WINCHESTER — Sherando High School’s William Norris started out Thursday’s Northwestern District meet as a pacesetter for one of his teammates who hadn’t competed in an event since the season-opening Central Invitational in August.
After bringing fellow sophomore Noah Farringer to a satisfactory time through one mile, Norris decided he might as well give the entire 73-boy varsity field something to chase.
On Millbrook’s alternate Third Winchester Battlefield course — which is believed to be slightly longer than 3.1 miles — Norris won by a whopping 14.1 seconds in 16 minutes, 57.4 seconds.
Sherando didn’t field its regular boys’ varsity lineup on Thursday. With the Northwestern District not counting for postseason advancement, many top area runners either didn’t compete or didn’t push themselves to the max. They either ran hard last Saturday (the Warriors, James Wood and Millbrook all competed at Millbrook’s Third Battle Invitational on its main course) or are going to push themselves this Saturday (Handley will participate in the Virginia Showcase in Mechanicsville).
In Norris’ case, he simply felt good enough to deliver another spectacular performance with him close to the lead after a mile. He was the top Frederick County runner and one of only two people who were sophomores or freshmen in the top 15 on Saturday in the Varsity A race at the Third Battle Invitational. He finished in a personal-record time of 16:11.2.
On Thursday, he dusted the field and led Sherando to second place with 66 points, 23 behind champion James Wood (43). And he certainly got Farringer on the right track, as Farringer took eighth in 18:00.3.
“When I saw how close I was to the front guys, and how well Noah was doing, I trusted him to handle himself, and he did,” Norris said. “He ran really well. I decided I was just going to try and go for [the overall title]. I had nothing to lose, really.”
Last year’s champion, Warren County senior Emiliano Erikkson, was second in 17:11.5, and James Wood junior Nathan Reynolds placed third in 17:38.6.
Norris did well in cross country last year — he was the team’s No. 3 runner at the Region 4D meet and earned Second Team All-Area honors — but the Third Battle Invitational is the biggest example of his improvement from last year. Competing on the same course, Norris improved on his Region 4D meet time from 2025 by 77 seconds on Saturday.
Norris — whose uncle is former James Wood cross country coach and coordinator of student activities Craig Woshner, a distance running star at the University of Pittsburgh — feels his growth as a swimmer and his decision to join the D1 Training facility in Winchester about 15 months ago is paying big dividends for him this season.
Norris was a Second Team All-Area swimmer as a freshman after he said wasn’t particularly fast in the water in middle school. He swims on Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays each week while still keeping busy with cross country and the snare drum for Sherando’s band. (After breaking the event record at the Apple Blossom Festival Kids’ Bloomin’ Mile in May, Norris couldn’t stick around for the awards ceremony because he had to join up with Sherando’s marching band for the Firefighters’ Parade.)
“[Swimming] really helps with my aerobic base, and my VO2 (Volume Oxygen) max, which [measures] how well you can use oxygen,” Norris said. “So I don’t have to breathe as heavily [as I used to] to maintain that faster pace.”
Norris said he’s running faster than he thought he would this season. His performance at Third Battle was a 20-second PR, a Sherando sophomore record and placed him No. 7 all-time among Warrior cross country runners.
Next up for Norris and the rest of Frederick County is the Region 4D meet on Oct. 27 at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest course in Forest. Norris hopes the strong competition he’ll see there can push him to a state-qualifying performance.
Sherando coach Megan Roberts continues to be impressed by Norris.
“He ended up running alone for quite some time and had a good time pretty comfortably,” Roberts said. “I’m very excited to see what he does at regionals.
“He works so hard. There are some days he doesn’t get to join us in practice because he’s in band. But he does workouts on his own. To see what he’s accomplished after doing a lot of his training alone is just amazing, and it speaks to his dedication.”
James Wood had seven of the top 22 performances in winning the boys’ meet. The Colonels had three of the top six finishers overall (Reynolds; senior Cade Freeman, fifth, 17:46.6; sophomore Alecsander Kluge, sixth, 17:53.9) and junior Henry Brant (10th, 18:08.7) and freshman Lucas Rambo (19th, 18:38.4) rounded out the scoring performances. Freshman Zeke Lawler was 20th (18:44.1) and junior Abe Miller had a PR of 18:50.1 after missing the Third Battle Invitational with an illness to take 22nd.
Colonels coach Matthew Lofton knows that Handley and Sherando were either missing runners or dialed back their efforts, but he was proud of his team, including his JV runners.
“They ran really well,” Lofton said. “I think it’s going to be really good momentum for regionals. We have to beat Sherando at regionals [to have a chance at the state meet]. There’s no question.
“It’s fun to win. It’s a small bit of glory. We have plenty of time before the regional meet to recover, so I just wanted to get a nice, good effort in today, and we had that.”
Reynolds began feeling sick the day before the Third Battle Invitational. He still ran a solid 16:55.5 Saturday, and he felt stronger on Thursday.
