WINCHESTER — After destroying her school record on Saturday, James Wood senior Kate Konyar had no problems adding to her career cross country title haul at Wednesday’s Northwestern District Championships.
On a course that’s different from the one used at the Third Battle Invitational, Konyar won her third straight district championship by nearly a minute with a time of 20 minutes, 3.9 seconds at the Third Battle of Winchester Battlefield course.
James Wood captured four of the top five spots in winning its fifth straight district title, with Colonels senior Alina Kieffer taking second in 21:01.2. The Colonels’ 23 points put them far ahead of runner-up Handley (90) in the 12-team meet. Sherando was fourth (122) and Millbrook was last (294).
A change to the Virginia High School League calendar this year resulted in the Northwestern District meet — which is not a postseason advancement event — taking place four days after the end of the regular season instead of the typical 11.
The area’s local runners ran hard on Saturday at either Millbrook’s Third Battle Invitational or the Virginia Showcase in Mechanicsville. As a result, there were a lot of cases from all 12 schools of runners either reining themselves in a bit with their pace or sitting out entirely. Regional competition is next week, with Millbrook hosting the Region 4D meet on the regular Third Battle Invitational course next Wednesday.
In the case of Konyar, if you were watching her for the first time on Wednesday, you would assume she was pushing herself 100 percent. But that wasn’t the case on the course that involves running an extra loop through the wooded area closest to the high school and finishes on the gravel trail that marks the halfway point of the Third Battle Invitational race.
“I was just doing a little workout,” Konyar said. “[James Wood coach Matthew Lofton] said just win it and take it easy. That’s what I did, and I felt pretty good about it.”
Konyar’s emotions were a little different on Saturday at Pole Green Park in the Virginia Showcase. She recorded a 3.1-mile time of 17 minutes, 44.2 seconds to break the school record of 18:01.7 she set last year.
Konyar’s goal was to set a new standard for herself on Saturday, but she surpassed even her own expectations.
“I was just hoping to get under 18,” she said. “To get 17:44, I was like, ‘Wow.’”
Konyar said the competition definitely helped with her time. Oftentimes, Konyar doesn’t have anyone to race with — even some of the races she’s finished second, an otherworldy runner has been well ahead of her while Konyar held a huge edge on the third-place runner. On Saturday, she finished 25th out of 261 runners.
“It was the best competition,” said Konyar, a three-time All-State runner who took second in Class 4 last year. “I think it set me up really well. [Breaking 18], it’s a huge confidence-booster going into the postseason.”
Konyar enjoyed the aftermath of her achievement. While the rest of James Wood competed at Third Battle on Saturday, Konyar did have a strong family presence, including her brother Kevin, a former standout for James Wood and Shippensburg University. Kevin now coaches with St. Albans in Washington, D.C., and St. Albans also competed in the meet.
“He came running after me [after the race],” Konyar said. “Everyone was so excited. It felt so good to not only break [the record], but break it by that much.”
The length of the course on Wednesday was a subject of debate. Some people thought it might have been as long as 3.2 miles, while Pioneers coach Jamie McCarty said he had some of his runners tell him their personal watches had them covering distances of 3.07 and 3.09 miles, for example. McCarty said the distance could depend on how runners approached certain areas of the course, perhaps wider than others.
Kieffer was among the people who thought it was 3.2. She didn’t get quite the time she wanted, but she thought she ran well after being discouraged at Saturday’s Third Battle. While Lofton told Konyar to do what she needed to do to win, he told the rest of the team to push themselves. Lofton said the girls that ran at Third Battle weren’t happy with how they ran that day, and the girls also wanted to make sure they won the team title.
“I had planned to all-out the race,” Kieffer said. “But once I got to the middle, and Kate was gone, I was like, ‘There’s no one around me. Let’s just tempo-effort it.’ I’m honestly OK [with my performance], because we really just wanted to win a district title as a team. As the last district meet for all of us seniors, we just wanted to win, and that was what the effort was about. My main goal was just to stay in second the whole time [individually] and stay as close to Kate as possible.”
Kieffer finished 1.8 seconds ahead of the third-place finisher, Warren County sophomore Gretchen Gass. Not long after that, onlookers got another strong example of James Wood’s desire to win — senior Katelyn Palmer crossed the finish line fourth in 21:12.5, then veered off to the right and collapsed.
Also scoring for the Colonels were junior Ally Oliver (fifth, 21:24.9) and freshman Abigail Ebert (11th, 21:48.5). The top 15 runners in the 84-girl race earned All-District honors, and all seven of James Wood’s runners earned that distinction. Senior Lauren Thompson placed 12th (22:17.5) and sophomore Melanie Padilla was 15th (22:34.8).
Lofton was expecting Handley and Kettle Run (ninth) to push harder than they did on Saturday. But Lofton was glad to see what his runners did, even if they weren’t challenged in pursuit of their title.
“This is our first time racing [the district] race [really hard] in a few years,” Lofton said. “Usually since it’s so close to regionals, we just kind of take it easy. All the girls but Kate really wanted to have a redemption from Saturday. It’s a really good, hard effort that our girls had today.
“Kate’s objective today was to run just hard enough to win, but Kate being Kate probably ran a little bit harder than she should have, which is fine. I’m really happy with the way the team looked today.”
Handley held out one of its top runners in junior EJ Mullins because of illness. Judges’ coach Mark Stickley said it was a last-minute decision.
The Judges still ran well enough to easily beat Warren County (third with 116) for second place despite not having anyone in the top 10. Handley’s scoring runners were junior Seneca Welpott (13th in 22:28.5), junior Sage Welpott (14th in 22:28.6), senior Ella Warren (16th in 22:38.1), sophomore Jayleh Porter (19th in 22:54.3) and freshman Charlotte Thomsen (28th in 23:37.2).
“We were treating it more of a workout today, but you still want to get that workout in [with Mullins],” Stickley said. “Hopefully, she’ll be OK for next week. We know we’ve got to go hard next week, because it’s going to be a tight battle. Charlottesville beat us at [the Virginia Showcase] when you merge [all the divisions] together.”
Stickley said the Judges were hoping for better at the Virginia Showcase. The girls placed fourth in the Elite Division and missed getting a trophy for finishing in the top three by six points. Stickley said he felt Homecoming activities last week might have affected the team’s focus and energy.
“They ran well, but I know we can run better,” said Stickley, whose team has grabbed the third and final state qualifying spot at the Region 4D meet the last two years.
Scorers for Sherando were junior Mia Adams (ninth, 21:45.9), freshman Amelia Rice (10th, 21:46.6), junior Ariela Rivera (30th, 23:41.8), sophomore Addison Holbrook (36th, 24:20.5) and freshman Clara Sargent (37th, 24:22.6).
Scorers for Millbrook were sophomore Lily Carr (45th, 24:49.4), senior Layne Mendez (51st, 25:19.5), senior Ashley Bonilla (58th, 25:53.4), junior Sydney Volkman (69th, 26:39.6) and sophomore Emma Murphy (71st, 26:50.9)
— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at rniedzwiecki@winchesterstar.com
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