Wood's Clark captures boys' Northwestern XC title

WINCHESTER — By not thinking about the lead early, James Wood High School senior Eli Clark was able to take the lead late on Tuesday.

Clark captured the Northwestern District cross country meet by four seconds at the Third Battle of Winchester Battlefield course.

Clark was not happy with how he ran in his previous two races, including Millbrook’s Third Battle Invitational on Oct. 20, when Clark placed 22nd in 16:31.3.

On Tuesday, Clark ran 24.1 seconds faster in 16:07.2 to beat runner-up Shea Henson of Warren County by four seconds in the 3.1-mile event. Tuesday’s race featured 12 schools and 115 runners.

Clark said in his previous two races, he had the mindset of being in first place the entire time, but he realized he needed to do a better job of pacing himself on Tuesday.

“The first person through the half-mile mark doesn’t matter, at all,” Clark said. “The first person through the finish line does.”

Clark said with three quarters of a mile left, he made up his mind to take control of the race, but Kettle Run’s Owen Mullins stayed with him. With half of a mile remaining, Clark picked up the pace again.

“I laid down a nasty kick, and I was like, ‘I’m going to take it,’” Clark said. “I definitely slowed down [at the end] after I kicked, but I had kind of crushed [Mullins] and was out of his reach. I did [that strategy] at Central and at Judges [Classic] where I won those, so just doing the same thing.”

Mullins finished third, 0.5 behind Henson.

Clark hopes he’s back on the right track with the postseason set to commence at the Region 4D meet at the Poplar Forest course in Forest on Nov. 5. James Wood coach Matthew Lofton was encouraged.

“It’s good to see him back on the top again, where he should be,” he said. “It gives him a lot of confidence going into the regional meet and state meet. He was racing today and not racing himself. I think that was also a confidence-booster. He could stay with these guys and know when to make it happen.”

Kettle Run ran away with the team title with 40 points. The Cougars were followed by Sherando (second with 88), Handley (third with 94) and James Wood (fourth with 101). Millbrook was sixth with 159 points.

Warriors coach Megan Roberts said her team felt it was capable of performing better than it did at the Third Battle meet, and it delivered on its determination.

“We told them to go all out today,” Roberts said. “We wanted to see what we could do, and some of them felt like they had unfinished business after Third Battle. They had a little bit [of energy] left, or they wanted to run [the race] in a different way, or go in with a different mental mindset. They were all about it. Let’s go. Let’s roll.”

The Warriors’ scoring runners were senior Ryan Maki (sixth in 16:50.2), junior Hatcher Smith (12th in 17:13.8), junior Andrew Ahrens (21st in 17:38), sophomore Chester Konisiewicz (22nd in 17:42.9) and senior Sebastian Berrios (27th in 18:11.7).

“Ryan’s pretty close to 100 percent now and was right up in the mix going after those [runners in the top five],” Roberts said. “He’s mentally tough and he’s going to be able to grind at the regional meet, and I think it’s going to be about mental toughness down at that course.”

Ahrens improved by 40 seconds from Third Battle.

“He had a huge day today,” Roberts said. “I think that had a big impact on our team, for him to move up that much.”

Maki finished five seconds behind Handley’s Noah Meleason. The sophomore wasn’t too far behind Clark, Henson and Mullins after reaching the two-mile mark, but he fell off their pace and recorded a time of 16:45 to place fifth.

“I felt pretty good, but I died at the end because I was going after Eli,” Meleason said. “I’m not mad about it. It’s still good. I think I can do better keeping up at regionals. I think I can [qualify for] state.”

Handley coach Mark Stickley said he was glad to see Meleason make that push since he was running with a pack and not by himself.

“[Meleason’s] a gamer,” Stickley said. “He trains and works so hard. He ran tough.”

Handley was without its No. 2 runner Matthew Doran as a result of an injury he suffered on Oct. 20 at the Virginia Showcase in Mechanicsville.

“He’s improving, but we didn’t want to take a chance today,” Stickley said. “I think it was the right move for him, but obviously, it hurt the team.”

The Judges’ other scoring runners were junior Finn Slaughter (ninth in 16:59.8), sophomore Everett Otto (19th in 17:34.4), sophomore Halston Wright (30th in 18:13.8) and freshman Samuel Plitt (31st in 18:14.2). Stickley was impressed by the performance of his freshmen runners on Tuesday.

James Wood is still without No. 2 runner Zach Harrington, who has been out since the day before the Judges Classic with an injury. Lofton said the Colonels could have had him run Tuesday, but they want to make sure he’s healthy for the region meet. The top three teams will qualify for Class 4 competition.

“If we can put him back in where I think he could be, we have a really good shot at beating Sherando and Handley,” he said. “We have to beat everyone from the district first before we can even think about beating Jefferson Forest, Charlottesville or Blacksburg. I think it’s going to be a really good regional race on the boys’ side, because we don’t know who’s going to get that third [team] spot.”

The Colonels’ other scoring runners were junior Thomas Newman (13th, 17:15.5), junior Carrick Amerine (24th, 17:55.2), freshman Nathan Reynolds (26th, 18:04.3) and sophomore Cade Freeman (37th, 18:28.5).

Millbrook’s scoring five runners were junior Peter Warner (11th, 17:09.3), sophomore John Robbins (28th, 18:12.6), freshman Samuel Lapp (39th, 18:36.4), junior Bennett Weiss (40th, 18:41.2) and freshman Samuel Lopez (43rd, 18:50.3). Out of the team’s eight runners, Pioneers coach Jamie McCarty believed five of them set personal records on Tuesday.

“Pete ran [13] seconds faster than he did at Third Battle,” McCarty said. “We had some positives, which is where we wanted to be, kind of trending in the right way going into the regionals. I think the guys got some confidence, and everybody ran fast.”

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