Northwestern District Cross Country

NOKESVILLE — With his running shoes removed 10 minutes after his race, John Delaney walked gingerly as he made his way around the gravel at Nokesville Park.

With his running shoes on, Delaney was anything but hesitant at Wednesday’s Northwestern District meet.

The Handley senior won the first postseason race of his career with a time of 16 minutes and 3 seconds on the 3.1-mile course. The Northwestern District had all 13 Class 4 and Class 3 teams run together, and Delaney beat all of the runners from both classifications. Kettle Run’s Mateo Barreto — another Class 4 runner — was second behind Delaney with a time of 16:09.

“I wanted to get out fast,” Delaney said. “It’s a quick turn at the start, so I really wanted to be out there.

“Just a little bit before the mile [marker] I decided I was going to break away and see what happens. See if they come.”

Delaney said Matteo made him work toward the end of the race. But Delaney led by 30 meters with a half-mile left, and Matteo couldn’t make a serious charge at him.

Delaney was the only local athlete to win a championship on Wednesday, but there will be plenty of other people from Winchester and Frederick County who will join him at next Wednesday’s Region 4C meet at Kernstown Battlefield.

Of the seven Class 4 teams that competed in Wednesday’s meet, the top four teams and any individual that finished in the top 15 advanced. Fauquier won both team competitions, but all the other qualifying spots were taken by local schools.

The Fauquier boys (47 points) were followed by Handley (77), Sherando (80), James Wood (90), Millbrook (94, two individual qualifiers), Kettle Run (138) and Liberty (135).

The Fauquier girls (47) were followed by Handley (53), Sherando (62), Millbrook (74), James Wood (109, one individual qualifier), Kettle Run (163) and Liberty (213).

Delaney said his race went about as well as he could have hoped for.

“My legs felt good,” Delaney said. “I felt comfortable. I never really felt like I was hurting too much.

“I came off kind of a bad race in Third Battle [on Oct. 14], so I’m happy to come back, win a race and feel strong.”

Handley boys’ coach Mark Stickley said Delaney did even better than he expected.

“To run 16:03 on a day when he really wasn’t pushed, that’s fantastic,” Stickley said. “I’m really excited about that. He looked so under control, and I was even more impressed with that than the time aspect of it. It was nice for him to enjoy being out front in the district meet his senior year.”

Stickley was pleased with his team’s overall performance as well. He figured the competition for second through fifth place would be a fierce contest for the four Winchester-Frederick County schools, and that a good team would see its season end.

“I’m relieved,” Stickley said. “Joe [Rosenfeld] had been sick the last few days, and Bennett [Cupps] wasn’t feeling 100 percent either. They really had to suck it up, and they did.

“I thought overall we ran really well. It was kind of a gut check. I thought we could be anywhere from 2-5, so I’m really glad we were second.”

In addition to Delaney, Handley was led by Grayson Westfall (eighth, 17:10), Brian Tufts (18th, 17:47), Cupps (23rd, 17:52) and Rosenfeld (27th in 18:06).

The Handley girls were led by senior Kristin Blake, who took third overall with a personal-record 19:21 behind Fauquier’s Kyra Holland (18:45) and James Wood’s Kenzie Konyar (18:52).

Blake said since the Nokesville Park course is relatively flat compared to most of the other courses the team has run on this year, so she figured the team had a chance to run some fast times.

“My attitude about this was just, ‘Go out and push it,’ and stick to some of the faster people who are in our [district],” she said. “It worked out pretty well I guess. [Holland and Konyar] pulled ahead after the first couple miles, but I just tried to keep them in sight. I felt good today, and I’m pretty excited about getting a PR.”

Handley girls’ coach Emily Budnyk-Putt said Blake has come a long way since she was a sophomore, when she wasn’t one of the team’s top 10 runners.

“We couldn’t be more proud of her,” Budynk-Putt said. “She’s a great leader for our team.

“The attitude coming into today for our team was to run strong and qualify for regions, and we did that. Last year we won conference and weren’t able to qualify for the state at regions. We’re at home next week, and we really feel like we have a shot at making it to states.”

The Judges were also led on Wednesday by Kenzi Fergus (fourth, 19:30), Kendall Felix (eighth, 20:02), Riley Fisher (14th, 20:20) and Sydney Aschenbrenner (24th, 20:59).

Wood’s Konyar said she did her best to hang with Fauquier’s Holland. But like Delaney in the boys’ race, Holland had about a 30-meter lead with a half-mile to go, which proved insurmountable. Konyar said Holland started to pull ahead after the second mile marker.

“I’m happy with my time,” Konyar said. “I feel like I could have done a little bit better job hanging with the lead runner, but it is what it is.

“I’m happy with my season, because I’m PRing left and right. I’m definitely planning on peaking for states, and we’ll see how that goes.”

Konyar is the only James Wood girl advancing, but the Colonels will send their entire boys team to regions. They were led by Kevin Konyar (fourth, 16:48) and Joshua Arce (seventh, 17:02). Konyar was nine seconds out of third.

“I didn’t go out as fast as I wanted to,” Kevin Konyar said. “I let [Barreto] and [Fauquier’s Nick Matthews] get a little too far ahead of me. I tried to make up for it at the end, but I didn’t really have enough energy.

“Overall, I thought it was a pretty race. Fourth in the conference, you can’t complain about that.”

“If we hadn’t been able to pull those low points, then things would have fallen different,” said James Wood coach Mike Onda, noting Arce moved up two spots higher than his pre-meet seeding. “That helped us a lot.”

Sherando joined Fauquier and Handley as schools that are sending both their boys’ and girls’ teams to the region meet.

On the boys’ side, James Harris (fifth, 16:53) and Christian Arellano (sixth, 16:56) led the Warriors. Camryn Ubert (sixth, 19:52), Stella Williams (ninth, 20:07) and Olivia Couillard (10th, 20:08) led the Sherando girls.

“If you look at it on paper coming in, the guys were supposed to maybe come in fifth, and the girls were probably fourth,” Sherando coach Jamie McCarty said. “For the guys to get third, I’m extremely happy. It’s a young bunch of guys with not very much experience. The girls have kind of struggled all year a little bit with health, and we don’t have any numbers this year. We felt like we were turning the corner the last couple of weeks, so we’re pretty pleased on both sides.”

The Millbrook girls were led by Kaycee Cox-Philyaw (fifth, 19:45) and Maddie Lloyd (12th, 20:09). The Pioneers boys have two individual region qualifiers in Brad Hambrick (11th, 17:23) and John Pullen (14th, 17:33).

“We know we have a strong district, but we didn’t really step up the way we needed to,” Pioneers coach Kevin Shirk said. “Compared to what we’ve done throughout the season, I thought we’d do a little better today.

“We’ve been battling some injuries on the girls’ side the past few weeks, and the girls who were injured performed the best they could. We’re a young team on the boys’ side. Missing [regions] by four points, I hope they can use that as a motivator for next year.”

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