Conference 21 Cross Country

Posted: October 30, 2014
By ROBERT STOCKS
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — With sophomore Alec Schrank and junior Tyler Cox-Philyaw leading the way, Millbrook showed once again it possesses a winning combination at the top of the lineup.

In any given race Schrank or Cox-Philyaw possess the speed and endurance to contend for first place and together they give the Pioneers a pair of low cards that most teams could only hope to count on.

On Thursday’s race at Kernstown Battlefield, it was Cox-Philyaw setting the pace through the first mile with a 10-second gap on Woodgrove senior Joshua Cromwell. But by the 13/4-mile mark just before the hill, Schrank moved up and was only a step behind Cox-Philyaw.

Over the next mile, Schrank, who was the Conference 21 runner-up a season ago, pulled away and finished with a winning time of 15 minutes, 56 seconds.

Cox-Philyaw followed in second with a time of 16:12, and Cromwell took third in 16:46.

“We were running even at two [mile mark] and then I just kind of pulled away at the end and made a gap between us,” said Schrank, who posted the only sub-16 minute time in either Conference 21 or the Conference 23 meet that followed Wednesday. “We did great and we definitely stressed to our other guys, our fourth, fifth and sixth, that it was crucial that every single point counts. They pulled through and we’re really proud of them.”

The Pioneers finished with 52 points, beating runner-up Sherando (85 points) by 33 points and third-place Dominion (87) by 35. Woodgrove (94) rounded out the top four teams that will advance to next Thursday’s 4A North Region meet at Kernstown.

While Schrank and Cox-Philyaw paced the Pioneers, the rest of Millbrook’s scoring five included senior Garrett Bloodworth (ninth, 17:03), junior Tom Carty (19th, 17:41) and sophomore Justin Wiseman (21st, 17:45).

“Our goal was to get first,” said Bloodworth, who set a new personal best for the Kernstown course. “The goal was to beat Sherando because they were going to be close time-wise and we expected it to be very close. Overall, we performed very well.”

The Pioneers finished with an average time of 16:56, which was 33 seconds faster than any of the other teams’ average in the eight-team field.

Shirk said the race unfolded just about as planned for his team.

“We kind of had a strategy going in that both [Cox-Philyaw and Schrank] were going to take it out quick and Tyler did that and Alec kind of held back a little bit more than we wanted to, which in turn, made it little tougher on Tyler and Alec ended up getting him in the end,” Shirk said. “But they both ran really well. It’s a great one-two punch to have regardless of who’s the one and who’s the two.

“I’m extremely proud of all the guys. Garrett Bloodworth has kind of been up and down throughout the season, and he stepped up big time today and was huge for us — he was ninth. Tom Carty is a junior and he was No. 4 for us and then we have a handful of juniors — our five, six and seven — and they all ran really well too.”

Sherando junior Trevor Whiteside paced the runner-up Warriors in seventh place with a time of 17:01. The rest of the Warriors’ scoring five included senior Jahlil Northover (12th, 17:20), junior Thomas Powars (15th, 17:27), junior Garrett Allegra (23rd, 17:47) and junior Thomas Shea (28th, 17:52).

“I’m really happy that we got second, but performance-wise I thought we were a little bit off today,” said Sherando coach Jamie McCarty. “We had some guys step up and bail us out when we didn’t run well in some other places. Trevor was great today, and Jahlil Northover was solid for us and he ended up being our No. 2 guy today. That’s what this sport is about, that’s why you run seven guys. If somebody has a bad day, somebody steps up. In the end I feel that’s what saved us today.”

Sherando was the only local team in Conference 21 to qualify both the boys’ and girls’ teams for next Thursday’s 4A North Regional.

The Warrior girls, led by freshman Paige Conner (fifth, 20:04), finished in the fourth and final qualifying spot with 91 team points. The rest of Sherando’s scoring five included senior Katie Rogers (13th, 20:30), junior Emily Askew (22nd, 21:18), senior Haley Powers (25th, 21:23) and junior Evelyn Gibson (26th, 21:25). Askew, Powers and Gibson finished just seven seconds apart, giving the Warriors a tight pack to edge fifth-place James Wood, who finished with 105 points.

“I’ve heard we haven’t qualified in a while so it’s just really exciting that the whole team gets to go [to regionals] instead of just a couple people,” Conner said.

James Wood qualified three individual runners, including sophomore Sophia Dorsey, who led the way among area girls by finishing in fourth place with a time of 19:57. Sophomore teammate Maria Harter also qualified for regionals, finishing seventh in 20:16.

Dorsey hoped her team could qualify, but she felt they performed well against tough competition.

“I was pleased with how our team did because there were some really tough teams out here,” Dorsey said. “We really wanted to make it to regionals and it was a little bit of a letdown, but we just know we can come back next year and maybe try harder.”

James Wood senior Andrew Shade will be the Colonels’ lone boys’ qualifier for regionals after placing fifth in 16:53 seconds.

“I’m really happy with it,” Shade said. “I’m pretty confident for [next week] and I just hope I can make it past the regional meet and get to states.”

Millbrook junior Hannah Croyle (ninth, 20:16) and freshman Mellany Groll (10th, 20:25) qualified for the Pioneers.

Heritage freshman Weini Kelati won the girls’ race, setting a new course record with a time of 17:55. Kelati’s time, the first sub 18-minute time by a female on the course, was 33 seconds faster than the previous course record (18:28) set by Jefferson’s Abby Colbert at the Judges Classic on Sept. 13.

Kelati’s win helped Heritage edge Loudoun County for the conference title, 65-68. Woodgrove (87) followed in third and Sherando (91) came in fourth.

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