Friday was a big step forward in the season as we had our first "travel" meet, first 5k, and first experience with a bunch of different team, minus Veritas.  It was also our first meet not 90+ degrees, and although the sun did come out before the race, it was still relatively cool in the mid to upper 70s.  Thank you to the the parents who trekked out to watch the race, especially Mr. Dunn for going out to the 2-mile mark (literally the furthest away part of the course) to get splits for the boys.

 

This is a great time for our first 5k as we are halfway through the season, 5 weeks down, 5 weeks to go.  We will only run 2 more 5ks, Collegiate on 10/26 and back at FUMA on 11/3.  The boys ran well with our top 6 in the top 30 and 9 runners under the 7:30 mile pace mark.  Grant Clarke led the way for the Saints, marking the 4th time in 5 timed events this year that we have had a different #1 runner on the team (Liam Dunn in the 1600 time trial, Mac McClendon in the .75 intrasquad, and Charlie Branch at the first 2 meets of the season).  As I alluded to earlier in the year, we will likely have a lot of movement of finish places on the team, particularly in the top 6.  Grant's 20:20 was a breakout race that I suspected was coming after I saw his fartlek workout splits several weeks ago.  His stride efficiency and ability to push himself helped vault him to this blistering time, one that very few have achieved on this course.  He is now also 21 seconds from breaking 20:00, a feat only 21 boys have achieved in middle school history.  Charlie and Liam had solid performances under 22:00, close to their mile pace from Roslyn.  Avery Berents was also close to his mile pace from Roslyn, close to breaking 22:00, and close to cracking the top 25.  Asa White has really been acting like a leader for us this year, more so this past week through pushing himself, sharing knowledge with new runners, and building up his teammates.  He was our first runner across the line to better his Roslyn mile pace.  McCoy Eakin also bettered his mile pace at the Roslyn meet, but it was the quartet of Harvie Wilkinson, Arjun Anand, Henry Peace, and Nic McDonnell that all crushed their Roslyn mile pace by 22 to 25 seconds per mile.  That was certainly a breakthrough performance for all of those boys.  Along with Liam and Asa's personal bests from their Pole Green 5k time last season, Arjun and Nic had big personal bests from last year's 5ks.  Nic dropped over 4:00, Arjun over 2:00, Asa over 30 seconds, and Liam by 6 seconds (on a tougher course mind you).

 

In the scoring, this meet is always tough with Louisa and Fluvanna, as well as the Rappahannock Ospreys club team.  Louisa did run away with the meet and Fluvanna's top 3 were just too much for us to handle, although we did beat them in the 4th and 5th runner totals.  The way Rappahannock packed it in, I was thinking 4th place for us.  Although Rappahannock beat us by 7 in the 3rd-5th runner score, it was the low number of 19 points from Grant and Charlie that crushed the 32 points from their first two runners.  This 3rd place finish notched us some hardware with a team plaque and also pushed our season record to 21-2.  Grant, Charlie, and Liam also received medals for their top 25 finishes, with 3 more of our guys just missing in 27th, 28th, and 30th.  In the 18 years of this meet, we have done very well, frequently leaving with a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place plaque.  We did not come last year which likely would have been a win (Louisa won), but we have won 4 of the 18 meets, with Louisa notching their 4th title this season.  We also have 2 individual titles including the course record from Asher Green in 2021.