Pratt-Perez second; Wood girls third at Third Battle XC meet

WINCHESTER — James Wood senior Ethan Pratt-Perez came into Saturday’s Third Battle Invitational hoping to run under 15 minutes over 3.1 miles.

He came up 10 seconds short. But breaking his personal record from last year by 15 seconds — and achieving his second consecutive runner-up finish at Third Battle — were some pretty satisfying consolation prizes.

Pratt-Perez recorded a time of 15:09.40 to finish only behind Oakton senior Junior Allen (15:01.30) in the Varsity A cross country race at the Third Battle of Winchester course.

This year’s event was split into two divisions for boys’ and girls’ varsity and JV competition based on Milestat.com virtual meet projections. The varsity boys featured 42 scoring teams (23 in the A race) and the girls had 37 (22 in A). If a team did not qualify for the A race, there were exceptions made for some individuals to compete in the A competition while most of their team competed in the B event. Sherando senior Dylan McGraw took advantage of this opportunity, placing fourth in a career-best time of 15:43 in the 161-runner boys’ A race.

The Class 4 James Wood girls starred in the Varsity A girls race as the only non-Class 6 school in the top five, finishing third with 142 points behind W.T. Woodson (35) and Langley (112). Colonels sophomore Kate Konyar led all local runners by placing fifth out of 156 girls in a season PR of 18:12.80.

The relatively flat nature of the Third Battle Course made Pratt-Perez want to try and run sub-15 on Saturday, because the circumstances of his remaining meets likely won’t provide that opportunity.

He wanted to go out fast on an overcast morning in the mid 50s, but Pratt-Perez didn’t expect Allen to run a 4:41 opening mile. In retrospect, Pratt-Perez thought maybe he shouldn’t have tried to stay with Allen as long as he did — he was just a few meters behind at the two-mile mark — but he felt good about his performance. At last year’s Third Battle, Pratt-Perez took second in 15:31.

“I’m happy I got a PR,” Pratt-Perez said. “I do feel like I’m running at a higher level than last year. I’m pretty happy with my progress up until this point.”

James Wood coach Matthew Lofton said he thought Allen provided a good challenge for Pratt-Perez.

“[Allen] almost got under 15, so he pulled [Pratt-Perez] to a PR,” Lofton said. “Great race from Ethan. We originally thought we were going to make it tactical for him, kind of hang back, but when he said he wanted to break 15, this was the best race to do it. There was nothing for him to lose today. It wasn’t exactly what he wanted, but maybe he can do that at a national meet if he goes that route.”

The Colonels were the only local boys’ team in the Varsity A race. Handley decided to send senior Will Pardue and sophomore Will Thomas to the Milestat.com meet in Mechanicsville, where they placed 24th in 15:30 and 70th in 16:09, respectively, out of 350 runners in the Elite race.

Other scoring runners for James Wood on Saturday were junior Eli Clark (96th in 17:19.2), senior Will Simko (109th in 17:28.80), sophomore Thomas Newman (114th in 17:32.7) and freshman Zachary Harrington (145th in 18:12.5).

“I thought we ran really well,” Lofton said. “Eli cramped up. Carrick [Amerine] had a cramp as well. Those are things you can’t adjust for and can’t really predict. But Will and Thomas both had huge PRs, mid 17s, which is what we’ve been looking for.

“I said one of the goals for the season is to be the best local school, and I think we’re heading in the right direction. Everyone’s working so hard. This is probably the hardest working group I’ve ever coached as a head coach. I think everyone is seeing their work pay off.”

Konyar was with Fauquier’s Cassidy Scott halfway through the girls’ A race, but Scott eventually pulled away from everyone to win by 15.6 seconds in 17:51.2. Konyar beat her previous best time this season by more than a minute.

“I just tried to stay up in the front,” said Konyar, who missed last year’s Third Battle Invitational with an illness. “I felt good about what I did. It’s a good course, and there’s a lot of competition here.”

Six of the eight fastest local times were recorded by James Wood girls runners on Saturday. Other scoring runners for the Colonels were junior Ruby Ostrander (20th in 19:07.8), sophomore Katelyn Palmer (37th in 19:46.9), sophomore Alina Kieffer (42nd in 19:52.2) and senior Sarah Moss (50th in 20:15.7).

