focused on getting through the season healthy and, for Murphy, getting Lack Braddock back to the Nike Cross Nationals meet.
Murphy, who will run at Oregon next year, went undefeated up until Portland, where she finished 33rd. McArthur finished second to Murphy at the state meet. She’ll go to Villanova.
Julia Reicin, senior, Winston Churchill
Julia Reicin made herself a factor in every race as the season wore, especially after finishing fourth at the Glory Days Invitational. She repeated that placing at the Montgomery County Championships and closed the year out in third at the state 4A meet. She’ll run at Maryland starting next year.
Samantha Schwers, junior, Lake Braddock
Sam Schwers came through for the Bruins in the postseason, finishing sixth at both the Northern Region and state meets and 26th at the Nike Cross Southeast meet.
D.C. cross country runners got to enjoy a new state meet course, Kenilworth Park, which gave them more sure footing and visibility for their championship meet, on which most of the selections were based.
Timmy Bitsberger, junior, St. Albans
Philip Wright, senior, Sidwell
Timmy Bitsberger finished seventh at the D.C.-Maryland Private Schools Championships, after winning the MAC Championships and finishing second at the Georgetown Prep Invitational. Philip Wright made up for a 17th place finish at the private schools championship by notching 45th place at the Nike Cross Southeast meet.
Michelle Horner, senior, Georgetown Visitation
Ruth Tesfai, junior, McKinley
Michaela Kirvan, junior, Georgetown Visitation
Michaela Kirvan and Michelle Horner finished fourth and fifth at the D.C. state meet, helping Georgetown Visitation to the team title. Ruth Tesfai finished eighth at the D.C. state meet.
John Colucci, junior, Gonzaga
A varsity contributor since his freshman year, John Colucci paired with Harry Monroe to push each other clear of the field at the WCAC and D.C. state meets, where he finished second at both.
Arrington Peterson, senior, Woodrow Wilson
Arrington Peterson finished seventh at the D.C. state meet and 21st among seniors at the DCXC Invitational.
Amal Mattoo, senior, Sidwell
Amal Mattoo finished fifth at the D.C. state meet and 14th at the D.C.-Maryland Private Schools Championships.
Zakyrah Haynie, senior, Woodrow Wilson
Cady Hyde, freshman, St. Johns
Cady Hyde finished third at the D.C. state meet, the second freshman in the top three after Megan Lynch. She won the WCAC meet in her first try. Zakyrah Haynie finished sixth at the D.C. state meet and seventh in the DCXC Invitational senior race.
Jack Beckham, senior, Gonzaga
William McCann, senior, Gonzaga
Will McCann finished sixth at the D.C. state meet to help Gonzaga win the team title. Beckham’s highlight came with a 22nd place finish at the DCXC Invitational in the senior race.
Sarah Pillard, senior, Georgetown Day
Sarah Pillard led the Hoppers at the D.C. state meet, where she finished ninth, and was second for GDS in eighth at the D.C.-Maryland Private Schools Championships.
Josh Shelton, senior, Georgetown Day
Josh Shelton took the lead for the Hoppers this year, and finished sixth at the D.C.-Maryland Private Schools Championships and third at the D.C. state meet.
Many of Virginia’s top runners were younger, lots of juniors, and that bodes well for an experienced group of returners in 2017.
Colton Bogucki, junior, Loudoun Valley
Along with Peter Morris and Jacob Hunter, Bogucki was part of the state’s strongest top three, and his 11th place finish at the Nike Cross Southeast meet helped the Vikings to a third place finish. He finished fourth in the state 4A meet, helping Loudoun Valley to its second straight team title. He finished fourth at the Third Battle Invitational.
Emma Wolcott, junior, Tuscarora
Defending 5A state champion Emma Wolcott started her season in earnest in October, and on slippery ground, finishing ninth in the mud at the Glory Days Invitational. She moved up during the state meet to finish third, then took 15th at the Foot Locker South meet.
