Cross Country - James Wood off to strong start

WINCHESTER — The Millbrook boys' and girls' cross country teams have stolen the show with two wins in two meets each so far this season.

James Wood's cross country teams haven't been that far behind, though.

The Colonel boys took second to Millbrook at the Central Invitational in Woodstock on Aug. 31. At Saturday's Judges Classic at Kernstown Battlefield, James Wood was the top local finisher behind the Pioneers, taking fourth.

The James Wood girls have taken second only to Millbrook in each of their first two meets, and senior Kenzie Konyar couldn't be happier with how the Colonels are performing.

On Saturday, Konyar immediately surged to the lead and held that advantage for almost half the race. Frustrated by her start at last week's Central Invitational, Konyar made the decision to go out hard. That choice didn't result in a win for the 2017 Judges Classic champion, but Konyar wasn't disappointed that she wound up taking fifth because she was so impressed by the performance of the rest of her teammates.

"My strategy today and in general is that I'm not really worried about my self as much, because I have such a strong team this year," Konyar said. "I feel like as a team, we're just motivated to win and do well as a team because we have so much depth this year. I really haven't been worried about my own times, and I feel like that's actually helping a lot, to be able to put some of it on my team, and believe in the team, and have other people to support the team."

Not worrying about her time might have played a part in Konyar achieving an individual performance that should be considered pretty encouraging. Konyar finished Saturday's 3.1-mile race in 20 minutes, 32.5 seconds, a 15-second improvement from her time at last year's Judges Classic.

The Colonels had a lot of reasons to feel optimistic on Saturday. They were the only one of the 14 teams to have four runners place in the top 20. Konyar was also right about the depth, as the Colonels were the only team to have all seven runners place in the top 50 of the 97-girl field.

Millbrook won with 80 points to James Wood's 91 because it had the top two scoring runners (individual champ Ava Bordner was Skyline's only competitor on Saturday and did not factor into the team scoring) and it was the only team with five runners in the top 30.

Three teams will advance out of Region 4C to the Class 4 state meet. With defending state champion Loudoun Valley and Millbrook in Region 4C, James Wood has some challenging competition. But last year's Region 4C third-place team, Woodgrove, is now in Class 5, so Konyar could have more company than she ever has at the state meet. An all-state performer each of the last three years, Konyar was a solo participant at Great Meadow her freshman and sophomore years before being joined by sophomore teammate Elena Farinholt last year.

"I feel like our team, for the first time since I've been here, has huge potential to go to states, to win districts, whatever we want to do," Konyar said. "Everybody's motivated and everybody's working hard every day. I'm excited to see what we can do."

James Wood's boys, the defending Class 4 Northwestern District champions, also finished one place away from the state meet last year, finishing four points behind third-place Dominion.

James Wood coach Mike Onda felt like the boys did well on Saturday. The Colonels' No. 2 and No. 5 runners were separated by 17 places and 32 seconds, and Nathaniel Woshner led by the team by placing eighth in 17:33.8.

"They're all doing really well," Onda said. "[Freshman] Ethan Bowman [37th in 18:35 Saturday] is right up there with the upperclassmen, and you usually expect freshmen to be a little further back. To have a freshman come in and make us deeper is definitely going to help us long-term."