Just like she did at the Judges Classic, Ostrander had the second fastest local time. Ostrander is coming off a successful track season in which she was a state qualifier in the 1,600 and helped James Wood’s 4x800 team earn All-State honors.

“I think [success in track] helped me mentally prepare myself for this season, and it made me want to work harder,” Ostrander said. “[Today], I felt like I could have pushed a little bit harder, but in the end it was a good race. I was working with the [Tuscarora] girls to try and pass them in the end.”

Tuscarora was the next closest non-Class 6 school to James Wood, finishing sixth with 207 points. James Wood won’t be seeing any larger schools the rest of the year, and the hope is the Colonels’ strong performance against them on Saturday will serve them well.

“I thought the girls looked really good today,” Lofton said. “I knew there was going to be a lot of good competition today, and I think they performed really well. I think this is going to prepare us for the postseason.

“I thought [Konyar] raced really well. She ran the best she’s run all season and beat a girl that beat her earlier in the season. Katelyn Palmer came into this season with a hip fracture, and for her to keep improving every race this season is just impressive. She’s gaining us some points every race.”

Also in the Varsity A girls’ race, Clarke County was 16th with 432 points and Handley was 20th with 477.

Millbrook coach Jamie McCarty said he felt the decision to split the meet into divisions worked out well.

“This is as good as it’s been in a long time as far as how smooth it ran,” McCarty said. “The races were all competitive. Everybody seemed really happy. The course held up great considering the rain we had earlier [Saturday]. We still had a lot of fast times in all the races. We feel like it was the right thing to do from a competitive standpoint. We’re really pleased with how it all went.”

In the Varsity B boys’ race, Hayfield won with 61 points and Yorktown was second with 82. Clarke County was fourth with 136, Sherando took fifth with 200, Handley was 11th with 262 and Millbrook placed 12th with 280. Hayfield’s George Brennan won by seven-tenths of a second in 15:58.1.

Hayfield and Briar Woods each scored 103 points in the Varsity B girls’ race, with Hayfield taking the tiebreaker for having the faster No. 6 runner. Sherando was fourth with 143 points and Millbrook was 13th with 307. Stafford’s Sierra Poorbaugh won by seven seconds in 19:41.40.

Clarke County girls’ A scorers: 25. Teya Starley 19:18.7; 102. Abigail Cochran 21:28.6; 104. Mia Timberlake 21:30.8; 107. Saniyah Caldwell 21:33; 113. Molly Husted 21:39.8.

Handley girls’ A scorers: 45. Ella Warren 20:00.3; 64. EJ Mullins 20:28.8; 121. Stephanie Truban 21:54.1; 133. Audrey Rinker 22:24.6; 137. Ellie Bessette 22:30.4.

Sherando girls’ B scorers: 9. Gracie Defibaugh 20:26.3; 10. Addy Wallin 20:29; 18. Mia Adams 21:21.1; 45. Avery Ryan 22:21.6; 61. Ella Carpenter 23:16.3.

Millbrook girls’ B scorers: 28. Addison Stover 21:35.7; 32. Caroline McCurry 21:44.9; 74. Emma Gressley 23:40.6; 82. Allie Murphy 24:17; 93. Layne Mendez 25:43.9.

Clarke County boys’ B scorers: 15. Landon Horton 17:16.3; 19. Jackson Ellis 17:26; 21. Aidan Kreeb 17:28.4; 38. Matthew Lisk 17:52.5; 43. James Casey 18:01.7.

Sherando boys’ B scorers: 7. Brock Smith 16:49.1; 10. Ryan Maki 16:54.8; 25. Jed Bell 17:33.5; 77. Sebastian Berrios 18:46.8; 81. Andrew Ahrens 18:52.4.

Handley boys’ B scorers: 31. Noah Meleason 17:41.3; 42. Finn Slaughter 17:59.3; 44. Halston Wright 18:06.8; 66. Matthew Doran 18:27.7; 79. Skip Dickson 18:49.9.

Millbrook boys’ B scorers: 41. Steve Luna-Pleitez 17:59.2; 51. Caden Treiber 18:12.1; 52. Elijah McGee 18:13.5; 58. Teague Mendez 18:19; 78. Bennett Wiess 18:48.7.

For more meet coverage, see Tuesday’s edition of The Winchester Star.

— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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