Sean Grimm, senior, James Madison
Sean Grimm led the way for James Madison’s first state title this year, finishing seventh overall and holding off Lake Braddock’s Tyler Lawson in what was a three-point victory for the Warhawks.
Kiera Bothwell, senior, West Springfield
Emily Keast, senior, West Springfield
This pair helped West Springfield to fourth place at the 6A state meet. Kiera Bothwell finished ninth, two seconds and three places ahead of Emily Keast. Bothwell added a win at the Foot Locker South senior race, while Keast finished 10th.
Antonio Lopez , junior, Colgan
Tyler Lawson, junior, Lake Braddock
Colgan’s Antonio Lopez, a Spanish foreign exchange student, helped make the new program’s name with a ninth place finish at the state 6A meet. Tyler Lawson finished a few seconds ahead in eighth to serve as the second man for the Bruins’ runner-up finish.
Yared Mekonnen, junior, Thomas Edison
A few days’ rest while recovering from a stomach bug was all Yared Mekonnen needed to turn in a fifth place finish at the state 5A meet before finishing 28th at the Nike Cross Southeast meet. He also finished sixth at the Third Battle Invitational.
Ava Bir, junior, George C. Marshall
Ava Bir was a steady number two for Marshall during the team’s run to the state 5A title. She finished a strong seventh at the fast Third Battle Invitational, ninth at the state meet and won the Foot Locker South junior class race.
Ava Hassebrock, sophomore, Tuscarora
For the second year, Ava Hassebrock won her class’ race at the DCXC Invitational. Along with Wolcott, she powered Tuscarora to a second place state meet finish, coming in fifth individually.
Caroline Howley, sophomore, McLean
Caroline Howley’s third place finish at the DCXC Invitational sophomore race set up a solid season that ended with a 28th place finish at Nike Cross Southeast, after finishing 11th at the state 6A meet.
Derek Johnson, junior, Tuscarora
Derek Johnson repeated as his class’ DCXC Invitational champion, this time winning the junior race, before finishing sixth at the state 5A championship.
Natalie Morris, junior, Loudoun Valley
Natalie Morris’ second place finish at the Virginia 4A championships helped Loudoun Valley to second place.
Zachary Holden, junior, James Madison
Zach Holden paired with Sean Grimm to form a strong lead pair for the Warhawks on their way to their first state title. He came on the strongest at the end of the season, finishing 11th at the state 6A meet and 39th at Nike Cross Southeast.
Like in Virginia, youth dominated in Maryland, where 10 of the top 15 boys and 12 of the top 15 girls at the Montgomery County Championships were underclassmen.
Aaron Bratt, Sophomore, Walt Whitman
John Riker, Sophomore, T.S. Wootton
A pair of sophomores that both wound up in the top five among their class at the state 4A meet, Whitman’s Aaron Bratt matched strides with Wootton’s John Riker at the DCXC Invitational and separated themselves from the rest of the pack in the third mile, with Bratt getting a narrow lean over Riker. Riker got a larger edge, four seconds, at the Montgomery County Championships, before Bratt, along with teammate Josh Engels, put some distance on Riker at the 4A West regional. Though Riker had the edge at the state meet at 11th to Bratt’s 26th with a 13-second margin between the two, the 17 seconds Bratt finished ahead of Riker was worth 48 places, 77th to 125th, at the Nike Cross Southeast meet. If all of that is confusing, suffice it to say they’ll be in for two more years great races between the two, who are the fastest in their class in Montgomery County.
Nandini Satsangi, sophomore, Poolesville
After a second place finish at the state 3A meet in 2015, Nandini Satsangi maintained a strong sophomore season, with repeat second place finish in her class race at the DCXC Invitational and a third place finish at the Montgomery County Championships. Though she slipped to eighth at the state meet, she rebounded with a 29th place finish at the Foot Locker Northeast meet.
