WINCHESTER — It’s been a stellar career for the senior class of the James Wood girls’ cross country team, and now it will get one last chance to run together in a Virginia High School League meet.
The Colonels finished third on Wednesday in the Region 4D meet at the Third Battle of Winchester Battlefield course. The top three teams qualify for the Class 4 state meet on Nov. 8 in Oatlands, and this will be the fourth straight year that the Colonels will make the trip as a team.
Alina Kieffer — one of four seniors who ran for the Colonels on Wednesday — said James Wood head coach Matthew Lofton and assistant coach Hannah Chambers put the team in position all season to be at its best for the postseason.
“I’m so, so proud of the girls,” said Kieffer, who has committed to run for NCAA Division I Longwood University next year, according to Lofton. “It’s kind of been stressful. When we were at the starting line, we were all tearing up. We were really nervous, because this might have been our last race together as a team.
“But we all just really, really wanted [a state berth]. Today, we came out hungry for it, and we just showed that when James Wood is really working [for a goal], we can get it.”
Defending state champion Blacksburg won the 13-team meet with 31 points, 20 more than runner-up Charlottesville (51). James Wood scored 73 points, Handley was fourth with 128, Millbrook took sixth (139) and Sherando was eighth (228).
The Judges saw a two-year streak of state meet berths end, but junior EJ Mullins qualified individually and took 20th overall. The top five individuals outside of the top three teams also qualified for the state meet on Wednesday.
Individually, defending state champion and senior Elaina Pierce of Charlottesville put on a dominant performance and won with a 3.1-mile time of 17 minutes and 27 seconds in the 92-girl race. Her sophomore sister Juliana was the runner-up (18:10). James Wood senior Kate Konyar — the state runner-up to Elaina Pierce in 2024 — placed third at 18:15 on a dark, 50-degree day in which light rain fell shortly before the girls’ race began at noon.
Konyar, Kieffer (eighth, 19:23.21) and junior Ally Oliver (14th, 19:45.6) each earned All-Region honors for the Colonels by placing in the top 15. Senior Katelyn Palmer (18th, 19:54) and freshman Abigail Ebert (30th, 20:43.8) also scored points for the Colonels. Others who took the course for James Wood were sophomore Melanie Padilla (34th, 20:52.4) and senior Lauren Thompson (37th, 20:58).
James Wood coach Matthew Lofton liked what he saw from his team, which won its fifth straight Northwestern District title last week.
“Super happy,” Lofton said. “I just couldn’t be more proud of how everyone ran. I knew it was our time to run fast. We just hadn’t done it yet, and we picked the right race to do it. Alina setting a new PR, Ally with a new PR, Palmer was close to hers, but she was back under 20 minutes. All of our girls were under 21 today, which is pretty phenomenal. I don’t think we’ve had that yet.”
Charlottesville showed dramatic improvement this year, so the Colonels needed to be at their best to get the last state spot.
“I told the girls on Monday that according to the MileStat rankings, we were fourth,” Lofton said. “I told them it was going to be us, Charlottesville or Handley that wasn’t going to make it [to states], and I told them I didn’t want it to be us, obviously. I told them we all had to work together in every little spot when it counted. I knew that Alina could run quicker than the girls that were ranked in front of her. Same with Ally, same with Palmer, and we did.”
Kieffer was disappointed with her performance on the same course at Millbrook’s Third Battle Invitational on Oct. 18. On Wednesday, she beat her time from that day by 31.7 seconds.
Kieffer’s first mile was under six minutes, and she was pleased with how she continued from there. Kieffer said being able to target Mullins helped. Kieffer said she passed her just before the two-mile mark.
“In the middle of the race, there were people around me that I said, ‘You can do this. Go catch the next one, go catch the next one,'” Kieffer said. “I knew we were focusing on Handley, so I knew as I passed [Mullins], I had to stay in front, hold it and gut it out. I think it worked really well, and I closed strong.”
Konyar didn’t have her fastest career time on the Third Battle course, but she still more than held her own with some of Class 4’s best runners — of the top nine runners from last year’s state meet, six of them ran in the Region 4D meet Wednesday. Konyar also finished behind the Pierce sisters in the main Virginia Showcase race on Oct. 18 at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville.
“I felt fine,” said Konyar, who would have preferred the temperature to be a little warmer and the course to be less slick. “The weather was a little interesting. But honestly, during the run, it wasn’t bad. I feel good.”
Konyar said it was good to get an indicator of her state meet competition. Naturally, she said it was great to see what her teammates did.
“These girls are my best friends,” Konyar said. “Definitely a special group.”
Lofton thinks Konyar has a chance to fare better at the state meet due to the course conditions at Oatlands.
“I think Kate’s a much better hill runner,” Lofton said. “She still had a great race, running 18:15 on a damp day.”
Handley’s scoring runners were Mullins (19:59.8), junior Sage Welpott (22nd, 20:16.6), senior Ella Warren (26th, 20:28.7), junior Audrey Rinker (29th, 20:41.6) and junior Seneca Welpott (31st, 20:48.8).
Judges coach Mark Stickley figured Charlottesville would be tough to beat to keep their state streak going, but he didn’t expect the Black Knights to do nearly as well as they did.
“Their [No.] 4 and 5 runners were outstanding today,” Stickley said. “They were about a minute and a half better than their season bests. I knew we couldn’t beat their 1, 2 and 3 runners necessarily, but we were hopefully going to beat them up at 4 and 5. We did last year [at regionals at Jefferson Forest]. I told our girls that they’re going to be mad about that, and I think they were. I have to give [Charlottesville] credit.”
Stickley said even if the Judges had their best day, it likely wouldn’t have been enough to top Charlottesville and James Wood. Mullins missed the Northwestern District meet last week with an illness, but Stickley isn’t sure why the team as a whole didn’t have better times.
“When the whole team has an [off] race, that’s kind of on me,” Stickley said. “I have to figure out what did we do wrong coming in. I felt like we were in a good spot.”
Stickley said it’s great that Mullins is advancing to states, but he felt bad for the seniors Warren and Stephanie Truban, who took 36th with a PR of 20:57.4.
“They got us to state the last two years, and now they’re not going,” Stickley said. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Millbrook’s scoring runners were senior Caydence Bayne (25th, 20:22.9) and sophomores Aubrey Steinmetz (28th, 20:37.6), Adilyn Steinmetz (33rd, 20:51.8), Marisol Lara (35th, 20:52.9) and Harper Weiss (44th, 21:22.2).
“It’s a tough region,” Millbrook coach Jamie McCarty said. “Most of our girls ran [personal records] today. What else can you do? We knew we were ready to run fast. We just kind of went out there and let it fly. I’m proud of them all. It was a really great season.”
Sherando’s scoring runners were freshman Amelia Rice (27th, 20:34.9), junior Mia Adams (38th, 20:58), junior Ariela Rivera (50th, 22.34.8), freshman Clara Sargent (55th, 23:08.6) and sophomore Addison Holbrook (58th, 23:34.2).
“I’m really proud of the girls,” Sherando coach Megan Roberts said. “They went out and gave it their all. They all just went out and raced and were tough.”
— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at rniedzwiecki@winchesterstar.com
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