James Wood captures boys' district title

WINCHESTER — Ethan Pierce said the message from James Wood coach Mike Onda heading into Wednesday’s Class 4 Northwestern District meet was pretty simple.

“If there’s any red or blue jerseys from Fauquier and Millbrook, just try and stay ahead of them in the race, and finish strong,” the senior said.

Led by Pierce’s closing surge, the Colonels followed those instructions to a tee at the Third Battle of Winchester course to win their first district meet title since 2003.

The Colonels — who finished behind both Fauquier and Millbrook at the Oct. 13 Third Battle Invitational — scored 60 points to edge the Pioneers (62) and defending champion Fauquier (68).

Onda wasn’t sure if the Colonels could finish higher than third coming into Wednesday. But James Wood improved its average time over 3.1 miles for its scoring five from 17:02 at Third Battle to 16:54 on Wednesday. Millbrook held steady at 16:54 and the Falcons dropped from 16:43 to 16:52. Out of 36 teams at Third Battle, Fauquier placed ninth, Millbrook was 13th and James Wood was 16th.

Pierce was one of four runners in James Wood’s top five who improved on their times from Third Battle. Onda noted that Pierce (16 minutes, 33 seconds, an improvement of 16 seconds) moved up from 10th to sixth over the last mile. Had Pierce not moved up so much, the Colonels would not have won — Fauquier and Millbrook had runners who finished in seventh and ninth, respectively.

“I went out a little slower [than I did at Third Battle], because in the second half [of the race] I wanted to be able to pass people and finish strong,” Pierce said.

James Wood also was led by senior Josh Arce (10th in 16:51, improvement of 19 seconds from Third Battle), junior Nathan Shade (13th in 16:57), freshman Nathaniel Woshner (14th in 16:58, improvement of seven seconds) and freshman Caleb Kerner (17th in 17:11). Kerner ran in one of the JV races at Third Battle and improved by 38 seconds.

“I thought maybe we’d put three in the top 15, but we got four in,” Onda said. “So that was a pleasant surprise. And to get five in the top 20, I was really happy with that. We’ve been working hard all season, and I’m glad everything came to fruition today.”

The top four teams in Wednesday’s meet and any individual who finished in the top 15 advanced to next Wednesday’s Region 4C meet at the Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg.

In addition to James Wood, Millbrook and Fauquier, Sherando also will compete at the Region 4C meet after scoring 89 points to take fourth, 18 ahead of fifth-place Handley (107).

The Warriors posted the top two times among local runners. Fauquier senior Nick Matthews won with a time of 15:58, and he was followed by Sherando sophomore James Harris (second in 16:16) and Warrior junior Ty Waits (third in 16:19).

Millbrook coach Kevin Shirk thought his team had an excellent chance at winning the district meet coming in, but James Wood’s exceptional performance proved too much to overcome.

The Pioneers’ scoring five on Wednesday was senior John Pullen (fifth in 16:28), senior Brad Hambrick (ninth in 16:42), senior Justin Sharp (11th in 16:53), freshman Jonathan Wiseman (16th in 17:10) and freshman Raphael Espinoza (21st in 17:18).

“We had a combination of good races and some OK races,” Shirk said. “There’s definitely some places we can improve, but as a team we ran well. We had a couple freshmen who ran phenomenally, and we had some seniors who PR’d by 15-20 seconds.”

In addition to Harris and Waits, Sherando was led on Wednesday by freshman Graham Schultz (15th in 17:00), sophomore Jonathan Gates (33rd in 18:29) and junior David Berry (36th in 18:40).

Warriors coach Megan Roberts said Schultz battled illness earlier in the season, but now he’s finally close to 100 percent. Schultz ran in the one of the JV races at Third Battle and improved on his time by 48 seconds.

“I’m really excited about what they did today,” Roberts said. “I talked with the guys this week about what we needed to do [to qualify for regions], and they went for it. I think they raced well, I think they raced tough. They were determined, and they were ready to hurt. That was the big thing I said to them before the race. Just be ready to hurt.”

Harris took top local honors by improving on his time by 10 seconds at Third Battle. Harris said he was trailing Fauquier’s Matthews and Brian Bolles and Millbrook’s Pullen early.

“Before coming out of the woods, my coach said to use the downhill for momentum to go up with them,” Harris said. “I used the downhill to pass [Pullen] and around the corner before the two-mile I passed [Bolles], and I just tried to keep [Matthews] in my sight. I tried to stay as close with him as a I could, but I just wanted to break my own PR from last week, and I did. I’m pretty happy with this race.”

Handley will send two runners to regionals, seniors Grayson Westfall (eighth in 16:36) and Bennett Cupps (12th in 16:55). Judges coach Mark Stickley said this is only the second time in 16 years he isn’t taking a team to regionals.

“I knew it was going to be us and Sherando, and when [Schultz] ran out of his mind, I didn’t think we could overcome that,” Stickley said. “[Schultz] ran an unbelievable race. His dad told me during the race that he was going to try and break 17 minutes, and I knew if he did that, we’d be in trouble. We needed our three, four and five just a little bit farther up [to have a chance].

“I’m really happy that Grayson and Bennett made it. I knew we were going to have our hands full, but we had seven PRs today, which was great.”

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