Newcomers Kickstart Careers, Returners PR at Woodgrove Opener
8.29.23
Purcellville, VA
With a new season, new uniforms, new faces, new PRs, and new experiences, "new" was certainly the theme of Wednesday's season opening meet as the Vikings debuted 22 athletes at Woodgrove High School's cross country course.
As the blast of the starting pistol sounded, athletes strode into the 2023 season with the boys teams starting the action. Throughout the 5k, the Vikings saw 3 different leaders with senior returner Jack McClelland bravely leading the way through much of the first half of the course. With McClelland leading the way, the remaining runners eased into their paces and began to push through their second mile. Freshman Sawyer Clark stole the lead from McClelland just past the mile mark, guiding returning sophomores Kyle Bratrud and Justin McClelland who were in hot pursuit.
Clark held tightly to his lead until the closing moments of the race when he was overtaken by Bratrud in a sprint to the finish. Bratrud and Clark crossed the line nearly side by side, with Bratrud's time of 19:31.7 less than a second ahead of Clark's 19:32.4 to earn 40th and 41st place, respectively, of 179 finishers in the 9 team meet. Bratrud's time was PR by 14 seconds.
McClelland, the team's early leader, held on to finish closely behind his teammates in 42nd place with a time of 19:44, the second best of his career.
From there, it was a steady stream of finishers. Woven into the stream of newcomer finishers were many impressive times by the Viking's returners. Connor Ellis slashed over 3 minutes from his previous best, lowering it from 23:27 to 20:19 in a single race. Likewise, Nick Singleton lowered his best exactly 3 minutes from 23:34 to 20:34.
Also setting personal bests in the boys race were:
Luke Lair (25:04 to 24:31)
Ted Lantow (21:47 to 20:31)
Justin McClelland (20:11 to 19:59)
Nick Thomas (23:36 to 22:16)
Along with top newcomer Clark, the following athletes started their careers with many fine performances:
Kai Dock- 24:36
Tucker Egee- 23:05
James Israel- 21:23
Aspen Kincaid- 21:27
Wyatt Lechliter- 23:20
Evan Leiden- 24:27
Connor Magin- 20:52
Ian McDonough- 22:02
Jack Mills- 23:08
Mircea Nemes- 23:14
Soren Ogelman- 22:11
Caden Pelletier- 21:04
Collin Reason- 21:06
Isaac Stiltner- 21:03
Evan Teates- 21:30
Will Theis 27:28
Josh Thomas- 22:36
Alex Thorn- 24:54
Caiden Wells- 20:27
Following the boys, the Vikings lined-up 9 girls for their season openers. Leading the way in the early stages of the race was Montana Cochran, followed closely by Mirren Boswell, Lucy Popp, and a groups of sophomores: Acadia Kincaid, Frances King, Logan Lackey, Sarah Ney, and Lily Poag.
As the line of yellow singlets neared the halfway point, freshman Lucy Popp took control for the Vikings and pressed her pace all the way to finish for an incredible debut of 22:44 for 21st place of 86 finishers.
Incredibly, the majority of returners started their seasons with personal bests. Among those to shatter their bests were Sarah Ney and Logan Lackey who each dropped their best times by over 90 seconds. Ney's previous best of 27:02 stood no chance against today's impressive 25:29, while Lackey's 23:26 easily bested her previous time of 25:56.
Other personal bests were set by:
Acadia Kincaid- 24:20 to 24:01
Frances King- 25:04 to 23:55
Lily Poag- 25:33 to 25:12
Cochran led the way for remaining newcomers, clocking a time of 25:44, while Alex Glover started their career with a 33:02.
All photos courtesy of Vikings track star Amber Glass.
