Vikings Shine From Virginia to North Carolina

Personal records were smashed and medals were won by the Loudoun Valley Vikings in two separate meets this weekend. Although competing over 300 miles apart, the Vikings' performed in harmony, simultaneously running their personal bests on courses in both Virginia and North Carolina.

Starting the weekend action were Rylan Wells and Sadie Smith who each raced in the Red Invitational division of the Great American XC Festival in Cary, North Carolina. Wells, whose first meet of the season saw him finish in only one shoe, and who persevered through sickness in a difficult race in Carlisle last week, was eager to test himself in more ideal conditions. He did not disappoint, running a season-best time of 17:37, only a few seconds shy of his all-time personal record, to set the tone for the day.

Only minutes after Wells crossed the line, the gun singled the start of the girls' section of the Red Invitational division. Sadie Smith looked prepared to continue her streak of rapid improvement this season after joining the team late in August. In a testament to her hard work, Smith smoothly completed the course in a time of 22:31, twenty seconds faster than just a week prior at the Carlisle Invitational in Pennsylvania.

Kernstown Boys

While Smith was flying through the woods of North Carolina, another race for the Vikings was unfolding in Virginia at the Judges Classic Invitational at the Kernstown Battlefield in Winchester. Opening the day in Kernstown were the varsity boys, many of whom had never raced in a varsity invitational and looked to prove their fitness against other teams' top-seven runners.

Ty Blair, who was unable to attend the Great American meet, made the most of Kernstown's challenging hills. Blair, in only his first season of cross country, took to the varsity race like a seasoned veteran. Running the hills with confidence through the first two miles, Blair unleashed a full kick down the final 200m hill, crossing the line in a time of 17:41 to claim the final medal with his 15th place finish. Blair's time took a full 16 seconds off of the time he ran at the Carlisle Invitational just a week earlier.

Running as the Viking's second man, Braden Sheehan followed Blair through the finish chute. Like Blair, Braden masterfully conquered the hills of Kernstown, taking 20s off of his previous best to score a new time of 18:41 in 48th place. Remarkably, Sheehan's performance marked his 4th consecutive personal best in his inaugural cross country season.

Following Blair and Sheehan, Pearson Dhillon saw a return to action after battling minor injury and sickness for each of the past two invitationals. Despite the setbacks, Dhillon ran 19:24, his best time of the season and only 20 away from a personal best, which he is now targeting as he approaches the final two meets of the regular season. Connor Ney, John Tierney, Evan Kemelhar, and Jackson Nicodemus rounded out the scoring seven for the team.

With the team's top ranked runners competing in North Carolina, the Kernstown squad held their ground against other team's full varsity rosters, finishing in 14th place of the 23 schools, beating region rivals from Fauquier, Kettle Run, and Sherando high schools.

While the varsity teams in North Carolina began to stretch and prepare for their warm-ups, the JV teams began to toe the line in Kernstown. In boys JV action, it was a freshmen duo leading the way as Peyton Jennings-Swett and Garrett Boldin extended their hot-streaks to 4 and 5 consecutive meets of personal records. First to finish today was Jennings-Swett in a time of 19:34 in 15th place. Boldin followed in close pursuit with a time of 19:39, taking an additional 12 seconds from last week's time.

Approximately 20 seconds after Jennings-Swett and Boldin completed their tour of the course, a seemingly endless line of yellow jerseys sprinted their way across the finish line. Josiah Hunter, Tim Sweeney, and Jack McClelland finished in a 4-second span in times of 20:05, 20:05, and 20:09, respectively, with Sweeney and McClelland running personal bests by 30 and 47 seconds.

Within seconds of his teammates finishing, Emory Hill had successfully taken down his all-time personal best with a time of 20:13. Chase Robinson, competing in his third race of the season, set his second consecutive best time with a 23:32.

Great American Boys

Meanwhile, the weather and competition were heating up in North Carolina, where the varsity team was completing the the final strides of their pre-race preparations. Dawning the yellow singlets for the Vikings were Graham Mussmon, Aidan Soto, Truman Abbe, Ben Moseman, Justin Park, Jake Rimmel, and Gabe Cates.

Facing much of the best competition of the eastern United States, the Loudoun Valley team blasted off of the starting line and fought for position down the steady decline of the opening quarter mile. Mussmon, who narrowly missed breaking the 16-minute barrier in his 16:00.9 PR a week prior, made his intentions immediately known as he found a spot in the top 15 through the first mile. Mussmon flew past the opening mile in an astonishing 4:43 as the team began their ascent back up the 500m climb toward the start line.

