A cross-country season that began strong and seldom faltered finished with the Bishop O’Connell Knights boys cross-country team winning the Division I private-school state championship for the first time since 2000.
Improving from fifth place in last year’s meet, the Knights brought home the title Nov. 6 on the 5,000-meter Panorama Farms course near Charlottesville. O’Connell finished ahead of second place and defending state champion Potomac School.
The team’s victory came on the strength four runners placing in the top 20 in the competition.
“Having four in the top 20 is why we won,” O’Connell coach Jim Connor told ARLnow. “It’s a very exciting day to win the state. It’s a big deal.”
O’Connell’s top runner was junior Jayse Brefczynski in fifth in 16:19, with his freshman brother Landon Brefczynski 12th (16:49). Next were sophomore Peter Fleenor (16th, 17:04), senior Lance Jayme (20th, 17:11) and sophomore Ryan Street (37th, 17:51).
Those five were the Knights’ top runners most of the season.
“Everybody kept focused and did what they needed to do in the race,” Connor said. “Our runners stayed with each other in packs as much as they could.”
“We ran together in groups and that all worked out perfectly,” Jayme said after the meet.
Of those five, all had run in last year’s state meet except for Landon Brefczynski. Connor said that experience helped the Knights this fall, and the runners agreed.
“We had run the course before, and that experience helped,” Jayme said.
Jayse Brefczynski improved significant from his 2024 finish, capping a season in which he was fully healthy.
“This was impressive what we did today. It was pretty nice to win it and feels pretty good,” he said.
Also running for the Knights in the state meet were senior Patrick Porter (48th, 18:06), junior Ian Bradley (59th, 18:20), sophomore Rai Detton (66th, 18:29), sophomore Kyle Jayme (69th, 18:32) and senior Chris Walters (108th, 19:37).
In all, the O’Connell boys won three big races this season. The Arlington County and Virginia State Catholic meets were the others, with Jayse Brefczynski the individual champion in each.
The Knights placed third in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference meet, with Jayse Brefczynski finishing fourth and Landon Brefczynski eighth.
The season began back in August for the Knights with a strong showing at the Trials of Miles meet in Leesburg. Next, the Brefczynski brothers placed high at the Monroe Parker Invitational on Sept. 6, then the Knights finished third at the Wolverine Classic on Sept. 13.
“Everything came together this year,” Connor said. “The team and runners kept getting better.”
Lance Jayme agreed.
“This was one heck of a season,” he said. “Our goals were to win as many championships as we could. We really buckled and locked down and did that.”
Jayme believes a key ingredient was having fun and staying loose as a team. An example was warming up at the state meet to the song “The Boys Are Back in Town” by Thin Lizzy.
O’Connell girls squad 13th in state meet: In the Division I girls state meet, the young O’Connell team of freshmen and sophomores placed 13th.
The Knights’ top individual finisher was freshman Isabel McEvoy in 54th (22:09). Sophomore Eunnie Grad was 74th (23:01), freshman Madeleine Dombrowski 86th (23:76), sophomore Isabel Mallonee 89th (23:50) and sophomore Lauren Smith 96th (24:07).
