Loudoun Valley graduate Drew Hunter signed a 10-year contract to run professionally for adidas. He will make his professional debut at the Sir Walter Miler in Raleigh, N.C. Aug. 5. […]
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DCXC
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As is their custom, D.C. area runners won a slew of championships at their respective state meets, though a cancellation of the Virginia 3A/4A meet with several races remaining scuttled the 800 meters.
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We spoke with several new and long-running camps — all of them different in their own unique ways — that offer athletes a chance to break the monotony of solo training runs and learn from elite coaches and staff while having fun away from home. From the camp that loves a killer game of ultimate Frisbee as much as it loves a good fartlek, to the camp that touts its urban backdrop, there’s something for everyone this summer.
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Our Lady of Good Counsel was 1,000 meters from glory. This was all that separated the Falcons from beating rival Bishop O’Connell for the first time in seven years to win the 2014 Washington Catholic Athletic Conference cross country crown.
But then the squad’s best runner, 16-year-old junior Megan Crilly, started to fade, developing a glassy look in her eyes that had become eerily prevalent throughout her fall workouts. Crilly crashed and ended up collapsing across the finish line. She finished 16th — almost two minutes slower than her individual winning time the year before — and Our Lady of Good Counsel wound up second.
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In Albuquerque, Georgetown’s team of Emma Keenan, Heather Martin, Andrea Keklak and Katrina Coogan won the NCAA indoor championships March 11, running 10:57.21, ahead of the University of Washington’s 10:58.52. The next afternoon, Coogan finished third in the 3,000 meters, running 9:07.74 to Molly Siedel‘s (Notre Dame) 8:57.86, and Keklak finished fourth in the mile in 4:38.44, behind Oklahoma State runner Kaela Edwards‘ 4:35.62.
Loundoun County alumnus Thomas Curtain, running for Virginia Tech, finished second in the 5,000 meters, running 13:50.70 to trail Oregon’s Edward Cheserek‘s 13:47.89. The next day, Cheserek held a 8:00.40 – 8:01:55 lead over Stanford’s Sean McGorty, a Chantilly alumnus, in the 3,000 meters. Ahmed Bile, an Annandale alumnus who runs for Georgetown, was 14th in 8:24.15.
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She blends in with her classmates at Heritage High School, constantly joking around and texting with her friends and cross country teammates. But Weini Kelati doesn’t share the same stories with her classmates about growing up in Leesburg, having shown up a year and a half ago from a country only her most geographically-astute classmates knew about — Eritrea.
Now a junior academically, the 19-year-old has been making headlines all school year as she nabs win after win, including the 2015 Foot Locker Cross Country Championships in December and a national high school record 16:08.33 for the 5000 meters at the New Balance Nationals Indoor in New York, two seconds faster than the existing record set my Anna Rohrer last year in 16:10.79. But her journey to become a champion — which began half a world away on the east coast of Africa — was not easy.
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Two Foot Locker champions. Another runner one spot from qualifying. Three Nike Cross Nationals individual qualifiers, plus the rest of one of their teams. State champions and runners up. These all add up to a banner year for the D.C. area’s cross country runners.
Members of our coaches panel discussed the season in December and named the All-RunWashington postseason team. The top 10 boys and girls would be a force against any metropolitan area in the country. The D.C., Maryland and Virginia teams are no slouches either. Voting on the panel: Gonzaga’s John Ausema, Walt Whitman’s Steve Hays, Georgetown Visitation’s Kevin Hughes, Lake Braddock’s Mike Mangan, West Springfield’s Chris Pellegrini, T.S Wootton’s Kellie Redmond and Winston Churchill’s Scott Silverstein. Coaches emphasized post-season performances in their evaluations.
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By all accounts, Drew Hunter and Weini Kelati are generous runners, each giving of their own time to help their teams win Virginia state championships in November.
But Saturday at San Diego’s Balboa Park, they took the course all to themselves and refused to share the lead with any competitors at the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships. Leading isn’t easy, and it’s a risk in the first competitive races each winner has contested in a year, but in doing so, they both earned every bit of their national championships, the first time the national titlists have come from the same county.
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Lake Braddock junior Kate Murphy finished 16th at Nike Cross Nationals Saturday in Portland, leading her team to a 13th place finish, one spot behind Blacksburg, the top Virginia team. The Bruins moved up from 19th place at the mile mark.
Murphy, the southeast region champion and the 24th place finisher in 2014, finished in 17:27.4, 31 seconds behind winner Katie Rainsberger. Patriot junior Rachel McArthur was 41st in 18:04, after finishing fifth at the regional meet.