Behind Mussmon, Aidan Soto and Truman Abbe followed closely, while Moseman, Park, and Rimmel formed a pack a few places back in the field.

With the challenging first 2000m behind them, the boys used the middle mile's downhill sections to their advantage, pushing the pace and emerging from the woods on personal-record pace.

Mussmon was the first to reappear after having steadily improved his positioning through the middle portions of the race and he climbed the final hill and launched into a final sprint to earn 7th place in a massive personal best of 15:22.

Aidan Soto claimed the #2 spot for the Vikings with his own personal best time of 16:14, taking 17s from his previous best time set at Morven Park, where the team will return for their district championship in 3 weeks.

Behind Soto, the PRs continued to roll in. Truman Abbe was next to cross the line for the Vikings in 16:24, slashing 8 seconds from his previous best to take 67th place in the fiercely competitive race.

Finishing in a string in 89th, 90th, and 91st places were Justin Park, Ben Moseman, and Jake Rimmel. Park and Rimmel each set their personal records with their times of 16:37 and 16:41, respectively, while Moseman narrowly missed his previous best by just 4 seconds. Rimmel, finishing as the team's 6th man, showed the team's depth as he was the 3rd best #6 in the entire field. Gabe Cates completed the team with his time of 17:47, his 3rd best performance.

As a team, the Vikings earned 10th place in the field of 22, as only 17 points separated 6th from 10th.

Kernstown Girls

Back in Virginia, the JV girls were about to start. Running like a team possessed, the Viking's immediately established a presence at the front of the field as Jolie Brackens and Malayna Smith towed the team through the opening mile. Although the hills typically take their toll on the less experienced JV runners, the Loudoun Valley squad showed no signs of slowing as they rolled through the hills and dales of the Kernstown Battlefield.

Brackens ultimately finished in 2nd place overall to pace the team with her time of 24:09. Smith held on for 7th place overall in a time of 24:41. Ten seconds later, Kaitlyn Sullivan finished as the team's #3 runner, taking another top-10 placing for the team with her 9th place finish in 24:51.

Maylene Hyett made her return to action following two weeks of minor injury. Hyett looked as though she had never missed a step as she slashed nearly three and a half minutes from her previous best time of 28:25 with her new mark of 24:58 to secure 12th place.

With four freshman through the chute, it was junior Emma Wolff who stepped up to fill the team's final scoring position. Wolff also returned to action following minor illness that kept her out of the team's most recent meet. Wolff, whose consistency- four consecutive races from 28:20 to 28:38- was astonishing, broke from the mold to set a new personal best by nearly 3 minutes with her new time of 25:43.

With the scoring positions through the chute, the remaining team members were shooting for personal bests. For their efforts, Mirren Boswell and Grace Kestler came away successful with their times of 26:15 and 30:57, respectively.

In team scoring, the JV girls easily claimed victory with a total score of 30 points, out pacing Loudoun County (53) and Independence High School (69).

Great American Girls

In the final race of the day, the Lady Vikings varsity team took on the stellar competition of the Race of Champions division at the Great American XC Festival. Running without two top runners- Ava Gordon and Ceci Fetterolf- the team was gunning for season-bests and personal records.

Scarlett Fetterolf, fresh off of her season debut a week earlier at Carlisle, continued her steady improvement as she ran her second fastest time of her career in 18:31 to earn a medal in 24th place.

Eryn Lackey took a risk in starting a little faster than usual and her strategy may have paid dividends as she ran a 5th consecutive personal best time in 19:37, her second time under the 20 minute mark in just two weeks, as she finished in 71st place.

Ella Peterson and Sam Bolen took on the teams 3rd and 4th runner roles with their finishes of 20:31 and 20:49, respectively. Bolen's time illustrates her rapid improvement through this season, which she started at Great Meadow with time of 22:50 before running 21:26 just a week ago.

Geneva Dinh closed out the team scoring as the Vikings fifth runner today. Dinh, who had been eying the 22-minute barrier since running 22:19 at the Oatlands Invitational on September 11th, left no room for chance today as she bettered her PR by nearly 40 seconds with her time of 21:41.

The Vikings return to action on Wednesday, October 6th at Rock Ridge for members of the JV team, and October 16th at the Third Battle Invitational where the team will complete its regular season.