“I’ve gotten better as the week’s gone on,” Reynolds said. “I felt pretty good today. After Third Battle, I wasn’t happy with how I did, so I kind of wanted to come out here and push myself. I wasn’t really going for a time goal today, but I’m happy with how I did.”
Farringer was Sherando’s No. 2 runner behind Norris at the 3-mile Central Invitational, so Roberts was encouraged by what Farringer did in his return to action.
“It’s great to have Noah back in the mix and see what he can do,” Roberts said. “He’s had a lot of cross training and runs on flat surfaces.”
Roberts said the rest of her boys’ runners used Thursday as more of a workout day. Sherando’s other scoring runners on Thursday were sophomore Andrew Schaeffer (15th in 18:27.6), freshman Charles Russell (17th in 18:31.7) and senior Chester Konisiewicz (26th in 19:04.8).
“They all looked very comfortable,” Roberts said. “It’s a confidence boost to know what they can do and just be comfortable, and how much time they can drop when they’re really pushing.”
There were 10 scoring teams in the boys’ meet. Millbrook was sixth with 149 points and Handley was 10th with 250.
In the girls’ meet, Sherando (96 points) had the top three local finishers and placed second behind Warren County (48). The Wildcats had the top two finishers overall in the 75-runner field in junior Gretchen Gass (first in 20:21.7) and freshman Cara Gass (second in 20:34.6).
Behind them was Warriors senior Mia Adams in third at 21:11.8. Adams kept up her trend on improving from what did last year in meets, as her time was 34 seconds faster than what she ran at last year’s district meet on the same course.
“[Today] felt OK,” Adams said. “I definitely felt like I slowed down at the end more than I wanted to. The last mile felt super long. But I got it done.
“I’m nervous about the regional meet, because that’s where all the hard work comes to the test. But I’m hoping I can get a time I’m proud of and a place I’m proud of.”
Roberts liked what she saw from Adams.
“I think Mia did great,” Roberts said. “She ran a similar time to what she did Saturday. I think that’s pretty awesome to run a PR time, then today have a different course, a different type of race, a different competition, and [come close] to hitting that again, especially since she was running alone today.”
Roberts said it was good to see her other athletes run similar times to the Third Battle Invitational as well. Sherando’s other scoring runners were sophomore Amelia Rice (sixth in 21:30.4), freshman Lily Pangle (10th in 22:11.3), senior Ariela Rivera (38th in 23:47.4) and freshman Kathryn Davis (39th in 23:47.8).
“They’re showing a lot of consistency, and that’s awesome,” Roberts said.
The James Wood girls placed fourth with 107 points. Millbrook was seventh with 154 and Handley was 11th with 323 out of 11 scoring teams.
For both the boys and girls, the Pioneers and Judges in particular put teams on the course that will look much different than the squads they’ll showcase at the Region 4D meet.
“I think every team had a goal, and everyone’s getting what they need out of [this meet], whether it’s extra work for JV kids, or kids coming back from injury,” Millbrook coach Jamie McCarty said. “I think there’s probably 12 different coaches with 12 different ideas of what they’re trying to get out of today. For me, that’s the important thing.
“For the people who ran [here] on Saturday, some of our kids who ran today, the momentum carried over. They looked as strong today as they did on Saturday. So for us, that was a good thing. We had a couple people for us who ran similar times to what they did on Saturday on a different course. We’re making progress.”
Handley coach Mark Stickley definitely wants his top boys and girls to be at their best on Saturday against elite competition in the Virginia Showcase. He was pleased to see some PRs from several of his runners who did take the course on Thursday.
“The timing of this is just not good [for us],” Stickley said. “We weren’t the only team running our JV runners. I’m happy for the JVs to step up and get a little more pressure on them, and get a little more experience for next year. I think they ran hard today.”
Millbrook boys’ scorers: 13. Jackson Reid 18:21.8; 28. Tyler Luna 19:10.4; 36. Eli Lassiter 19:33.4; 39. Emilio Espinoza 19:37.8; 41. Jayden Buhler 19:41.9.
Handley boys’ scorers: 29. Tristan Wheeling 19:11.8; 54. William Mayfield 20:38.0; 56. Dylan Mendoza 20:46.3. 58. Elijah Jarrett 20:46.4; 70. Jeremiah Wallace 23:09.9.
James Wood girls’ scorers: 12. Ally Oliver 22:21.4; 17. Abigail Ebert 22:35.5; 19. Madeleine Primus 22:50.0; 25. Emily Holaday 23:04.4; 34. Isabella Posey 23:38.1.
Millbrook girls’ scorers: 14. Emma Murphy 22:27.3; 22. Harper Weiss 22:56.4; 23. Lily Carr 22:59.1; 45. Vin Malone 24:23.2; 50. Addison Stover 24:30.5.
Handley girls’ scorers: 53. Lucy Miller 24:48.0; 70. Anna Gramling 27:03.1; 71. Marjorie Cruz-Ibarius 27:03.1; 72. Christiana Ekoue 28:04.1; 73. Lucy Rueda 28:05.6.
— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at rniedzwiecki@winchesterstar.com
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