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Cup sweep for Western

The season’s not even in full swing but the Western Albemarle girls cross country team is already adjusting the level of their expectations after Tuesday’s performance in the Ragged Mountain Cup at Panorama Farms.

“After today we’ve definitely got our eyes on winning states,” said Warriors junior Emily Moffett.

If the Warriors do make a ran at the Group AA championship, Moffett will undoubtedly be a major piece of the puzzle after she led Western to a first place finish. Running in the relay race for the first time, Moffett blazed through the two-mile course in 12:19 to take the Cup’s individual title. Moffett’s teammates, Killian O’Connell, Katie Farina and Mattie Webb followed up with impressive times of their own as each runner placed top six.

“I knew Emily was going to be up there but I wasn’t sure where she was going to be because she didn’t really run for us very much,” said Warriors coach Katie Pugh. “But over the summer she put on a lot of mileage and she has a lot of talent and is a really hard worker.”

Louisa County senior Hannah Best came in second — just four seconds behind Moffett — to keep Western from taking first through sixth. Albemarle’s Summer Shepherd’s eighth place showing helped the Patriots’ top relay team take home second place.

On the boys side, Jimmy Taylor, Derek Armstrong, William Plews-Ogan and Henry Giles gave the Warriors a sweep of the team events. As individuals, Western had eight members of the team finish in the top 25, and while nobody took first, coach Lindy Bain is excited about the depth of his team.

“Once the first man finishes for us it looks like we’re getting off of a bus,” Bain said. “It’s just one finishing right after the other, after the other, after the other.  That should make it a real fun year for us.”

Fresh off the plane from Poland, Fork Union’s Wojiech Czernek took first place as an individual with a blistering time of 10:01. Teammate Josh Morris gave the Blue Devils the top two finishers while Woodberry’s Kevin Bennert placed third, thought to be highest showing ever at the Cup for any Tigers runner.

Albemarle’s boys matched the girls with a second place finish despite racing without star Anthony Kostelac. Kostelac is recovering from a stress fracture in his femur. With most of last’s year’s top runners graduating, Kostelac was one of the few returners, and as one of the nation’s most highly recruited runners he leaves a big void for the Patriots to fill until he’s healthy enough to race.

“I told the kids to pretend that Anthony transferred to a different school,” said Albemarle coach Buz Male before the season began.

Even though they’re missing their centerpiece, don’t shed any tears for the Patriots quite yet. Albemarle matched Western by placing eight runners in the top 25 and Austin McPhillips and Adam Visokay took ninth and 10th place and were separated by just one second.

 

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