Joshua Engels, junior, Walt Whitman
Josh Engels finished 12th at the state 4A meet after finishing 10th at the Montgomery County Championships.
Yasmine Kass, junior, Paint Branch
With a runner-up finish at the Montgomery County Championships, Yasmine Kass matched her former teammate Bethlehem Taye’s spot a year before. She won the 4A North regional and finished ninth at the state meet before going 27th at Nike Cross Southeast.
Andrew Lent, senior, Poolesville
Along with junior Ryan Lockett, senior Andrew Lent gave Poolesville a strong top two that drove them to a fourth place finish at the state 3A meet, which was also Lent’s individual finish position. He was Maryland’s second finisher at the Foot Locker Northeast regional, finishing 28th.
Heather Delaplaine, junior, Damascus
Heather Delaplaine’s junior season was an exercise in consistency, with sixth place finishes in both the Montgomery County Championships at state 3A meet.
Simeon Mussie, junior, Albert Einstein
Simeon Mussie added depth to the Montgomery County junior class, finishing fourth at the county meet and eighth at the state 4A meet.
Morgan Casey, junior, Montgomery Blair
Josephine Brane-Wright, junior, Montgomery Blair
The Montgomery Blair pair of Morgan Casey and Josephine Brane-Wright powered the Blazers to an eighth place finish in the 4A state meet, along with a fourth place finish at the Montgomery County Championships. Casey finished just ahead of Brane-Wright in 14th.
Adam Nakasaka, Junior, Bethesda-Chevy Chase
Adam Nakasaka wasn’t thinking about waiting for anyone’s turn as he gunned for Rohann Asfaw in basically every race. Though he faded down the stretch at the county championships and saw Ryan Lockett pass him for second, his courage paid off at the 4A state meet, which he finished second with a lead of a little over one-third of a second ahead of third place.
Katrione Kirsch, senior, Walter Johnson
For four years, Walter Johnson’s girls have been winning state cross country championships, and Katrione Kirsch has been around for all of them. This year, she finished second in the senior race at the DCXC Invitational, eighth at the Montgomery County Championships and then seventh at the state meet.
Jason Scott, senior, Wheaton
Jason Scott’s highlight came with an eighth place finish at the Montgomery County Championships, a few weeks before he took third at the 3A South regional on his way to a 14th place finish at the state meet.
Jessica Trzeciak, sophomore, T.S. Wootton
T.S. Wootton’s second place finish at the state meet followed Jessica Trzeciak’s sixth place overall finish, in which she cleared all but two of the 11 people who had beaten her at the Montgomery County Championships. She had finished sixth in the sophomore race at the DCXC Invitational.
For the second consecutive year, Dalton Hengst of McDonogh nabbed the top spot in the varsity large school race at the Maryland-D.C. Private Schools Cross Country Championships. But this time, it was far from the neck-and-neck race to the finish he experienced last year. He blew away the competition, running 15:29 — a full 44 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Hunter Petrik, of Mount Saint Joseph (16:14), and a 20-second PR over his time last year.
D.C.-Maryland Private School Championships
Nov. 12, 2016 – Agricultural History Farm Park, Derwood, Md.
“I definitely went a lot faster than I thought I was going for the first mile — 4:40 was a little too fast for this course,” Hengst said. “But it was a big mental game out there. That was the hardest part.”
Rounding out the top three in the varsity boys large school race were Petrik and Alex Whittaker, both of Mount Saint Joseph, who finished in 16:14 and 16:24, respectively. Overall, the Mount Saint Joseph boys grabbed four of the top 10 finishes, earning a first-place finish in the team competition. They were followed by Our Lady of Good Counsel, Sidwell Friends, St. Albans and, in fifth place, Georgetown Day.
In the varsity girls large school race, National Cathedral junior Page Lester took an early lead within the first few hundred meters and held on throughout the rolling, 3.1-mile course. When she crossed the finish line in 17:59 — course record time — there were no other runners in sight. This was her second first-place finish in just seven days after winning the DCSAA Championships last weekend in Kenilworth Park.
