Charlie Ban is the Editor-in-Chief of RunWashington, the runner's source for the DC area.
Midway through a month of public meetings, the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park has withdrawn its proposal in begin charging entrance fees to the park outside of Washington, D.C.
This is despite a recent 10-percent budget cut and nearly 20-percent staff reduction, mainly at Great Falls Park. Existing entrance fees may still be increased.
Three local cross country coaches were honored by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association as Cross Country Coach of the Year in their respective states. They included Anthony Belber (D.C.: Georgetown Day School boys), Kevin Hughes (D.C.: Georgetown Visitation School girls) and Mike Mangan (Va.: Lake Braddock Secondary boys).
According to USTFCCCA, State-by-state winners were selected based on their teams’ performances throughout the 2014 cross country season. Among the factors taken into consideration were team score and placement at the state championships, margin of victory, performance against rankings if available, individual championships, and how their teams’ performances stacked up to previous years (e.g. first title in school history, consecutive titles, etc.).
Vote for the Best of Washington Running 2015, now through the end of March! The finalists each were among the top six most frequently nominated races, stores, programs, etc. in our monthlong nomination period. Winners will be announced publicly in our Summer issue, due out in early May.
Nine miles in, it came to him.
For the third straight year, Northern Virginia is sending a runner to the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships with a serious shot at the national title, possibly on the boys’ and girls’ side. Two other area runners will join them in San Diego, making it the 25th time the region has sent multiple qualifiers to the venerated high school national championship.
The same day that Andrew Hunter, Anteneh Girma, Ciara Donohue and Weini Kelati qualified for the Foot Locker final, Rachel McArthur, Alex Corbett and Kate Murphy earned individual trips to the Nike Cross Nationals meet, a team-focused national race in Portland, Ore. Corbett and Murphy each led their Lake Braddock teams to third place finishes, just out of the automatic team berths and the boys an agonizing one point from an at-large invitation.
Molly Huddle won her record fourth U.S. title on the roads this year at the .US National 12k Sunday in Alexandria, running 38:08 to repeat as champion at that distance and of the U.S.A. Running Circuit. She won the inaugural 12k event last year in a world’s best 37:50.
[button-red url=” http://www.national12k.us/Results.aspx” target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]Her move in the third mile this year put distance on pursuers who included Emily Sisson (38:21), Kim Conley (38:42) and Sara Hall (38:48), all of whom were in striking distance after the race strung out from Huddle’s early pace. By 8k (25:31), she had a 13 second lead over the chase pack, which closed to a 10-second lead over Sisson at 10k (31:57) before she tacked three additional seconds onto her margin in the last 2k.
Oakton’s girls kept everyone guessing all season, including coach Alisa Byers. Into late October, she didn’t know where her defending 6A champion team stood.
“We never really got to race together,” she said. “People had college visits, people on holidays, so we didn’t have everyone racing until the conference meet.”
But for some more fortuitous scheduling, Lake Braddock’s boys may have had “throwback Thursday” on their hands. A throwback to something none of the Bruins were alive to remember.
So they settled for a #sometimeagoSaturday. But that’s all the settling they did.
On his way down the hill with about 400 meters to go at the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships at Lake Fairfax Park, Good Counsel’s Kevin McGivern took a headfirst spill on the mud, spooking Gonzaga’s Jacob Floam, who managed to stay on his feet despite jumping to avoid McGivern.
McGivern recovered and eventually passed Floam on the way to a three-second margin in claiming second place. It was emblematic of the Falcons’ team that day: just too strong.