The fall high school cross-country season got an early and busy start in recent days, with meets held throughout the metro area.
Contests were held from Leesburg to Alexandria from Aug. 26-29.
Now that the 2026-27 school year has begun for all area jurisdictions around the Beltway, there will be many different meets each week, especially on Saturdays.
One of the biggest early-season meets was run was the Aug. 29 Dave Davis Invitational on the 5,000-meter Great Meadow course in The Plains.
In the boys varsity race, the Woodbridge Vikings finished second as a team, led individually by Jimmy Ortiz in 10th place in 16:33. Another top area finisher was the Oakton Cougars boys squad in fifth, led by Roman Nall in 16th in 16.58.
Individually, Jason Day from Bishop Ireton School in Alexandria placed sixth in 16:24.
Senior runner Brianna Pritchard of the Westfield Bulldogs won the girls varsity race in 19:43. Her effort helped the Westfield team place sixth. The Oakton girls finished 10th and the Mount Vernon Majors girls were 11th.
Oakton was led by freshman Sarah Varano in 23rd (21:28), with Mount Vernon senior Rachel Vann placing 14th (20:49). Ireton junior Catherine Messing placed eighth overall (20:25).
Overall, 54 schools signed up to enter the Dave Davis Invitational.
Another big early meet was the annual Lake Braddock Relays at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, which had 30 teams.
The defending Virginia High School League Class 6 state champion Lake Braddock Bruins won the boys varsity race, with the West Springfield Spartans second and the Robinson Rams third.
Top runners for Lake Braddock were Sean Lee, Bryce Roberts, Nicholas Lewis, Titus Pollard, Elliott Scott and Forest Rowe.
William Edmonson from Robinson and Cooper Daigle of West Springfield led their teams.
In the girls race, the two-time defending Class 6 state champion Robinson won, with West Springfield second and C.G. Woodson and Madison tying for third.
Robinson was led by Mairyn Mullins, Millie Bardolf, Emersyn Wilbur, Brooklyn Machado and Sama Dua. Eva Scheel led the way for West Springfield, with Sophie Chen (Woodson) and Tabitha Rauenzahn (Madison) doing the same for their teams.
A couple of upcoming big high-school meets is the Friday, Sept. 4 Trials of Miles Cross Country Opening Night event at Morven Park in Leesburg and the Saturday, Sept. 5 Woodward Relays at Georgetown Prep School in Bethesda.
The defending Division I private-school state champion Bishop O’Connell boys from Arlington are entered in the Trials of Miles event, which has 49 schools, both public and private, entered from throughout the metro area.
The Woodward event includes more than a dozen teams.
One annual big meet that won’t be held this fall is what has been the long running Monroe Parker Invitational, always run on the 2.98-mile Burke Lake Park course in Burke.
For decades, the meet had been held every year in early September, but scheduling conflicts caused it to be postponed this year, after trying to find an open date for the competition in October.
The event was first called the Northern Region Athletic Directors’ Meet, which began in 1974. It was renamed the Monroe Parker Invitational in 1994.
