Great American XC Festival

October 02, 2009 - October 03, 2009 @ WakeMed Soccer Complex in Cary, NC

Official Meet Web Site

 

A significant day for Virginia girls teams in putting the state on the national map for the 2009 cross country season as three of the top five teams in the Race of Champions were from the state in runner-up Blacksburg (116 pts), third place Midlothian (130 pts), and fifth place Hidden Valley (137 pts). The Saratoga Springs girls of New York, who had won 6 straight Great American titles from 2000 to 2005, returned back to the meet to win another easily with plenty of breathing room against Virginia's best with a team score of 66 points.

 

While the Virginia squads were not competitive with race champions Saratoga Springs, those teams have certainly asserted themselves withint the Southeast Region and in great position to compete for NXN berths on the same course in November. The Stevens twins (pictured left by Frank Locascio Sr.) led Blacksburg with top five finishes and sub 18 minute performances in the WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary as Joanna Stevens (4th, 17:44) and Kathleen Stevens (5th, 17:46) ran together till the end.

 

 

Despite the Virginia schools fairing so well in the Race of Champions girls' race, none of three schools feel like they put their best team on the line. Both Midlothian without #3 Marie Johnston and Blacksburg without #5 Hannah Brown were racing without key members of their top five, which could have dropped their team scores even more. Meanwhile, the Hidden Valley girls had solid races from virtually all of their top 7 with the exception of their top runner Annie LeHardy, who last week finished 2nd at the Greensboro Invite with a time of 18:36 but ended up as the team's fourth finisher at Great American in a time of 19:35.

 

Each team had a runner or two who really stepped up though to offset the missing runners or subpar races by teammates. Blacksburg had a glaring gap after their #4 in previous races with Brown in the lineup as their #5, so her absence could have made that gap even bigger if it was not for a clutch race by Kate Buss in the #5 role with a 66th place 19:53 PR run to complete the team scoring Coach James Demarco. The Midlothian girls had seen a huge spread themselves after the #3 spot in previous races, which is where Blacksburg had really taken it to them earlier in the season at the Great Meadow Invite. Not the case for Midlothian as the five star race of the team belonged to Krista Willard, who must have been inspired running on the home course of her older sister Tierney Willard who runs at NC State, with a 33rd place run of 19:12 to mix it right up with Hidden Valley and Blacksburg's top runners. With #1 runner LeHardy falling off in the race, Claire Sibley stepped up and assumed the front runner role for Hidden Valley with a top 20 finishing time of 18:46.

 

There is no way around it and would be misleading to sugarcoat. It is a down year for Virginia boys teams and individuals alike. Great American clearly showed that as the state's top ranked team Blacksburg was rocked by the competition in the ROC and ended up in 13th place among a field of 21 schools. To add further insult to injury, Blacksburg suffered their first defeat at the hands of an in-state opponent in Western Branch, who appear to be on the upswing from their shocking defeat earlier in September to Grassfield. Leading the charge for the Bruins was senior Blake Theroux with an 11th place effort of 15:43, which was well behind the winner in last year's NXN Southeast individual champion Brian Atkins of Melbourne (Florida) in 15:13. Not a good sign as far as Virginia's chances of sending individuals at season's end to either Foot Locker Nationals or Nike Cross Nationals after several consectuve deep and stellar years of sending qualifiers to San Diego or Portland in December.

 

Though Theroux and the rest of the Group AAA state title contenders should be foremost concerned with the quick comeback of Albemarle's Anthony Kostelac (pictured right by Frank Locascio Sr.), who placed 23rd in the Race of Champions and just behind Theroux's teammate George Matais (21st, 15:59) in a time of 16 flat. Kostelac had a serious injury at the end of the outdoor season in a femur stress fracture, which caused him to miss the majority of his summer training and given him a late start to the fall cross country season.

 

Group AAA boys' team chase for the state title is officially wide open with four schools in Grassfield, Mountain View, Oakton, and Western Branch all showing this past weekend of having teams capable of hoisting the first place trophy in November at Great Meadow. Blacksburg clearly did not have their greatest day and was not at full strength either without the services of their usual #5 and #6 runners, the Link brothers and the whole in the fifth spot was glaring and points killer for the VA #1 ranked squad.

 

Landstown senior Stephanie Frenchik has started off her cross country on a mission to prove her standing among the top cross country runners in the state and show that the Eastern Region has been disrespected in no runners from the region including herself being ranked among the top 15 runners in the pre-season state rankings. Following her 18:31 win at the Chesapeake Invite last Saturday, Frenchik's encore performance including another first place finish in the red invitational division as her time of 18:41 was fourth fastest among all Virginians in the meet to put her only behind three national caliber runners in the Stevens twins and Midlothian's Kathleen Lautzenheiser (18:21).

 

Great American was a very successful meet for the entire Midlothian program as Coach Stan Morgan's girls had a solid third place finish without a key runner and the Midlothian boys showed some great promise for this season as well into next year by winning the seeded invitational division without a single senior among their top seven. Compiling a team score of 65 points to put them 42 points ahead of their closest competition and averaging 16:47 on the WakeMed Soccer Park 5K course, the Trojans had three runners under 17 minutes among the top 15 places with junior Brayden Burleigh (5th, 16:13), freshmen Sean Willard (9th, 16:36), and sophomore Kyle Dow (15th, 16:57).

 

Results:

 

• Race of Champion Girls
• Race of Champions Boys
• Red Invitational Boys
• Red Invitational Girls
• Seeded Invitational Boys
• Seeded Invitational Girls
• Small School Boys
• Small School Girls

 

Below are the performances entered for the meet that met the national silver standard.

 

Photo Galleries:

Gallery #1 by Frank Locascio Sr.

Gallery #1 by TriHokie