Valley Girls Run Away with Hood Invite Title as Vikings open their Invitationals Season

9.2.23

Hood Invitational, Frederick, MD

Results Link

From every twist and turn of Utica Park's windy course, the Loudoun Valley girls would emerge as a force at the front of the pack in today's Hood Invitational, leaving spectators in awe and their competition in the dust.

Led by senior Ella Peterson, the Vikings immediately established a presence at the front of the field, wasting no time to find the best positions to execute the turns of the challenging layout.

Peterson, the lone senior of today's squad, held tightly to the leaders throughout the duration of the race, ultimately finishing in 4th place with a time of 19:37, topping last year's time of 20:11 from the same meet.

With the senior through the chute, it was time for the underclassmen to steal the show. Following closely in Peterson's footsteps were the freshmen duo of Harper Bartlett and Noelle Cates. The pair of Bartlett and Cates opened their high school careers with astonishing times of 20:00 and 20:14 as they finished in 8th and 9th places, respectively. A trio of sophomores soon followed the freshman, with Kate Verry opening her season with an all-time PR (personal record) of 20:47, besting her previous PR of 21:23 from last season's Regional Championship by 36 seconds. Even more remarkably, Verry's time was nearly four minutes faster than her time from the Hood Invitational in 2022. Like Peterson, Bartlett, and Cates, Verry earned a medal with her top 20 finish as she crossed the line in 13th place.

Behind Verry, and rounding out the scoring for the Vikings was sophomore Ella Phelps, who dashed across the line in 22nd place with a time of 21:08. A third sophomore, Madeline Platt, capped the incredible day for Valley as the team's 6th runner in 22:03, 18 seconds ahead of last year's time and good for 44th place in the field of 40 complete teams and 140 runners.

In team scoring, Loudoun Valley amassed an impressive 51 points (a sum of each of their top five runners' places), besting Dallastown High School's second place score of 142 by 91 points. In local competition, Riverside High School finished 4th, John Handley finished 8th, and Loudoun County High School came home in 15th place.

In the boy's competition, Ty Blair led the way for Valley. Ty paced with the top runners throughout the race, ultimately finishing in 3rd place with a time of 16:28.6. Blair was followed by Max Panica, who showcased his improvements as he erased 1:06 from his previous best time of 18:10 to finish with an impressive 17:04 in 21st place. Panica, who was hampered by soccer injuries last fall, demonstrated the improvements that can be found through consistent training.

Closely following Panica was Bradley Bernard, opening his season with a lean across the line in 17:17, a time he did not approach until October last season and 30s ahead of last year's season opener. Julian Israel crossed the line in 53rd place as the fourth Viking in a time of 17:57.8, his third best ever, while senior Baylor Bartlett rounded out the team's scoring with his 5th man finish of 18:32 in 79th place. Capping the varsity action for Loudoun Valley were Eli Popp and Tim Sweeney, who finished in 18:50 and 19:07, respectively. Popp's time marked an all-time PR, slashing 9 seconds from last season's best.

In team scoring, the boys finished in 5th place in the 25 team field, but took losses to local rival Loudoun County (2nd place) and LCPS's Freedom High School (3rd place). The Viking's look to rebound in the second meet of the invitational season at next weekend's Knight's Crossing in Salem, VA.

With the varsity action behind them and the day warming up, the Viking's continued to produce exceptional performances in the Open Races, with several Vikings came away with either personal records or top-20 medals.

Junior Jolie Brackins led the Valley in the girls open race with a fantastic 9th place finish in 23:42 with freshman Lucy Popp hot on her heels with a 10th place finish of 23:52. Both Brackins and Popp earned medals for their top 20 finishes.

In the boy's open race, Jordan Cates ran an impressively gutsy race, taking the lead early and pushing the pace, forcing his competitors to keep up with him. Although Cates ultimately relinquished his lead late in the race and finished in 5th place, his time of 18:20.6 placed him 5th among all Loudoun Valley runners and missed his PR by less than 3 seconds. Cates also earned a medal with his top 20 placing.

Setting personal bests in the Open Races were:

Kai Dock (from 24:36 to 23:22)

Soren Ogelman (from 22:11 to 22:10....every second counts!)

Will Theis (27:28 to 26:31)

With the first week of racing behind them, Valley looks forward to two meets next week with Wednesday action at Lightridge High School and Saturday's invitational at Knight's Crossing at Green Hill Park in Salem, VA.

Go VALLEY!