Fort boys, Wilson girls top SVD

STAUNTON — The Wilson Memorial girls cross country team didn’t know what to expect when it made the jump to the Group AA and the Southern Valley District this season. On Wednesday afternoon, the Green Hornets wrapped up a dominating season, winning the Southern Valley District by 13 points, placing four runners in the top six.

On the boys side, it was a familiar story. Fort Defiance put all seven runners in the top-20, with six finishing all-district, to take the Southern Valley crown for the second time in three years and the sixth time this decade. The Indians finished the day with 42 points, followed by Rockbridge’s 51. Robert E. Lee took third with 63 points and Waynesboro slipped into the Region III meet with 78 points. Wilson (140) finished fifth and Draft (162) rounded out the field.

“Yesterday we had our team meeting underneath the district banners in the gym,” said Fort boys coach Ron Witherow. “We said ‘there is the tradition, you can put another one up there if you want to and in 15 years you will be sitting at a desk somewhere, but your banner will be here.’ ”

In the girls event, Wilson led with 37 points, followed by Stuarts Draft with 50. Fort Defiance continued its late surge with a 67-point, third-place finish and Rockbridge rounded out the Region III qualifiers. Waynesboro (123) took fourth and R.E. Lee (140) rounded out the field.

After spending most of the season just trying to find her legs, Fort freshman Allison Alexander shook up the SVD’s individual standings. Alexander paced the field with a 21:15 finish, taking first ahead of three Wilson runners.

“I think I was mentally prepared for it and all of those practices worked,” Alexander said. “I’m really happy, it feels pretty good to be a freshman and be able to do that.”

Wilson put Katherine Barnes (21:24), Emily Boward (21:44) and Elizabeth Barnes (21:50) in second, third and fourth respectively.

“It was hard we just wanted to be out front and do our best to win,” Katherine Barnes said.

Stuarts Draft’s Jessica Miller led the Cougars’ second-place effort with a fifth place finish behind the Wilson trio. Miller said that she became ill during the run and was not happy with her time, but would improve on it at the Region III meet.

“When I was running, I couldn’t run in a straight line. Everybody did well, all the teams did,” Miller said. “It’s pretty good. Last year I got 13th. I was expecting something higher but everybody in front of me pushed it.”

Waynesboro’s Jennah Gnann punched her ticket to the Region III tournament with a 10th place finish. Gnann was the only Little Giant to qualify for the region meet.

“I paced myself a little slower than I usually do, to have more speed at the end,” she said.

R.E. Lee’s Dillion Sowers cruised to a win in the boys event, pacing the field with a 16:52.

“When I got to the two-mile, I had a big enough lead that I just had to hold the speed and finish,” Sowers said.

Sowers’ impressive performance wasn’t enough for the Leemen, as Fort Defiance used its “pack attack” to take the win.

“It started off good … I lost contact with the second man,” said Fort’s Andrew Phillips who finished third behind Rockbridge’s Nick Keeley. “I just finished the last mile, I knew I couldn’t go get him.”

With two of their top-five out of the meet due to illness, the Indians’ Kelvin Vega-Gomez (11th) and John Glover (9th) surged to near the top of the pack to break up a scrappy Rockbridge squad that was nipping at the Indians’ heels.

“They were alternates, they weren’t even going to run,” Witherow said. “The flu bug took out two of my guys, they went in and ran three and four. They were supposed to be six and seven.”

Waynesboro’s Chris Ciszek took a sixth place finish and his teammate Michael McDevitt took 10th.

Wilson’s Josh Conyers led the Green Hornets with a 20th place finish and Stuarts Draft’s Brett Talley led the Cougars in 22nd.

The top-four boys and girls teams from the district along with Gnann will take on Region III on Nov. 4 at Lord Botetourt.