Girls' Conference 21 West Cross Country

WINCHESTER — Finishing last at the 2015 Conference 21 West championship in Purcellville was something Handley’s girls’ cross country team hoped to erase from their collective memory at Wednesday’s conference championship.

Now the Judges can tell everyone what it feels like to go from worst to first.

The Judges, led by sophomore runner-up Kenzi Fergus (20:04), placed three runners in the top six to win the team title with 50 points on their home course at Kernstown Battlefield.

Fergus, who was one of three Handley runners in the top eight at the mile split, got stronger as the race went on. She was fourth at the mile mark, but moved to third just before the two-mile split.

Even though Fergus led the way for Handley individually, she said the team title meant the most to her after the Judges placed sixth a season ago.

“I’m so proud of us, and we’ve worked so hard this season,” said Fergus. “It feels so good because last year I ended up passing out in the race, and we got last. It just feels good to know that all that hard work paid off.”

The only runner to finish ahead of Fergus was James Wood freshman Kenzie Konyar, who won the conference title in 19:46.

Konyar ran with the leaders from the start. She kept pace with Harrisonburg sophomore and last year’s conference champion Hannah Miller through the opening mile.

Konyar moved ahead in the second mile and kept pushing the pace. At the two-mile mark, Konyar built a six-second advantage over Fergus and Miller.

“I just went for it,” said Konyar of her surge between the first- and second-mile mark. “My goal was definitely top five. I wanted to win, but I didn’t know if it was going to happen, so I’m pretty happy. I was going for anything under 21 [minutes] on this course, and I ran under 20 so I was ecstatic.”

The Judges certainly know the feeling after Wednesday’s race.

Handley placed all five scoring runners in the top 20. Handley’s scoring five — Fergus, junior Kristin Blake (third, 20:13), freshman Kendall Felix (sixth, 20:23), junior Sydney Aschenbrenner (19th, 21:21) and sophomore Riley Fisher (20th, 21:24) — are all underclassmen.

“It was a great team effort and everybody pushed forward,” Aschenbrenner said. “Everybody pushed really hard, and the weather was awful (with the temperature in the mid 50s), it was just an excellent effort.”

Handley girls’ coach Emily Budnyk-Putt said her team was driven by last year’s performance in the conference meet.

“We’ve been thinking about last year at this time for a long time,” Budnyk-Putt said. “It really helped fuel us in the last week to 10 days in getting ready for this meet.

“We just really ran to our race plan perfectly up front, especially with Kendall, Kristin and Kenzi. Our 4-5 really moved up as the race went on which really helped us. It was definitely a collective effort. Riley Fisher who’s our No. 5, I think she was maybe 27th or so at Mile 1 and she stepped all the way up to 19th, so that was a big one. Our freshman, Kendall, moved up from 11th to sixth, so that was great. That front duo of Kristin and Kenzi — they’re really great.”

Budynk-Putt said her team wanted to run its best with the opportunity to host a conference meet.

“Cross country to me is about hills, and we’ve never really been great at the speed [on more flat courses], but these hills and battling, like we did today battling in the second half, that’s really our strength. I felt very confident going in, and the girls were really tough, so I think that helped us a lot.”

Konyar, Fergus and Blake finished ahead of a pack of four girls who all crossed the line in a sprint to finish within a second of each other.

Groll and Muldowney helped the Pioneers edge James Wood by just six points (72-78) for the third and final regional berth.

Millbrook’s scoring five of Groll, Muldowney and sophomores Maddie Lloyd (17th, 21:12), Sophie Edlich (21st, 21:27) and Joanne Keenan (22nd, 21:38) are all underclassmen.

“Our conference is really, really strong this year, so I’m just thankful to get out basically,” said Millbrook coach Kevin Shirk. “I think we had five really good schools in there, so it was one of the most nerve-racking races I’ve been involved with coaching. I’m just really glad to get out.”

Sherando placed fifth with 96 points, and Harrisonburg took sixth with 121.

While the top three teams advance to next Wednesday’s 4A West Region championship at the Kernstown Battlefield course, the top 15 individuals also earned regional berths.

James Wood sophomore Haley Witt (11th, 20:43), senior Autumn Hottle (13th, 20:46) and Konyar give the Colonels three regional qualifiers.

Williams and junior Paige Conner (15th, 20:57) were the lone regional qualifiers for Sherando.

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