4A West Cross Country Championship

Robert Stocks The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Millbrook senior Alec Schrank’s cross country resume looked pretty impressive even before the 4A West Region cross country championship at Kernstown Battlefield on Wednesday.

The Pioneers senior standout won the second conference championship of his varsity career at Kernstown last week to go along with a pair of conference runner-up performances during his freshman and junior seasons.

Schrank also had runner-up performances as a freshman and junior at regionals as well as a third-place regional finish as a sophomore.

But a regional title was one of the few championships that had eluded Schrank.

Until Wednesday.

Schrank won his third title of the season on the 3.1-mile (5K) Kernstown course, surging ahead with about 600 meters to go to finish first with a time of 16 minutes, seven seconds.

Schrank finished 2.6 seconds ahead of Loudoun Valley runner-up Peter Morris, who surged to the front with Schrank during the final mile of the race.

The Pioneers senior, who won the Judges Classic back on Sept. 10 and the Conference 21 West title (in 16:05) on Oct. 26 at Kernstown, clocked a 5:12 in the opening mile and ran stride-for-stride with Loudoun Valley’s Colton Bogucki just before the two-mile mark with a pack of seven runners. Handley’s John Delaney and Morris were part of the pack, running a stride or two behind Schrank and Bogucki.

But in the final mile, Schrank believed his familiarity with the course gave him a bit of an advantage over Morris, so that’s where the Pioneer planned to make his final push.

“At the end I knew the course really well, and I knew [Morris] probably didn’t know the course very well, so I knew the last two little hills before you come out of the woods — that’s the real end of the race,” Schrank said. “I knew I had to push and stay strong there. Coming off that second [hill] right before the downhill, I came even with him and then it was a sprint down the hill.”

Both Schrank and Morris entered the final downhill — which is approximately the final 400 meters — side by side, but Schrank pulled away down the hill to finish 2.6 seconds clear of Morris.

Millbrook cross country coach Kevin Shirk said Schrank ran another smart race on an unseasonably warm day with the temperature nearly 80 degrees.

“Kind of like the conference meet and the Judges Classic here, I thought he ran a really intelligent race where he kind of held back and didn’t try to run away from anyone too early,” Shirk said. “He conserved a little bit, kind of waiting for the last couple hills and the last stretch here just to make sure he had enough left in the tank to get him through those last couple hundred meters.”

Shirk said Schrank’s regional title should give him some extra momentum heading into the Group 4A state meet at Great Meadow in The Plains on Nov. 12.

“I’d say coming into today we’d probably have considered Peter [Morris] the favorite [in Group 4A] because he had run so well at Third Battle,” Shirk said. “On faster courses he’s run low 15s sometimes, so we considered him the favorite, and we know a couple other guys from other regions are running well too. But this has to be a massive confidence boost for Alec, because he beat somebody who’s probably considered the favorite at states.”

Schrank said it’s encouraging to finally break through with a win at the regional meet.

“I’d never won regionals,” Schrank said. “I’ve been second and third a couple times and been close. Freshman year, I got second in both of these [conference and regional], so now it’s good to be a senior and get first in both. I definitely think getting this win is a big confidence boost for states.”

The top 12 individuals (and the top six teams) earned state berths, but only three area runners joined Schrank as state qualifiers.

Delaney, who placed 12th (17:05), was the only other area boys’ state qualifier.

Handley’s boys, who won the Conference 21 West title at Kernstown a week ago, placed eighth (with 213 points) out of 15 teams.

“We didn’t run as well as we did last week unfortunately,” said Handley boys’ cross country coach Mark Stickley. “Sometimes it’s just kind of hard to match that. Everything kind of gelled for us last week, and just not today. We had some nice [individual] races, but just not enough of them. Not all seven of them this time.”

Millbrook, led by Schrank, followed in ninth with 218 points.

Loudoun Valley won the boys’ title with 64 points. Freedom (69), Rock Ridge (139), Dominion (141), Fauquier (146) and Woodgrove (168) rounded out the six state qualifiers.

In the girls’ race, Handley’s Kenzi Fergus placed 13th (20:17) to lead the way among area runners. Fergus earned a state berth (by virtue of being on of the top 10 runners excluding runners on state-qualifying teams), but Handley, the Conference 21 West champions, did not qualify as a team.

The Judges finished 17 points behind sixth-place Fauquier, who earned the final state-qualifying spot with 165 points.

Fergus said she didn’t run quite as well as she hoped on the unseasonably warm afternoon.

“Once I got to the top of the [hill near the two-mile mark] everything kind of just shut down, and I couldn’t push anymore,” Fergus said. “I tried because I know my team wanted to make it to states, and we deserved it. I don’t know? I don’t want to make any excuses, but it just wasn’t our best race, but I’m still proud of our season.”

Fergus and James Wood freshman Kenzie Konyar, who placed 17th (20:29), were the only state qualifiers. Konyar, like Fergus, earned her spot by being one of the top 10 runners not on state-qualifying teams.

Handley girls coach Emily Budnyk-Putt knew the Loudoun County schools would make it challenging to finish among the top six.

“We had to run well at four out of five positions, and I don’t feel like today was our best race as a group,” Budnyk-Putt said. “It would’ve taken a perfect race going against this type of competition. We’re disappointed, but everybody’s back next year so that’s pretty exciting.”

E.C. Glass senior Libby Davidson, the Group 4A state and 4A West Region runner-up from a season ago, won the regional championship with a time of 18:33. Davidson led four E.C. Glass runners in the top seven overall as the Hilltoppers easily won the team title with 38 points.

Loudoun Valley (81), Loudoun County (135), Jefferson Forest (156), Rock Ridge (159) and Fauquier rounded out the top six.

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