“Over my high school career, this is my sixth time doing [the Derwood, Maryland course]. I’m used to it,” Lester said, adding that she noticed the absence of Megan Lynch, a freshman at Georgetown Visitation, which, along with Gonzaga, did not compete in both championships. “[We] usually go out in the first mile and a half, but they weren’t here today. So I wasn’t really sure if there would be someone to go out with me.”
Lester opted to start the race at a conservative pace — a relatively new strategy for her, but one that has been paying off this season. Her closest competitors,
Genevieve DiBari and Isabel Barnidge , both of Stone Ridge, finished in second and third place with times of 19:31 and 19:45, respectively.
Senior William Jones, of St. Maria Goretti, finished first (15:58) in the varsity boys small school race and second overall, just 29 seconds behind Hengst.
“I felt pretty good. I made sure I sprinted out to get in front of the crowds so I didn’t get boxed in, and I just tried to stay in the lead as long as I could,” Jones said. “I kept looking at [Hengst]. I just tried closing the gap. I just hammered hard.”
Luke Armbruster (16:37) of St. Andrew’s Episcopal took second in the varsity boys small school competition, followed by The Heights senior Matthew Zischkau (16:44). Overall, The Heights took home first in the team competition, with Lions Upper School in second and St. Andrew’s Episcopal in third.
Several of the Sidwell Friends seniors were thrilled with the way they ended the season.
“We’ve had a pretty strong pack this year. When we run together, we really push each other hard. So it’s good to run that way,” said Amal Mattoo.
Christian Roberts said the team’s strategy for the end-of-season race was to “have fun.”
“It’s always one of the harder races,” he said. “There are big schools like Mount Saint Joseph and Good Counsel — teams we don’t see a lot. It’s the end of the season when we come together and have fun being competitive.”
Abbey Green came up just short in her latest attempt to win a Maryland state cross country title, a rematch with Annapolis senior and 2015 Footlocker finalist Maria Coffin. Yet in the end, the Walter Johnson junior said she could not have scripted the race much more perfectly.
Maryland Athletic Association Championships
Nov. 12, 2016 – Hereford High School,
Parkton, Md.
In the state 4A race at legendary Hereford — a three-mile cross country venue so tough, they say, even Centro couldn’t break 16 minutes — Green and Coffin left 152 other harriers far behind in becoming the first two girls to cover the course in less than 18 minutes.
Even as Coffin broke free of Green in the final mile, maintaining a small lead up the race’s final hill, Green’s stride was still strong. It looked for a second like she might even rally. And after crossing the line in 17:54, five seconds back of Coffin, her repeat runner-up complete, Green took some time to catch her breath before walking back towards the finish – again, like last year, waiting eagerly for her teammates to join her.
Katrione Kirsch was the first to come through, placing 7th in 19:38. Then came Sadie Keller, Janet Scott, and Sophia Scobell, all finishing in the top 25 positions as Walter Johnson claimed its fourth 4A title in a row.
“You can just see it in their faces coming in,” Green said. “They’re just pushing, trying to get every last girl that they can get. They’re all just really fighting for each other and for what we’ve worked really hard for.”
Asked about her own effort, even then Green led with more praise for others. “I think Maria should be so proud that she got the course record on her last run here. “[And I’m proud of] myself that I was able to get a much better time than I did last year. That was my goal coming into here.”
Winston Churchill Senior Julia Reicin led the chase, finishing 3rd in 19:06. Paint Branch junior Yasmine Kass was 9th in 19:43; Northwest had the top freshman in Helena Lee, who was 12th in 19:54.
Meanwhile, sophomore Jessica Trzeciak, in 6th, led T.S. Wootton to a runner-up finish, the team’s highest ever, said coach Kellie Redmond.
