Making strides

By Shane Mettlen

Published: September 17, 2008

Overall it was a much better performance for the Culpeper County High School cross country teams Wednesday as the Blue Devils hosted a meet against Cedar Run District competition for the second week in a row.

The CCHS boys squad placed five runners among the top eight finishers to hold off Loudoun Valley for the victory and the girls squad had five runners score for the first time this season, finishing second to LVHS. Behind a second-place finish from Daniel Austin the Blue Devil boys scored 27 points, seven ahead of Loudoun Valley with 34 and Fauquier finished third with 75. In the girls race, Loudoun Valley finished ahead of CCHS with 18 points to the Devilettes’ 47 and Fauquier came in third with 71.

“Although we weren’t racing against the top competition we still got that first win, and that feels so good,” CCHS boys coach Kim Williams said. “It’s a real momentum builder for the kids”

Austin ran next to Loudoun Valley’s Christopher Weeks as the two leaders nearly the entire race before the Viking runner pulled away near the end and finished the 5K course in 18:15, nine seconds ahead of Austin. Joel Martinez finished third for the Vikings in 18:58, but Culpeper took four of the next five spots to secure the win.

Even with the win, Williams sees room for improvement for the Blue Devils, who ran without senior Steven Reynolds.

“I wanted our average mile time to be a good 20 seconds faster,” Williams said. “Daniel was sub 6:00, but that’s not fast enough. But overall I was pretty pleased with how they ran and how they placed. I’m not exactly happy with the average mile time, but that’s going to improve yet.”

Loudoun Valley enjoyed a 1-2-3 finish in the girls race with Hannah Scheren winning the event in 20:46, three seconds ahead of teammates Michelle Crowley and Audrey Houghton. Culpeper’s Cassie Elliot came in fourth in a time of 21:59 and Rachel Harding was the second CCHS runner to cross, finishing sixth in a time of 23:26.

“This is the first girls race that we have had as a team,” Culpeper girls coach Justin Harding said. “We’ve only had three people, four people. We’d get up to five and somebody would get hurt. Two of the girls here, this was their first race ever and we placed second and that’s promising.”

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

Cross Country Results
Boys
Culpeper 27, Loudoun Valley 34, Fauquier 75
1. C. Weeks, LV, 18:15
2. D. Austin, C, 18:24
3. J. Martinez, LV, 18:58
4. Alex Wyman, C, 19:04
5. Mike Lewis, F, 19:29
Other Culpeper finishers:
6. T. Steimel, 19:32; 7. K.Lombardi, 19:33; 8. J. Aber 19:57.

Girls
Loudoun Valley 18, Culpeper 47, Fauquier 71
1. H. Scheren, LV, 20:46
2. M. Crowley, LV, 21:49
3. A. Houghton, LV, 21:49
4. C. Elliot, C, 21:59
5. L. Cromwell, LV, 22:29
Other Culpeper finishers:
6. R. Harding, 23:26; 10. B. Malloy 24:45; 11. H. Witham 24:58. 20. S Clemmer, 27:12.