WINCHESTER — Kate Konyar has had to settle for runner-up finishes the last two weeks, but the James Wood High School junior is still in a class by herself.
Konyar broke her own school record with a 3.1-mile time of 18 minutes, 1.7 seconds on Saturday in Millbrook’s Third Battle Invitational.
Konyar was the only local girl or boy to place in the top 20 of Varsity A competition at the Third Battle of Winchester Battlefield course. She finished 7.3 seconds behind Herndon senior Meghan Sullivan (17:53 ninth in Class 6 last year), but 4.6 seconds ahead of West Springfield’s Allie Horner. Konyar led James Wood to fourth place out of 23 scoring teams, with the Colonels finishing only behind three Class 6 schools.
Basically, it was yet another instance of the two-time All-State runner finishing a race with no one else around her. For example, Konyar won the Judges Classic at Kernstown Battlefield two weeks earlier by 1:19.04. Last week at the Albemarle Invitational in Earlysville, Konyar finished 38.8 seconds behind Charlottesville junior Elaina Pierce (third in Class 4 last year). Konyar finished 14.5 seconds ahead of the No. 3 runner at that meet.
James Wood coach Matthew Lofton would love to see just how fast Konyar can go if she had at least one other person around her throughout an entire race. Pierce is running at a remarkable level right now, and Sullivan opened up a lead in the last mile with a burst that’s beyond what all of the other 261 Varsity A and B runners on Saturday are capable of right now. There were 152 girls in the Varsity A race.
“The problem is that there are just one or two girls [at Konyar’s level] in a race, and then when they get away from her, it’s hard for her to have some other competition to feed off of,” Lofton said. “I think with other people around her, a little bit closer, she probably could have gotten under that 18-minute barrier.
“I think [the other top runners] all kind of sat on her for the first part of the race to see where she was going to go, so [the race] wasn’t as fast as it could have been. But still, new school record, you can’t complain about that.”
Konyar said she was hoping to break 18 minutes for the first time on Saturday, but she figured she would have needed to run a little cleaner to do it.
“I kept slipping in the rocks, which I bet everyone was,” Konyar said.
Konyar did improve on her time of 18:06.5 at Albemarle and beat her time at last year’s Third Battle, when she took fifth. Konyar led Sullivan by half a second halfway through the race. Sullivan made her push to separate on the bunny loop in the last mile.
“I’m still happy with a new [personal record],” Konyar said.
Konyar said she’ll try for 18 minutes the next time she runs, which will be at the Northwestern District meet on the same course on Oct. 29.
As for competition, it’s hard to say if Konyar will have many people to run with for the final half mile or so in her last three races. Last week was an example of Region 4D runner Pierce’s talent, and Konyar finished 14 seconds ahead of sixth place at last year’s state meet.
“[Pierce] is really fast,” Konyar said. “When states comes, hopefully, I can at least keep up with her a mile or two and maybe give her a little competition.”
James Wood scored 190 points to finish behind West Springfield (55), W.T. Woodson (78) and Langley (154). Clarke County placed 16th with 429 points. Millbrook and Sherando ran in the B races for girls and boys.
Other scoring runners for the Colonels were Alina Kieffer (33rd in 19:37), Ruby Ostrander (39th in 19:50), Katelyn Palmer (45th in 20:00) and Ally Oliver (79th in 20:54.3).
“Our team did amazing,” Konyar said. “Some of our runners were setting really good PRs, and that always makes us happy to celebrate as a team.”
Ostrander is working her way back into shape after serving as James Wood’s No. 2 runner last year. She had to back off running just before the season-opening Central Invitational because of a foot injury, and Saturday was her second official race of the season. Ostrander ran 43 seconds faster at last year’s Third Battle Invitational.
“I’ve just really been focusing on arch training and cross training, and lifting,” said Ostrander in describing her comeback to competition.
Ostrander didn’t like how she performed at the Albemarle meet, but she improved by more than a minute on Saturday.
“I’m much happier with how I did today than how I did last week,” she said.
Lofton was pleased with Ostrander’s improvement and liked how the Colonels performed as a whole.
“Palmer had a great race, Ally Oliver had a big PR,” Lofton said. “I think we’re going in the right direction.”