Heading into today’s championships, Sophomore Madeline Grainger was the team’s only athlete who had ever even run at Hereford. She had qualified last year as an individual as injuries ravaged her teammates.
Today, Grainger was Wootton’s No. 4, placing 27th overall in 20:46. And while Wootton had put up a stronger 2nd place showing in the Montgomery County meet, Trzeciak, the team’s top runner, ended up placing higher in the state meet, proving Redmond’s point that her team has been “progressively better all season.”
“We knew we’d have some strong competition but we executed the race plan exactly as planned,” Redmond said. “They ran great, they ran tough, and they were super inspired beforehand.”
In the 3A race, Nandini Satsangi paced Poolesville to a fifth place showing. It wasn’t the result that the team was hoping for, or the result that Sandini, who had the fastest seed and finished 9th, would have envisioned after winning her regional meet by nearly a minute. No one, however, should think Satsangi had an off day. Rather, it was a gutsy effort.
The Friday after regionals, Nandini irritated a tendon in her foot, she said. She did not run at all between then and the state meet and wasn’t sure if she would be able to complete today’s race. She never doubted, on the other hand, that she would try.
“It was the last race of the season … and it’s states,” she said. “I was just going to go all out.”
Nandini, as it turns out, was going to have to spend some time in the pool, anyway. Her next season isn’t indoor track; it’s swimming.
Boys’ races
Hereford’s rarely broken 16-minute mark went down in the 1A race when Smithsburg senior Will Merritt ran 15:54. But 4A champion Rohann Asfaw (16:04) and 3A winner Ryan Lockett (16:00) were close. Lockett, a Poolesville junior, was runner-up to Richard Montgomery senior Asfaw at the Montgomery County meet.
In winning a state title, Lockett demonstrated some playful swagger, celebrating in his final steps by taking his left hand and pointing at his right forearm like NBA star D’Angelo Russell – “ice in my veins,” said Lockett, who coincidentally also wore long shorts.
“Honestly, I knew that I could outkick anyone at the end, so I was pushing the pace,” said Lockett, who ran neck and neck with River Hill Senior Rahul Reddy into the final straight (Reddy finished two seconds back).
Lockett was joined in the lead pack by senior teammate Andrew Lent, whose 4th place 16:12 was a considerable improvement over his first appearance at the state meet when he finished just inside the top 100. Poolesville finished 4th behind River Hill, Linganore, and Reservoir.
Lent said his senior-year training was jumpstarted by Lockett’s transfer to Poolesville from Gonzaga. They developed a pattern of keying off each other in races, as well. “I would come up to [Lockett]; he would see me coming and go a little faster,” Lent said.
Asfaw’s victory, though slower, was more decisive. He got out slow in the 4A race, too slow by his own standards.
“I found myself stuck in the pack,” he said. “It was a huge pack, and I had to weave my way through for the first mile.”
Even Richard Montgomery’s coach, Davy Rogers, was a little concerned initially, he said. But when he saw Asfaw coming back in the baseball field towards the famous dip, Rogers saw what he needed to be sure that Asfaw was in control: his arms were relaxed.
By the final stretch, the race was all Asfaw’s. This was even an more impressive time when considering that Asfaw is not yet tapering. He’s chasing a dream to compete at Nike Cross Nationals in December.
“It would have been great to break 16,” Asfaw said, “but I am definitely much more happy to get the win.”
Dulaney repeated as boy’s 4A champions and Northwest placed 5th, led by Junior Chase Osborne‘s 24th-place finish in 16:59. Albert Einstein junior Simeon Mussie cracked the top 10, finishing 8th in 16:42. And Bethesda Chevy-Chase junior Adam Nakasaka, mirroring his Montgomery County meet strategy, hung with Asfaw as long as he could and hung on for 2nd in 16:12. His team was sixth.
At mile two, when the pace slackened, Nakasaka even pressed forward into the lead en route to running nearly 40 seconds faster than he had as a sophomore.
