Fort wins on new course

WEYERS CAVE — In the first ever cross country meet at the Weyers Cave Community Center, the Turner Ashby girls and the Fort Defiance boys took first place.
The girls started off the evening in a huge pack, but as the runners neared the end only Fort’s Whitney Fulk could be seen crossing the finish line with a time of 20-minutes, 36-seconds.
The Indians took the first two spots with Fulk and Faith Lucas crossing the line, but TA would have the next three runners finish giving it the overall advantage in points and the win
The Knights’ Caroline Young was only one second behind Lucas finishing in third. TA took the win with 33 points, knocking off Fort by two.
Turner Ashby coach Vickie Denlinger was happy with the way her girls ran.
“I was really proud of our girls they ran really really good today,” said Denlinger. “I was happy to see where our top-seven did.”
The Rockbridge girls finished third with 63 points. Megan Hough and Avalon Mcomber had the best two times for Rockbridge as they finished seventh and eighth.
“I lost three of my top-five runners last year and for us to run within two points of TA is really impressive,” said Fort girls coach David Stewart.
Fulk finished 1:31 before the second placer even crossed the line.
“[Fulk] is a tremendous leader for the program with her athletic ability and as a leader by example,” Stewart said.
“I was really surprised with my time after looking at the course, I didn’t think it would be that quick,” Fulk said.
In the guys race it was all Fort Defiance as it finished with five of the top-eight runners.
Turner Ashby’s Alex Ott crossed the finish line first with a time of 16:20. Rockbridge’s Matthew Bryant finished second with a time of 17:39 and Fort’s Andrew Phillips rounded out the top three with a time of 18:22
The Indians won the meet with 29 points. TA finished second with 42 points followed by Rockbridge with 54.
TA’s Alex Ott’s time was about what he ran in the Region III Meet last season.
“I think I ran well since we had a harder workout on Monday,” Ott said. “We jogged the course before the race and it was really up and down so I didn’t know how I was going to do.”
Fort boys coach Ron Witherow was impressed by the way his team ran.
“Our performance was solid,” Witherow said. “You have to run in a pack in cross country to do well and we had a nice tight pack.”
Last season the Indians ran at Blue Ridge Community College, but moved this season to Weyers Cave. No one knew how the new course would play out. Some thought it would be slow and others thought it would be fast.
“I can’t even tell you how many hours I spent out working on this track this summer … it turned out to be fast,” Witherow said.