Wood's Konyar takes second in Class 4 cross country meet

LEESBURG — After James Wood junior Kate Konyar left 102 of 103 runners in the dust for most of Saturday's state Class 4 state cross country race, she finally ran into someone with more energy than she had near the finish line at the Oatlands course.

"That's what I'm talking about right here!" said her father Chris Konyar, who ran over and wrapped Konyar in a hug a few minutes after Konyar finished running. "That's the best race of your life right there!"

Konyar posted her best-ever time in three state meets at Oatlands and took second place for the best Winchester-Frederick County girls' state finish since 2011 (Crystal Nelson of Millbrook was second in Group AA that year). Konyar is now a three-time All-State runner after having placed fourth in 2022 and fifth in 2023.

On a day in which the temperature was below 60 degrees and wind gusts were around 25 miles per hour, Konyar's 3.1-mile time of 18 minutes and 32 seconds was 27 seconds faster than what she ran at the 2023 state meet and 50 seconds faster than her 2022 state performance.

Konyar finished 31 seconds ahead of the third-place finisher, Blacksburg freshman Lola Olsen, a gap between places that was only surpassed by the differences between 101st and 102nd and 102nd and 103rd. Only the otherworldly Elaina Pierce — the junior from Charlottesville who has the best 5K time for all runners in Virginia this year — finished ahead of Konyar. Pierce recorded a time of 18:07 to beat Konyar by 25 seconds.

Konyar is used to Pierce flying away from the field. She's also used to running by herself in races because there aren't many people on her level either, so achieving fast times without a push is never an issue.

"Over the season, I've kind of gotten better at racing myself," Konyar said. "It wasn't anything crazy. But the wind was a big thing. It was really hard. At the beginning, it helped a lot because it was on our backs, but the whole rest of the course, it was in your face, especially coming up the [steep] hill [leading into the 2.5-mile mark]."

Konyar powered through it for a finish she'll never forget.

"It's amazing," Konyar said. "State runner-up is awesome. I expected Elaina to be out there [in front], so it was basically just me trying to establish my second place."

Konyar led the Colonels to fifth place out of 12 girls' teams with 133 points, while Handley took eighth with 192. Blacksburg won with 37 points and Atlee took second with 67.

No local teams qualified for the state boys' competition. Judges sophomore Noah Meleason led four local boys' runners in the field of 102 runners by taking 34th in 17:23. Blacksburg won its third straight state title by scoring 42 points, with fellow Region 4D school Charlottesville taking second with 100.

Konyar said her father is always proud of her. Anyone who's come across the director of Winchester Parks and Recreation — a former runner for Bloomsburg University — also knows he has high expectations though, so Chris' enthusiastic celebration was pretty special for Kate.

"He's more into [racing] than I am," she said with a smile. "It means a lot."

James Wood head coach Matthew Lofton also had high praise. He said 25 seconds is actually the closest Konyar has been to Pierce.

"I give [Konyar] credit for going for it, knowing that she probably won't get [Pierce], but why not give it a shot?" Lofton said. "There was no one behind her. Second place was essentially hers before the mile."

James Wood senior Ruby Ostrander just missed out on earning her second straight state medal (top 15). She took 17th in 20:10 after placing 15th last year in 19:46.

In addition to the wind knocking down a lot of runners' times, Ostrander said her throat bothered her when she woke up on Saturday.

"[Those things] just made it 10 times worse for me," Ostrander said. "It was a really rough race today, but it was my last one so I had to push through no matter what."

Ostrander will run for NCAA Division I Radford next year. She's looking forward to the next chapter, but she's cherished her time running with the Colonels.

"It's been an amazing four years with the team, and I'm really proud of every single person that I've run with every year," Ostrander said.

Ostrander did not run in a varsity race until the Albemarle Invitational on Oct. 12, so she did a lot in a short period of time.

"For her to start her senior year the way that she did, and finish her senior cross country season the way that she did, it says a lot about her character," Lofton said. "She stayed fit while she was in a boot and she bounced back, and for her to run this well at a state meet, I'm really proud of her. She didn't tell me until after the race that she thought she might have strep throat. She fought hard and ran really well today."

The Colonels placed fifth after taking fourth last year. Junior Alina Kieffer (34th in 20:50), junior Lauren Thompson (61st in 22:01) and junior Katelyn Palmer (62nd in 22:03) rounded out the team scoring. Hanover was third with 107 points and Tuscarora placed fourth with 109.

"It's disappointing [taking fifth], but looking at the results, I don't think there's anything we could have done where it would have changed the outcome," Lofton said. "I can't be upset with the girls doing 100 percent, and racing the best they can, and the result we get is the best we could have gotten. I know they raced as hard as they could. Palmer collapsed at the end of the race. I'm just really proud of them."

Konyar said the Colonels worked well together this year.

"We have great team chemistry," Konyar said. "I'm really proud of them this season. It's been really good."

Handley moved up three spots from how it did last year. Scoring runners for the the Judges were junior Ella Warren (31st in 20:45), sophomore EJ Mullins (41st in 21:01), sophomore Sage Welpott (45th in 21:25), sophomore Seneca Welpott (66th in 22:13) and junior Stephanie Truban (67th in 22:23).

James Wood senior Eli Clark was up with the leaders early, but the 2022 All-State runner fell back in the last mile and placed 39th in 17:30.

Meleason expressed a desire to beat Clark after Clark won the Northwestern District meet, so he was glad to finally make it happen on Saturday. Meleason said he passed Clark while sprinting in the last tenth of a mile

"I just wanted to come out here and run hard," Meleason said. "Beating Eli in the end was a pretty cool way to finish my season. I didn't think I had much left, but when I saw him I found something in me to sprint past him.

"It was cool to make it here as an individual, but I want to make with the team to state next year."

Handley has potential with what it has coming back. The Judges' No. 1 runner, Will Thomas, missed most of the season with an injury, and junior Finn Slaughter placed 68th in 18:31 on Saturday.

Judges coach Mark Stickley said it's been great to see how much Meleason and Slaughter have developed this year.

"I think [Meleason] was offended when I said [Friday] that if you told me I was going to have two boys make it to state, I wouldn't have picked Noah or Finn," Stickley said. "The progress those two have made this year has just been phenomenal. It's really just a great work ethic. Finn juggled golf and travel soccer with this. I think he showed a little bit of fatigue today, but I'm really proud of those boys to get here, because it's not easy to get here as an individual."

Sherando senior Ryan Maki placed 47th in 17:44. The individual champion was Loudoun County sophomore Michael Tafe, who won by six seconds over Jamestown freshman Jonathan Grimm in 15:54.

For more coverage of Saturday's meet, 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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