“This is a state championship,” he said. “Anything can happen. That was my thinking all day.”
Loudoun Valley boys and Lake Braddock girls dominated their races while defending their Virginia state titles, while the James Madison boys and George Marshall girls won their first-ever championships.
Virginia High School League Championships
Nov. 12, 2016 – Great Meadows,
The Plains, Va
Kate Murphy broke the Great Meadows course record when she won her second straight 6A title, running 17:08 to beat Libby Davidson‘s 17:12 mark from 2014 and finish well clear of Rachel McArthur‘s 17:50 second place finish and making Lake Braddock’s team race four on five against everyone else. That’s all despite putting less emphasis on cross country, just months after competing in the U.S. Olympic Trials and world junior track championships, and not racing with the record in mind.
“I think I raced twice before the conference meet so I wasn’t sure if I was in cross country shape,” she said. “I needed to not compete for a while. It puts a little stress on you and it’s nice to have a little rest. Getting back in was kind of a grind.”
It was going to be a grind, because McArthur was coming back to cross country after missing the 2015 postseason with a quad tear that left her unable to defend her 2014 6A title.
“I couldn’t just chill because Rachel definitely wanted to race, but I think I ended up running my best cross country race of the season,” Murphy said, with the caveat that she hasn’t raced much yet, with a focus on the Nike Cross Southeast and, with any luck, national meet.
The pair pulled away early as Murphy reeled McArthur in from a fast start. They came through the mile in 5:20, with a 10 second lead over Cosby sophomore Rachel Northcutt. Murphy took a slight lead through two miles in 10:56, with Northcutt nearly 30 seconds back, then gradually pulled away from McArthur before putting her away in the series of hills in the third mile.
“It wasn’t any one move, but a few times I threw in a surge down a hill to see how she’d respond.”
“Normally I’m physically ready to race but not mentally,” McArthur said, “but I was focused this time. My mind was so in it. But then the hills… It wasn’t a devastating loss, but I learned a lot about how I handle hills late in a race.The course definitely gets a lot harder at the end.”
The two have committed to top collegiate distance programs — Murphy to Oregon and McArthur to Villanova and while the prospect of the pair racing tooth and nail, like the state 800 meter championship, was appealing, cross country just isn’t their priority anymore.
“Cross country, I still want to do well, but track’s my main focus, and I didn’t expect to run a peak performance this season,” McArthur said.
Murphy said it was a matter of proportion.
“It’s a lot more time to suffer,” she said. “Especially since it’s been so hot this fall.”
South Lakes junior Olivia Beckner was running her first state meet after two years of injuries, but she made the most of her opportunity, running 18:04 for fourth place and nearly catching Northcutt (18:01).
“I closed on her for a while, but she pulled away,” she said. “I need to work on my turnover, but I think this was my best race of the season. I’m looking forward to coming back next year, now that I’ve had a real cross country season.”
Lake Braddock scored 46 points to outdistance Oakton’s 107, with James Madison in third with 113. West Springfield was fourth with 133 and Patriot fifth with 149, with Cosby (156) edging Chantilly (161). The Bruins had all seven runners in the top 35, with the scoring five in the top 30 overall — Sam Schwers in sixth, Taylor Kitchen in 10th, Emily Schiesl in 15th and Sarah Daniels in 29th. They’ll head to Cary, N.C. for Nike Cross Southeast in two weeks.
The Bruin boys lost their bid for a third-straight 6A title when James Madison finished three points ahead, 63-66, for the Warhawks’ first title. Lake Braddock was winning by the same margin at the second mile, but a strong stretch run, including senior Patrick Murphy outkicking LB’s Evan Chase, fueled the comeback. Sean Grimm (seventh overall), Zach Holden (11th), Murphy (18th), Chamberlain Zulauf (21st) and Kevin Murphy (38th) scored for Madison. It follows a win over Braddock — and Oakton — at the regional meet, which showed the Warhawks what was possible.
