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Three-team hunt: Albemarle girls edge Western in Ragged Mountain Cup

Photo: Ashley Thornton

There was no shortage of drama for the girls relay portion of the Ragged Mountain Cup. Albemarle took the first leg. Fluvanna snagged the next two. Then Albemarle took the fourth but saw a serious surge from Western Albemarle to make things interesting. In a nutshell, the fourth and final leg saw two runners, the Patriots’ Ryann Helmers and the Warriors’ Zoe Clay set the tone for the upcoming cross country season.

 

“Before my race got started I knew that Western was about 20-30 seconds behind me,” Helmers said. “I knew that I was going to have to go out strong.”

 

When Helmers took off she was chasing Fluvanna, but knew Clay would be on her heels shortly. The Patriots’ senior put together the second best individual split at 11:34 to allow her squad to finish just 21 seconds before Western for the team title.

 

“For the first part of the race I had to focus on Fluvanna, get ahead of them and then I knew I had to keep going after that to beat Western,” Helmers said. “They set the course record last year and they’re always tough. I’ve raced against Zoe before and she’s so strong. She beat me last year (individually), and again this year but it helped knowing that she was pushing me, made me run harder for my team.”

 

It was Clay’s individual time of 11:27 that helped the Warriors to a second place showing. The Warriors were in third after the first leg behind Albemarle and Fluvanna, moved up second in the second and then came from third to finish second in the last portion of the relay.

 

“I saw Albemarle ahead of me the whole time but I was trying to go out too fast,” Clay said. “I think it helped having Ryann out in front there, it pushed me and I guess it was the best scenario for me.”

 

Fluvanna freshman Emily Smeds was the runner that put Fluvanna out in front after the second leg with the third best time of the evening at 12:07. Sage Haney’s 13th place 13:02 kept the Flucos just out in front in the third leg until Helmers tagged in and put the Patriots out in front for good.

 

Western’s Aly Santoro-Adajian took fourth at 12:23 while Albemarle’s Kenzie Lloyd’s 12:44 was good enough for fifth.

 

Albemarle’s second squad took fourth as a team while Western’s second squad placed fifth which should set up for an interesting Jefferson District slate between two deep squads.

 

Conditions at Panorama Farms turned out surprisingly well despite plenty of rain before the race. It was the first time in years that runners had to deal with wet conditions, but also the first time in years that it wasn’t blisteringly hot.

 

“Temperature was great and I was worried things might get torn up, especially when you’re running the fourth leg,” Clay said. “Honestly I thought there would be spots down low where’d you have to jump through something but I guess it hasn’t rained in so long that conditions were actually perfect. It was just great.”

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