Four new champions — two individuals and two teams — were crowned at this year’s Arlington County high-school cross-country meet, held Sept. 29 at Bluemont Park.
Among those was a rookie in the race: Molly Hardwick, a sophomore for the Yorktown Patriots, who helped her squad win the girls team crown. Hardwick was running the Bluemont Park course for the first time, briefly making a wrong turn, but still winning in 17:51.
The Brefczynski brothers — Jayse, a junior, and Landon, a freshman — posted breakout performances in high-school cross-country competition during an early-season fall meet.
The Bishop O’Connell Knights siblings and teammates finished second (Jayse in 15:37) and fourth (Landon in 15:42) at the boys Monroe Parker Invitational, run the morning of Sept. 6 on the 2.9-mile Burke Lake Park course.
Molly Hardwick figured the odds of her finishing first in her initial high-school cross-country race were about as long as winning the billion-dollar Powerball lottery.
“A million to one, about zero chance,” the Yorktown Patriots‘ sophomore runner said of her victory expectations.
Two Washington-Liberty High School athletes in different sports have been chosen to all-state teams for their performances during the fall season.
Generals’ junior golfer Finn Watson and senior cross-country runner Emmett Engelhardt earned those Virginia High School League Class 6 all-state honors.
Molly Weithman made a strong and quick adjustment from high school to collegiate cross-country this fall as a freshman for the College of William and Mary women’s team.
The Bishop O’Connell High School graduate and standout runner wound up as the top-finishing freshman for William and Mary at the recent NCAA Division I Southeast Regional meet. She placed 89th in 22:20.5 in the 6K event, and was the team’s third finisher.
The Marymount University Saints made history recently by winning the Atlantic East Conference women’s cross-country championship for the first time.
The Saints won with 35 points, with Marywood University second at 56.
Washington-Liberty Generals’ senior Emmett Engelhardt recorded the best finish by an Arlington cross-country runner at the Nov. 16 Class 6 state meet in Leesburg.
Engelhardt was a top seed and placed eighth in the Virginia High School League boys meet in 16:18 on the 5,000-meter Oatlands Plantation course. He was running in the state meet for the first time.
A young Bishop O’Connell Knights boys team placed fifth in this season’s Division I state private-school cross-country championships.
With three freshmen among the high-school team’s top six finishers, the Knights scored 161 points, trailing winner Potomac School (with 63) on the 5,000-meter Panorama Farms course near Charlottesville on Thursday (Nov. 7).
They fell short of repeating as girls region cross-country champions, but the Yorktown Patriots ran well enough to finish runner-up and earn a berth into the upcoming state meet.
With 61 points, the Langley Saxons won the 6D North Region high-school event Nov. 6 on the 2.98-mile Burke Lake Park course. Runner-up Yorktown scored 88.
At significant cross-country races on the Burke Lake Park course this fall, Emmett Engelhardt has won two, with another still to come.
His latest victory on that 2.98-mile trail was on a warm Wednesday afternoon (Oct. 30) at the boys Liberty District high-school championship meet.
The Bishop O’Connell Knights had middle-of-the-pack finishes at conference cross-country championship meets, but saw positive signs in the performance of ninth-grade runners.
The girls placed sixth and the boys eighth at the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference races, run Saturday (Oct. 26) on the 5,000-meter Kenilworth Park course in D.C.
With a top runner missing from each team, the Bishop O’Connell Knights didn’t finish as high in the team standings as hoped.
The O’Connell boys placed fourth and the girls sixth at the Virginia Catholic State Championships held Oct. 22 on the 5,000-meter cross-country course at Occoquan Regional Park on a hot afternoon.
