Virginia State Championship (VA)
No. 1 Ranked Drew Hunter, Weini Kelati Put On A Show
Boys Class 4A: The Drew Hunter Show
Class 4A is not the largest public school classification in the state of Virginia, but it made for the most highly anticipated state meet races on a chilly day at Great Meadows. Andrew Hunter of Loudon Valley High School took the boys' crown in 15:04, less than 24 hours after signing a National Letter of Intent to the University of Oregon. Hunter was last year's Class 3A champion in a blistering 14:41 over 5K, which still stands as the state meet record.The No. 1 ranked senior took the pace out in 4:41 for the mile and sub-10 minutes through two miles but could not quite crack his record in the windy conditions, as he entered the final straightaway as the clock struck 14:40. The win marks his his third straight cross country title.
Girls Class 4A: Weini Kelati vs. Libby Davidson
The Girls Class 4A race pitted defending champion and state meet course record holder Libby Davidson of E.C. Glass against the No. 1 ranked Weini Kelati. Kelati, a sophomore at Heritage in her final year of athletics eligibility, took the pace out in 5:15 for the first mile with Davidson in tow in 5:21.
Both girls ran under 10:40 for two miles, but Kelati held a 30-second lead with 600 meters to go. The sophomore cruised to 17:22, missing the course record by 10 seconds but earning her first state cross country title.
Davidson finished in an official time of 17:51, which stood as the second-fastest of the day. The junior ranked No. 7 in the Pre-Season due to her sixth-place finish at the 2014 Foot Locker Nationals, but slid from the rankings after a few early-season losses and running well off her 2014 pace.
Girls Class 6A: Kate Murphy and Lake Braddock Reign Supreme
With defending champion Rachel McArthur out due to injury, the Class 6A Girls individual battle became the Kate Murphy show. The returning runner-up and bubble runner on the national rankings nailed her first cross country state title in 18:20, 26 seconds ahead of freshman runner-up Rachel Northcutt.
Murphy's No. 24 ranked Lake Braddock team packed the top five scorers into the top sixteen overall finishers: Sarah Daniels (10th, 19:07), Emily Schiesl (11th, 19:10), Sonya Butseva (14th, 19:19) and Samantha Schwers (16th, 19:25) made it an impressive 65-second spread. One year after finishing runners-up at the state meet and third at NXN Southeast to just miss qualifying for NXN, Lake Braddock's stock looks high.
Full results & coverage here.
