Without Maddie Hunter, the current Davidson runner who led the St. Anne’s-Belfield girls cross country team to a 2015 state title, in the mix, it seemed a long shot for the Saints to repeat as LIS champions.
Apparently it wasn’t.
STAB rolled to the LIS championship at Woodberry Forest Friday afternoon with a quartet of top finishers leading the way to outpace runner-up Collegiate by 14 points.
Covenant freshman Ella Dalton won the individual title with a time of 19:52.88.
Senior Elizabeth Ward set the pace for the Saints, finishing third overall with a time of 2:16.55 with freshman Bronwyn Beardsley clocking in right behind her at 21:20.19 for STAB. Clara Duffy and Hope Vanderlinde were the next two finishers for the Saints, with Duffy in eighth overall and Vanderlinde in 10th. Eighth-grader Riley Collins’ 21st place finish capped the title-winning performance.
Collegiate took the runner-up slot led by Maddy Watkins in second place individually. Elyse Cram took seventh place overall and Emily Stallings took ninth. Kate Partlow in 19th and Mohini Johri in 23rd rounded out Collegiate’s effort.
Trinity Episcopal finished third with one of the tightest pack performances possible carrying the load for the Titans. Senior Cameron Ferris finished fifth but it was five-straight finishers from 14th to 18th scored the majority of Trinity’s points.
Dalton’s classmate Kaylin Verbrugge finished sixth for Covenant.
The LIS’s squads will compete in the VISAA state championships November 11 at Fork Union.
Full Results:
http://va.milesplit.com/meets/256475/results/488493/formatted#.WB9iMtArLC0