James Wood senior Eli Clark — the top local boys’ runner on Saturday — isn’t going in the wrong direction, but he hasn’t been pleased with his performance since winning the Judges Classic two weeks ago.
At the Albemarle Invitational, Clark placed 38th in 16:55.4. On Saturday, Clark placed 22nd in 16:31.3 in the Varsity A race as the only Colonel runner (the rest of the team ran in the B race). Clark’s best time at Third Battle as a 16:30 as a sophomore at the district meet.
Clark was ninth after two miles on Saturday, then fell back. Clark said when he started running on the gravel after coming out of the wooded first mile, he did not feel well. Third Battle is a flat course, but Clark was struggling so much that he told Lofton he felt like he was running up the large hill at Oatlands in Leesburg when he reached the gravel.
“At the beginning of the season, when we were feeling really good and we were winning, we were focused, and state championship was the goal,” Clark said. “I’m fit for that. I don’t know what’s really going on these last two weeks. Just have to focus on the little things, talk to coach and figure it out. We’re not just ditching the goal because we had a couple bad races. This is not a true representation of what I’m capable of. I’m just going to drive to get back to where I’m proud of where I am.”
Lofton said Clark left for a week-long beach trip after winning the Judges Classic, and noted he was on his feet all day Friday as a result of being on the Homecoming court. Lofton said once Clark — who pointed out how much getting eight hours a sleep a day for several months has helped him — settles into his normal routine again, that could help.
“He’s a very regimented person with his schedule and his training,” Lofton said. “I think it’s just a little things that are kind of taking its toll with our training right now. I know he’s in great shape. I know he’s ready for the fast race. That just didn’t happen today, and that’s frustrating, because there was definitely a lot of competition for him today. But our goal is for the state meet.”
Clarke County placed 15th in the 24-team Varsity A race with 344 points. Centreville won with 72 points, and Jefferson Forest was second with 185. Individually, Greg Borden of Freedom (South Riding) won by two-tenths of a second in 15:27.1 in the 159-boy race.
In the Varsity B boys’ race (125 runners), W.T. Woodson won with 79 points and George C. Marshall placed second with 99 out of 19 teams. Led by fifth-place finisher (and No. 2 local runner for the day) Ryan Maki (16:42.4), Sherando was sixth with 195 points. Millbrook was 15th (355) and James Wood took 16th (398).
In the Varsity B girls’ race (110 runners), Fauquier won with 44 points. Led by fifth-place finisher Harper Weiss (20:18.2), Millbrook was second with 73 points out of 16 teams. Sherando placed sixth (194).
Clarke County girls’ scorers: 51. Molly Husted 20:05:4; 59. Teya Starley 20:11.9; 89. Abigail Cochran 21:18.2; 114. Emma Husted 21:58.7; 126. Carmen Russell 22:30.0.
Other Millbrook girls’ scorers: 14. Marisol Lara 20:54.7; 15. Caroline McCurry 20:57.2; 18. Adilyn Steinmetz 21:03.8; 22. Caydence Bayne 21:18.6.
Sherando girls’ scorers: 20. Mia Adams 21:08.1; 34. Gracie Defibaugh 22:04.8; 45. Regan Caplan 22:37.8; 53. Gabriella Koch 22:52.4; 60. Cassidy Crittenden 23:19.1.
Clarke County boys’ scorers: 35. Jackson Ellis 16:46.6; 39. Landon Horton 16:49.8; 48. James Casey 16:58.2; 92. Aidan Kreeb 17:27.2; 135. Carter Starley 18:30.9.
Other Sherando boys’ scorers: 14. Hatcher Smith 17:09.8; 43. Jed Bell 17:41.5; 65. Andrew Ahrens 18:18.2; 68. Sebastian Berrios 18:21.5.
Millbrook boys’ scorers: 19. Peter Warner 17:22.6; 74. Samuel Lopez 18:30.3; 79. Bennett Weiss 18:38.6; 86. Graham Davidson 18:56.9; 99. Kingston Guerrero 19:21.9.
Other top James Wood boys’ runners: 57. Cade Freeman 18:05.5; 64. Carrick Amerine 18:17.2; 66. Nathan Reynolds 18:19.1; 105. Zane DeWarf 19:35.8.
For more coverage of the meet, see Tuesday’s edition of The Winchester Star.
