Cross Country - Region 4C Meet

WINCHESTER — A lot of belief and a strong bond carried the Millbrook girls’ cross country team in a big way on Wednesday.

The Pioneers will have the only local female or male cross country team competing at the Class 4 state meet as a result of their third-pace finish at the Region 4C meet at Kernstown Battlefield.

After battling some injuries and only taking fourth at last week’s Class 4 Northwestern District meet, Millbrook wasn’t an obvious candidate coming into the region meet to make it to the Nov. 10 state meet at Great Meadow in The Plains.

But the Pioneers came together on Wednesday to take the third and final qualifying spot, edging out fourth-place Handley by three points (106-109).

“We’ve been fighting some injuries lately, and we were still able to put probably our true top seven on the starting line,” said Millbrook coach Kevin Shirk, whose girls earned their first state berth in two years. “I think that’s just a true testament to that group, and probably how much they care about each other.

“We approach it kind of like we’re a little family, and that’s the talk that we had on the start line. ‘When things get rough, think about the other girls that are out there with you, and that will get you over the hump.’ I think that worked for some of them today. They’ve just got a really good bond, and I think that’s why they’re able to sometimes pull it out when things look tough.”

In the girls’ meet, Loudoun Valley won with 26 points and Fauquier was second with 84 out of eight scoring teams. Sherando took sixth with 123 points.

Local individual state qualifiers are James Wood sophomore Kenzie Konyar (third in 19:26.9) and Handley junior Kenzi Fergus (fifth in 19:40.1). Both qualified for the second straight year.

The top five individuals outside of the top three teams qualified for the state meet, and any runner who placed in the top 15 earned all-region status.

Judges senior Kristin Blake — who took third at last week’s Northwestern District meet to lead the Judges — was pulled two-and-a-half miles into Wednesday’s 3.1-mile race. Handley coach Emily Budnyk-Putt said she made the decision for safety reasons after noticing that Blake was “tripping over herself” and “her eyes were almost rolled back,” even though Budnyk-Putt said Blake wanted to keep going.

Three local boys qualified for the state meet. Handley senior John Delaney took seventh in 16:49.7 to qualify for the second straight year. Sherando freshman James Harris (13th in 17:03.4) and Warriors sophomore Christian Arellano (14th in 17.09.1) grabbed the final two state-qualifying spots.

The Millbrook girls received scoring performances from Kaycee Cox-Philyaw (eighth in 20:04.8), Sophie Edlich (13th in 20:26.9), Maddie Lloyd (27th in 21:01.2), Mellany Groll (34th in 21:22.2) and Joanne Keenan (42nd in 21:50.8).

Shirk said Edlich returned about a month ago after missing two weeks with a back injury. More recently though, he said Groll has had hip pain for the past month; Keenan had shin pain; and the team’s No. 7 runner on Wednesday, Emily Muldowney, has been dealing with foot pain.

“We knew it was going to be hard to make it out,” Cox-Philyaw said. “But we came in knowing that if we all tried our hardest, we could make it out.

“It’s really exciting to be going back to states again. It was a really great experience [two years ago], so we’re looking forward to it.”

Cox-Philyaw did her part by running the fastest time she’s ever run at Kernstown.

Edlich was also impressive. She recorded the fastest time she’s ever run on any cross country course.

“To do that on this course, that’s pretty awesome,” said Shirk of Kernstown Battlefield, which requires two steep uphill runs. “It’s not an easy course. She ran a phenomenal race, and we needed it.”

It was announced over the public address system that after two miles, Millbrook was not one of the top three girls’ teams.

At that point, Handley was actually in second. Fergus and Blake were fifth and sixth, respectively, halfway through the race, and losing Blake proved too much for the Judges to overcome. Handley took second at last week’s district meet, and the Judges had hoped to qualify for the state meet.

“I think there’s such a thing as wanting it too much, and she gave everything she had,” Budnyk-Putt said. “She just wanted it for the team so much. I just felt safety-wise for her, I had to pull her out.”

Blake was checked out by the training staff after the race, but did not have any serious complications. Budnyk-Putt said late Wednesday that Blake was tired but feeling better.

Otherwise, Budnyk-Putt felt her team ran well, and she was extremely proud of Fergus after what she thought was Fergus’ best race of the year.

“I felt really good,” said Fergus, who beat her previous best at Kernstown by 30 seconds. “I had six other girls backing me up and have amazing coaches, and that helped me.”

Loudoun Valley’s Natalie Morris (18:40.7) and Ricky Fetteroff (19:03.9) started to separate themselves from the pack shortly into the second mile, but James Wood’s Konyar still had a chance for a notable personal feat as the race went on.

Konyar — who took second at last week’s district meet to Fauquier’s Kyra Holland — watched Holland pass her at the top of the final uphill climb of the race with about half a mile to go.

As they came into the final 30 meters, Holland still led by about five meters. Konyar started surging and Holland checked back to see where Konyar was, which might have cost her. Konyar caught Holland just before the line to beat her by two-tenths of a second.

“She was kind of the one person I was looking out for today,” Konyar said. “I saw she was slowing down, so I really went for it.”

The boys’ race was dominated by Loudoun Valley, whose five scoring runners contributed to a point total of 19 (the Vikings’ No. 6 runner placed ninth). Loudoun Valley’s Sam Affolder (15:39.4) beat teammate Peter Morris by four seconds individually to win the race.

Handley’s Delaney said he wished he had made more of an effort to run with the lead pack, because he called Wednesday’s race his worst of the season. Delaney’s time was two seconds slower than one he ran to win the Judges Classic on Sept. 2.

“I wasn’t with the leaders in the first mile,” Delaney said. “I wasn’t with [third-place finisher Rylan] Pettit [of Woodgrove] when he was pushing for the first mile. I feel like if I would have been there, it would have been a different outcome.

“It’s a lot more encouraging to be where you want to be in a race instead of being out of position. I never got in good position, and I kind of let myself down after that.”

Dominion was second on the boys’ side with 67 points, and Northwestern District champion Fauquier was third with 112.

Sherando had the best finish among the local boys’ teams, scoring 140 points.

Harris and Arellano are the Warriors’ first boys’ state qualifiers since they sent their entire team two years ago.

“We knew it was going to be hard,” Sherando coach Jamie McCarty said. “We’re in a tough region, a competitive region. Those two guys have worked hard and every week have gotten better. To run that fast here, compared to what their PR’s are ... they ran almost as fast as they did last week on a totally different kind of course [at relatively flat Nokesville Park].

“They got in the race, they were confident, and they competed. They did a great job.”

Harris said it means a lot to him to be moving on.

“It feels pretty great,” he said. “I’ve been running since seventh grade. I never ran a 5K, and I wanted to try it. I wasn’t expecting this my freshman year, but I’m glad that I made it. Hopefully I’ll just keeping getting better and better.”

The Handley boys placed sixth with 144 points, and James Wood placed eighth with 166.

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