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Seniors run wild for Warriors

For two photo galleries from the race click here and here. For a quick video, click here.

Western Albemarle was loaded in 2008, and coming into the 2009 cross country season, Derek Armstrong looked like he was going to be a big piece of the puzzle. However, he was sidelined with an injury before the postseason ever began. Now a senior, Armstrong showed just what kind of runner he can be for the Warriors this year as he took the top spot at the Ragged Mountain Cup at Panorama Farm while running as the anchor leg of the event’s unique relay format..

“This offseason I was carefully building up the mileage and going into the season injury free and ready to roll,” Armstrong said. “It feels good to anchor the team in my senior year. It’s a wonderful way to start. We run this every year and to go out as the anchor and to win just feels great.”

Armstrong, Dave Taylor, Ben Schiller and Henry Giles each posted sub 11-minute times for their Cool Hand Luke-inspired team “Lucille.” That was good for a first place showing as they narrowly edged out Albemarle’s top relay squad of Ben Deal, Austin McPhillips, Rowen Perry and Aaron Elder by 1:40.

Monticello took third place behind the quartet of Nathanial Hermsmeier, Miguel Gomez, Ryan Wolfe and Anthony Tamberrino.

At the individual level, Hermsmeier came in second with his time six seconds longer than Armstrongs. Woodberry Forrest’s Kevin Bennert, who  led his Tigers to a VISAA Division 1 championship last year, put together the meet’s third fastest time as he finished just two seconds behind Hermsmeier. Taylor took fourth while Schiller and Deal tied for fifth place.

Both Western and Albemarle showed their depth coming into the season. The Warriors’ “Babalugats” relay team placed fourth and were 40 seconds behind Monticello. The showing has the team hopeful about its chances later in the fall.

“It’s always great to win here, but everyone knows that it’s all about November,” said Western coach Lindy Bain. “Hopefully when we all get on the line at the same time and run five (kilometers) this Saturday, we’ll see similar results.”

Bain was referring to the Fork Union Invitational, set to be run this weekend.

Albemarle, on the other hand, was excited about the idea of their fourth relay squad placing eighth overall.

“That’s our sixteenth kids running for that team, so that’s exciting,” Male said. “We’ve got more depth this year than we’ve ever had before. Even when we were second in the state a few years back we only had four or five guys, so now I feel like we can be good this year and really good next year.”

All of Albemarle’s celebrated runners from the 2008-2009 running season have since graduated, giving way to a new crop of talent.

Webb, Warriors complete sweep

Mattie Webb decided over the summer to give her running career a little more attention than she usually does. In prior summers, she had spent a good deal of time working on her swimming. But after making great strides last year and setting a long distance record in the spring at the Jefferson District track and field championship, Webb made an effort to run 50 miles a week to prepare for the season. Predictably, that hard work is paying off.

The Western Albemarle senior was in a class of her own on Tuesday as she took first place overall for the girls, beating out her closest competition by 58 seconds and missing the meet record by two ticks of the clock. And with the help of teammates Killian O’Connell, Claire Johnson and Katie Farina, the Warriors’ “Lady Crozet Crew” was able to give Western a complete sweep of the Ragged Mountain Cup.

“I honestly owe it all to the summer training,” Webb said. “This is the first year I’ve come in confident but I still didn’t know that I would win. That was a nice surprise. I just knew that I’d do better this year and drop a lot of time. I did and I feel good about that.”

Those four runners were all instrumental parts of last year’s Group AA third place team, and with Peri Bowser set to join in on the action and the team’s fourth place relay team, “Blueberry Pancake” taking fourth overall as a team Tuesday, the Warriors are looking to better their 2009 placing.

“Today they did exactly what I was hoping they’d do,” said Western coach Katie Pugh. “They have a lot more confidence this year and they want (a state title) really bad because so many of them are seniors and this is their last chance to do something big as runners at the high school level.”

After making strides last year with a roster rife with inexperience, Albemarle had a strong showing. Sophomore Allison Huschke and freshman Olivia Lewis took third and second overall and Elizabeth Sinclair gave the Patriots three runners in the top five overall.

The Albemarle “Crucio” relay team of Huscke, Sinclair, Summer Shepherd and Maggie Tubridy took second place.

“We don’t always like to compare ourselves to (Western), but neither of us graduated runners last year,” said Albemarle coach Cathy Coffman. “Last year we were behind them by four minutes and this year we got it down to one minute. So it shows that we’re getting better. We’re pretty excited. We’ve got great leadership and the team all did their work during the summer.”

In third place were the Monticello “Cookie Monsters” who were piloted by fourth place overall runner Madeline Hermsmeier along with teammates Cathy Merritt, Tessa Diehl and Sarah King.

This was the 25th running of the Ragged Mountain Cup, which although is an exhibition race, traditionally kicks off the cross country season. Many of the teams running in this race will participate in the Fork Union Invitational on Saturday at Fork Union Military Academy which has a more traditional format and distance than the RMC’s setup.

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