WINCHESTER — For the second time in five days, the depth of the Sherando High School boys’ cross country team paid off in a team championship.
Despite not having two of their better runners in Andrew Ahrens and Hatcher Smith, the Warriors easily won Wednesday’s Northwestern District Championships with 57 points, 24 better than runner-up Handley (81).
Four Sherando runners placed in the top 15 to earn All-District honors, and all seven Warriors finished 19th or better in the 12-team, 79-runner meet at the Third Battle of Winchester Battlefield. James Wood placed third with 91 points (the Colonels had a faster No. 6 runner than Warren County to finish ahead of the Wildcats on a tiebreaker) and Millbrook placed eighth with 188.
“I’m very proud of us,” said Sherando junior Chester Konisiewicz, who led the way for the Warriors on Wednesday by placing sixth in 17 minutes, 56 seconds. “I know we had it in us. We’re pretty tight. We had a really good performance from our freshman Will [Norris] today. That helped out a lot.”
Norris starred in Saturday’s JV B race at the Third Battle Invitational by taking second overall with Sherando’s fourth-fastest time of the day for all of its runners. On Wednesday, he was moved into the varsity lineup and placed 11th in 18:23.4 for Sherando’s No. 3 time and All-District recognition.
“We’re lucky to have a good amount of depth,” said Sherando coach Megan Roberts, whose team won the Varsity B race at Saturday’s Third Battle Invitational without Ahrens. “If people are willing to step it up and try and go for a spot, that’s great. William Norris has really stepped it up.
“We talked in the beginning of the year about how we’re really developing into a really strong team. They need to be in the mindset to race each other constantly and don’t assume your spot on the team. We’re going to be stronger as a team for them doing that and not seeing themselves in specific roles, and always trying to move up and shake up the order. I think they did that today. They raced, and nobody panicked about who was near them and wasn’t near them. They didn’t overthink things, and they just gave it their all today.”
That mentality is producing similar team views for Roberts every week, even if it’s not always the same individual picture she’s witnessing.
“They had that tight pack that we would expect to see even though we were missing Hatcher, who was resting his injury,” Roberts said. “It’s like it’s been all season. You never know what order they’re going to come in, and that’s kind of our strength.”
Sherando’s other two All-District runners are junior Austyn Zeis (ninth, 18:07.4) and senior Gus Barbe (14th, 18:43.7). Junior Gavin Flynn (17th in 18:56.4) rounded out the team scoring, and right behind him were junior Owen Leatch (18th in 18:57.1) and sophomore Quintin Priest (19th in 18:58).
The top local individual on Wednesday was Handley junior Noah Meleason, who placed third in 17:33.5. The Judges as a whole used Wednesday as more of a hard workout day, so Meleason — who led halfway through the race — tried to maintain a 5:20-mile pace and didn’t have any big goals in mind.
Meleason finished behind Warren County junior Emiliano Eriksson — who took over the lead with eight-tenths of a mile left and finished in 17:25.5 — and Meridian senior William Anderson, who beat Meleason by a tenth of a second with a late surge.
On Saturday, Meleason set a personal record at the Virginia Showcase at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville, recording a time of 16:22.6 to break the mark of 16:29 he set at the same meet last year. Meleason was hoping to run faster on Saturday, but was glad to get to finally improve his time.
“A PR’s a PR,” Meleason said. “It always feel great to have one.”
Much like Sherando, Handley has reason to feel good about itself heading into next week’s Region 4D meet that will also be hosted by Millbrook, this time on the same course used for the Third Battle Invitational.
Handley senior Will Thomas — who has been bothered by injuries since early in his junior cross country season — ran his fastest time in two years with a team-best 16:07.5 at the Virginia Showcase. Thomas held back a bit on Wednesday but still finished 10th in 18:20.7.
“It’s always great seeing Will out there with us,” Meleason said. “I’m excited to see what we can do at regionals.”
Judges’ coach Mark Stickley was definitely impressed Saturday with Thomas, who beat his previous best of 16:09 set in the same event in 2023.
“He had some practice races, if you will, this year, but he wasn’t really going after it,” Stickley said. “He was just doing doctor’s orders. This time he was given the green light to go. To come out and set a PR, that speaks volumes of the kind of race he had. It was a phenomenal race, and he could have realistically broken 16 minutes. And then Noah followed up with a really good race, too.”
Handley also received a strong performance from junior Everett Otto on Wednesday. He was just behind Meleason, crossing fourth in 17:36.4.
Otto’s best time last year was 17:34, his first year on the team since moving from Wisconsin. This year, his best is a 16:20.6 that he ran on Sept. 13 at Woodgrove. Otto would be happier with his season if he had improved on his time by now, but overall, he feels he’s made good progress.
“I ran a lot more consistently this summer than I ever have before,” Otto said. “I ran on vacations. Every day, I did harder, longer mileage. I think regionals, I may be able to get a PR there, because the other course is pretty fast.”
Handley’s other scoring runners were sophomore Tristan Wheeling (28th, 19:14.8) and sophomore Samuel Plitt (36th, 19:45.2).
James Wood’s scorers were junior Zach Harrington (seventh, 17:57.2), junior Cade Freeman (12th, 18:27.7), senior Carrick Amerine (13th, 18:42.2), sophomore Abe Miller (25th, 19:05.9) and sophomore Olah Creed (34th, 19:39.2).
“I think we raced really well,” James Wood coach Matthew Lofton said. “I think we raced better today than we did Saturday [at the Third Battle Invitational]. I think all the guys up front ran really well. Abe was quicker today than he was Saturday. To me, it shows that they’re able to rebound quickly and they’re peaking at the right time.”
Millbrook’s scoring runners were junior John Robbins (20th, 18:58.7), senior Shawn Fameni (24th, 19:05.6), sophomore Samuel Lopez (43rd, 20:06.2), senior Bennett Weiss (46th, 20:09.8) and senior Nicholas Taylor (55th, 21:04.1).
“[All teams] kind of had their own agenda of what they were trying to do today,” Millbrook coach Jamie McCarty said. “We ran four guys from JV, because we’re still trying to figure out who [our] 6 and 7 [runners] are going to be at regionals. Outside of that, we had some seniors [for both teams] we put in the varsity race for the end of their careers. Third Battle was the race for us last week, and this week was just kind of finishing everybody else who wasn’t going to run at regionals on a high note, hopefully.”
McCarty said Millbrook didn’t use the Third Battle Invitational course on Wednesday because he wants it to have a special distinction compared to the other races that take place at the Third Battle of Winchester Battlefield. It’s being used for the Region 4D race simply because it’s an official postseason meet.
“Third Battle is Third Battle,” McCarty said. “It’s a big invitational, and it’s been special for a long time. We made the decision this year to keep it that way. Obviously there’s some tweaks on [today’s] course we’re still working through.”
— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at rniedzwiecki@winchesterstar.com
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