Fresh faces lead Culpeper

By Shane Mettlen

Published: October 22, 2008

The Culpeper County High School cross country teams didn’t finish near the top when the Blue Devils played host to the Cedar Run District championships Wednesday afternoon, but Culpeper felt good about the future when it was all over.

Freshmen led both the boys and girls squads for CCHS with Rachel Harding coming in 26th for the Culpeper girls and Colton Elliot finishing 27th for the Devil boys. CCHS finished eighth in the girls competition and sixth in the boys race with the top four teams and top 15 individuals advancing on to next week’s Northwest Regional meet.

Battlefield took home the boys title with a score of 38 points, 18 ahead of second-place Osbourn Park. Fauquier (83) was third and Loudoun Valley (85) fourth. On the girls side, Osbourn Park dominated, finishing first with 26 points and LVHS was second with 50. Battlefield (75) and Fauquier (99) also qualified for regionals.

Despite a rough outing for some of Culpeper’s more seasoned runners, CCHS boys coach Kim Williams was happy with Elliot, who has only been training for a month and led the team for the first time.

“I had some guys that were disappointed today,” Williams said. “They didn’t do their best and they know they didn’t do their best. Colton’s just learning how to race and if a kid like that is just learning he’s going to do well. Colton Elliot did a great job.”

Fauquier’s Talbot Armstrong won the boys race in a time of 16:45, five seconds ahead of Nolan Compton of OPHS in second. Elliot finished in 18:15 and Daniel Austin was the second CCHS runner to cross the line, coming in 30th in a time of 18:25. Culpeper’s Kyle Lombardi was 31st with an 18:28. Alex Wyman (39th) and Tommy Steimel (41) rounded out the top five for the Devils.

The Culpeper girls had enough runners to score in the meet for the just the second time this season, but it wasn’t enough to lift the Devilettes off the bottom of the standings. Osbourn Park took the top two spots in the girls race with Kayla Tyrrell winning in a time of 19:46 and Ariel Karabinus coming in just a second behind her.

Harding completed the course in 21:59 for the Devilettes and Brooke Malloy was the second Culpeper girl to finish, coming in No. 41 in a time of 23:50. Haley Witham was 43 rd with a 23:57 and Kara Kershner (52) and Sara Clemmer (53) rounded out the scoring for Culpeper.

“I think we did pretty well considering the circumstances,” CCHS girls coach Justin Harding said. “We had one senior we had high expectations for and she hit an injury. We’re looking at the next three years not just this year. Kara Kershner hasn’t been able to run the past month, but she stuck it out so we could score as a team and that shows a lot of character.”

Despite not sending any runners to regionals, Williams said it was a good season for Culpeper.

“The apex didn’t come out the way we wanted it to,” he said. “But I really enjoyed this season. It was a fun season.”

Shane Mettlen can be reached at 825-0771, ext. 127 or

Cedar Run District Cross Country
Team results
Boys
1. Battlefield, 38
2. Osbourn Park, 56
3. Fauquier, 83
4. Loudoun Valley, 85
5. Liberty, 104
6. Culpeper, 167
7. Osbourn, 188
8. Stonewall Jackson, no score
Girls
1. Osbourn Park, 26
2. Loudoun Valley, 50
3. Battlefield, 75
4. Fauquier, 99
5. Liberty, 150
6. Stonewall Jackson, 163
7. Osbourn, 191
8. Culpeper, 215