“We knew we had to run well, because it was going to be tight with Braddock,” said coach Craig Chasse. “If we didn’t run our A game, we weren’t going to win. We weren’t running scared, but we didn’t want to be complacent.”
He credited consistency among this varsity runners and the variety of challenges they faced throughout the season.
“Back in June, we had a meeting and we decided this was going to be our year,” Chasse said. “We got permission to go to Kentucky and race St. Xavier, we went to Great American,we raced some tough teams. When we won the Milestat Invitational, I knew we were in position to win.”
The challenge, Chasse said, was to not slow down during turns and keep their effort up on the 1,000 meter finishing stretch.
“It’s a tough balance on that stretch to not leave anything on the course but not run out of gas before the race is over,” he said.
Lake Braddock’s Conor Lyons came up just a little short on that stretch, losing second place to Cox’s David Scherrer (both finished in 15:23) and within reach of winner Peter Smith of Oscar Smith High School, just a second ahead.
“I was conservative the first two miles but really worked the last mile,” he said. “Last year I went out too fast, but this year there was a good lead pack and unless it broke up, those guys weren’t going anywhere.”
He made up five seconds on Sherrer in the last 1.1 miles.
The Northern Region teams swept the team standings, with Chantilly (118), Oakton(137), West Springfield (144) and Patriot (146) filling in third through sixth places.
Chantilly senior Brandon McGorty, an 800 meter specialist heading to Stanford next fall, got out fast.
“Last year I got caught up in a pack and I wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again because it was tough to move up,” he said. “Fifty meters doesn’t take take much out of me, after a few second people caught up with me but it didn’t take anything out of me.”
He finished fourth in 15:39, one second ahead of Oakton’s Ahmed Hassan.
“This over a 30 second PR, so I’m pumped.”
Like the James Madison team, McGorty used a win at the regional meet to motivate him at states.
Just as in the 6A race, the 5A race featured two past winners — the 2015 winner in Tuscarora junior Emma Wolcott and George Marshall junior Heather Holt, who won as a freshman in 2014.
Holt didn’t want to give anyone else a chance, so, as has been her custom this season, she took off early on and had the race to herself after the halfway point.
“I could hear them breathing right behind me,” she said. “I knew I had to go, I just wanted to get away from them and focus on my race. I’ve learned to accept that I’m going to have nerves and I don’t let them throw me off as much. I’ve learned to accept that I’m going to have nerves and I don’t let them throw me off as much.”
That they didn’t, and she was able to put 22 seconds on Albemarle’s Ryann Helmers by the second mile on her way to a 29-second margin to win in 17:18.
Wolcott moved up through the race to finish third in 18:01.
Holt’s low scoring position helped Marshall to its first-ever team title, with 53 points, thanks to Ava Bir (ninth), Hannah Smith and Sophie Tedesco (14th and 15th) and Jenna Robbins (17th). Tuscarora trailed in second with 107 points, Broad Run was seventh with 184, Potomac Falls was one place back with 200 points and Thomas Jefferson was 10th with 226. They were sixth in their first state meet appearance in 2014 and fifth in 2015.
Smith is a senior; Tedesco is a freshman. They both saw dramatic drops in their times from the Great Meadows Invitational in August.
“My first race was almost 23:30,” Tedesco said. “But then I started running faster in practice so the race pace didn’t feel as tough and I was able to keep improving.”
Smith said she transitioned into a more committed runner this year and credited Tedesco’s company on her upward trajectory.
“I just ran to have fun before, but I didn’t realize how fast I could be,” she said.
Coach Darrell General said the team running within its character was the key to its season-long success. That went both for their individual tendencies as runners and the athletes’ collective spirit.
“I just wanted it so bad for the kids, they work so hard,” he said. “They get to see where all of that effort goes. It’s unbelievable.”
