Third Battle Recap

Team Results

Full Results

October 15, 2022

The Loudoun Valley Vikings closed out their regular season competition today at the Third Battle Invitational in Winchester, VA. The battlefield, which saw Civil War action in 1864, now sees runners dash from the starting line directly over the grounds where Union and Confederates charged toward one another 158 years earlier.

Today, the site hosts the 45 team invitational featuring many of the top schools of northern Virginia as runners aim toward setting a final personal best to close their regular seasons.

With reenactors blasting the starting cannon, the first race of the day got underway with the Girls Underclassman JV race. Mayleen Hyett led the way for the Vikings, getting out to a fast start and aiming for a top-7 varisity spot in the coming weeks. Passing the halfway point in 11th place in 10:36, Hyett was clearly on a mission to erase her personal best which stood at 22:31 since early September's Knights Crossing. Through the second half of the race, Hyett passed 2 runners to move into the top 10 and ultimately crossed the line in 9th place with a 75-second personal best of 21:16.

With the first Viking of the day already across the line, the expectations for the day had been elevated! Through the remaining 5 races, an additional 34 Vikings went on to set personal bests.

Behind Hyett in the same JV Underclassmen race, Mirren Boswell passed 12 runners in the second half to take 54th place and remove 37s from her previous best as she finished in 23:19. Other personal bests from the race include:

Rowan Haws (23:29, 22s improvement))

Katherine Garcia (24:06, 28s improvement)

Acadia Kincaid (24:20- an 80s improvement)

Izabella Hortega (24:32- 69s improvement)

Comet Maupin (24:57- over 3 minute improvement!)

Frances King (25:04- 68s improvement)

Amber Glass (25:16- 33s improvement)

Lily Poag (25:33- 61s improvement))

Lilly McCall (25:35- 27s improvement)

Zoey Nicodemus (25:46, 45s improvement)

Jaeda Pelletier (25:51, 22s improvement)

Logan Lackey (25:56, 14s improvement)

Drew Lowman (27:51, 2:50 improvement!)

Next to take to the course were the JV Underclassmen Boys, with the largest group of Vikings to race today.

Leading the way for the young group of boys was Jordan Cates, who masterfully moved his way through the field after passing halfway in 9:40 in 31st place. Cates clawed through the field to pass 15 runners in the second half before finishing in 18:25 in 16th place, narrowly missing his best of 18:18 from Knights Crossing.

Behind Cates, Max Panica (20th place, 18:34) and Tim Sweeney (26th place, 18:42) also narrowly missed their PRs, but helped guide the team to a 3rd place finish in the field of 36 complete teams. Finishing as the 4th Viking, Garrett Boldin took a few seconds from his previous best to run a PR of 18:43. Eli Popp rounded out the top 5 scorers with a time of 19:02, missing his best by just 3 seconds.

Others running personal bests in the Boys JV Underclassmen race were:

Ryan Bacharach (28:10, 55s improvement)

Connor Ellis (21:56, 1:31 improvement)

Brendan Harvey (20:45, 44s improvement)

Josh Kuhni (22:10, 58s improvement)

Luke Lair (25:04, 65s improvement)

Owen Lantow (19:24, 41s improvement)

William Liu (20:16, 7s improvement)

Connor Mraw (21:23, 14s improvement)

Nicholas Singleton (23:34, 7s improvement)

Brad Stine (22:26, 43s improvement)

Nicholas Thomas (23:36, 55s improvement)

Chris Tricarico (21:57, 3s improvement)

Alex Upperman (22:38, 2:02 improvement!)

With a predominantly underclassmen team, 29 personal bests were set in the first two races of the day, but the Viking's still had more great performances in store.

In upperclassmen action, Jason Canlas led the way with his 41st place finish out of 265 runners. Canlas narrowly missed his best by just 3 seconds. Chris Thornton set his second PR of the week, finishing in 18:36, his first time under 19 minutes and a 37s personal best from his time at Oatlands on Tuesday. Thornton ran a strong race, passing 20 runners in the last 1.5 miles to finish in 47th place. Jack McClelland also closed his season with a personal best. Jack's strong workouts in recent weeks guided him to a time of 19:36, an 8-second PR.

With JV races complete, the Third Battle Invitational culminated with the running of the two varsity races.

In girls varsity action, Scarlet Fettrolf led the way, pushing the early pace as she crossed halfway in 4th place. Although she faded slightly in placing, Fetterolf earned the team's sole medal with her 20th place finish in 18:53. Ella Peterson finished as the second Viking, running her second best time ever with a strong 26th place finish in 19:23. Sam Bolen was the 3rd Viking in the chute in a time of 20:15.

Behind Bolen, a quartet of freshmen rose to the occasion to help the team. Only 34 seconds behind Bolen, Ella Phelps was closing her top performance thus far as she ran an incredibly steady race- maintaining her exact position through the second half- finishing in 65th place in 20:49, taking 53s from her previous best set at Knights Crossing.

Before long, Phelps was joined in the finish chute by her 3 freshmen teammates: Madeline Platt, Kate Verry, and Anna Ramos. Platt, finishing as the team's 5th runner, rounded out the team scoring with her 85th place in a personal best of 21:09. Incredibly, Kate Verry set her 4th consecutive personal best, this time by a staggering 1:43, as she finished in 21:34, side by side with teammate Anna Ramos, who also crossed in 21:34.

As a team, the girls finished with 227 points in 6th place of the 34 full teams in the race. West Springfield came away with the team title with 85 points, while Gillian Bushee of Herndon took the individual title in 17:19, the 4th fastest ever run at Third Battle.

In the final race of the day, the boys varsity squad was led by junior Ty Blair, who ran his second by time of 16:10 to bring home the team's only medal with his 14th place finish.

Behind Blair, Gabe Cates was storming down the final straight away en route to a 40s personal best to run 16:26, his first dip under 17 minutes. Cates's PR came as no surprise to coaches who have witnessed his strong workouts and runs over the course of the season. Running without usual top-4 runner Rylan Wells, the boys came up short of any pre-race team goals as they ultimately finished in 12th place.

The race was won by WT Woodson High School with 110 points, while Isaac Garcia of South County too individual honors with a time of 15:24.

The Viking's top 7 will be back in action at the Dulles District Championships on October 25th at Morven Park, where both teams will seek redemptions from today's losses to district rival Tuscarora.