Holt said there was universal buy-in for the dedication necessary to win the state meet among her teammates.
“Because we set this goal together, it makes us really want to work hard for each other,” Holt said. “We knew if someone was hurting, we just had to run that much harder.”
General approached it from another angle.
“I tell the other girls to pretend we don’t have Heather,” he said. “And we pretend our 2-6 are racing everyone else’s 1-5.”
Their male teammate Patrick Lynch ran a hard last stretch to wrest control of third place from Thomas Jefferson’s Saurav Velleleth in the 5A race, coming from two seconds back at the two mile mark. Lynch finished in 15:34, Velleleth was three seconds back.
“We went out way faster than I thought we would, but when I saw we were sub-10 at two miles (9:56), I knew this was going to be the race where I finally dropped a good time,” he said. “It was the perfect race for me. I was trying to stay on Saurav and I caught him with 10-15 meters to go.”
He has a lot of confidence in his kick, but the race environment injected a little adrenaline, too.
“It’s states, you gotta go for it,” he said. “This is the competition you want to run a good race with.”
Douglas Freeman senior Waleed Suliman won the race for the second year in a row in 15:13, the fastest time of the day by a second.
Edison junior Yared Mekonnen also saved his strength for the end, but on a longer scale. He suffered from food poisoning on Wednesday and was in bad shape for a few days.
“I just drank a lot of water and Gatorade, at a lot of rice and other bland stuff,” he said. “Anything to get my strength back.”
Sure enough, on Saturday morning he was ready to go
“I thought we’d be 5:05 at the mile and we were 4:50,” he said. “That definitely got me by surprise, but I felt good and just sat on guys in the top 10 and when we’d crest each hill in the third mile, I’d go for it.”
He wound up fifth in 15:43.
Tuscarora was the top local 5A team, in third with 125 points behind Deep Run (76) and Glen Allen (105). Thomas Jefferson was fifth (159), Edison edged by Lee-Davis in tie for eighth (166) and Marshall edging Hickory in a tie for 10th with 195. Four teams scored 165 or 166.
Loudoun Valley’s girls finished second, for the second straight year, behind junior Natalie Morris‘ runner-up finish in 18:19, behind Liberty Christian Academy senior Noel Palmer (18:04), who was third at the Glory Days Invitational.
“I tried to go with Noel when she passed Libby (Davidson) and I didn’t really stick with her long, but that got me into second place (in the second mile) and I never gave it up,” she said.
The Vikings scored 88 points to trail E.C. Glass’ 36 points. Jefferson Forest (135), Rock Ridge (143) and Loudoun County (156) finished fourth through sixth.
Morris’ twin brother, Peter, took top honors for the family, winning the 4A boys title in 15:14, a second off of Suliman’s time. That made Loudoun Valley’s path to a repeat that much easier, as did Colton Bogucki‘s fourth-place finish in 15:37 and Jacob Hunter‘s 15:53 sixth-place finish. Jacob Windle was 20th and Chase Dawson was 29th.
“It’s awesome to see all of this work pay off,” Morris said. “Konrad Steck took the lead, I was with him for two miles, and right after that point there’s a downhill before two uphills. I caught up to him there and decided I’d push him on the uphills. I knew that was the time to go.”
The Vikings dominated with 45 points, ahead of Midlothian (90), Freedom (92) and locals Rock Ridge (seventh with 189 points), Dominion (eighth with 207) and Woodgrove (11th with 252).
Loudoun Valley will also head to the Nike Cross Southeast meet.
Sophomore Ryland Pettit was the first Woodgrove runner to break 16:00 — he ran 15:54 — and he ended up overshooting his goal.
“I was ranked 12th, so I was shooting for 11th,” he said.
He ended up seventh. He studied the runners ahead of him and any timehe saw someone falter in their stride, he went for them.
“This was the best race I’ve ever had, not just because of my time, but because I was able to stay focused the whole time,” he said.
