Tigers seek out return to states in cross country

At some point during the last three years, the Brentsville District boys and girls cross country teams have transitioned from perennial favorites to overlooked underdogs.

It's not exactly the most flattering position to be in, but if the state champion 2007 boys team proved anything, it's that pre-season expectations only mean as much as what the runners allow.

This past weekend at the Great Meadow invitational in The Plains, Brentsville's varsity A teams both cracked Top 10 finishes with the girls earning eighth place and the boys capturing fourth place, one point behind the two teams that tied for second.

Meanwhile, the Tigers' future appeared to be in fine shape as the junior varsity freshmen and sophomore boys and girls teams both brought home the gold with No. 1 spots. Battlefield earned a No. 1 finish in the junior varsity junior and senior boys' run and ended up one spot behind Brentsville in the junior varsity freshmen and sophomore boys' race.

The Bobcats varsity A teams both cracked the top 15 out of 27 teams competing.

"The thing that I like about this team, this group of captains: they like everybody," said Brentsville District Darrell Earman of his varsity boys squad. "They take everybody under their wings."

Instead of segregating themselves off from their up-and-coming teammates, the pack of seniors leading the boys team this year stayed inclusive during the last three years, Earman explained, which has helped with team bonding.

Of the Tigers top seven runners at Great Meadow, six of them were seniors: Andrew Hull, Zach Morrow, Tyler Eliason, Matt Earman and Chris Sherrill. Freshman Nick Bussian's time of 17:45 put him in the No. 5 position, 56 seconds behind pack-leader Hull, while junior Trevor Deligne's 18:23 put him 14 seconds behind the team's No. 6, Sherill.

According to the coach, the seniors don't just talk about leadership, but they show it. At Great Meadow, the varsity runners all ran first that day while the four groups of JV runners followed them during the next few hours.

"Every single varsity runner was there for the last race," said Earman, noting that he gives the varsity runners the option of leaving early if they'd like to during the summer. "I don't know of one varsity runner that left before that last race."

This particular group has largely run together since they were sophomore and have high hopes for earning a spot on top of the podium at the state competition at the end of the season. That comes knowing that eight of the commonwealth's 10 best teams share Brentsville's region.

That just means whatever four teams emerge from the Region II group will have truly earned their spots in states and likely will be amongst the favorites to win it all.

"One of our goals as a team is to make sure that no one is going to outwork us this year," said Earman, adding that his senior captains "set the tone for that."

"We're a little more realistic on the girls side. We want to get back on the podium at the state meet," said Earman, adding that "Our girls are probably a year behind our boys right now."

That said, "We're not going to back away because we're a year behind," he added.

Senior Morgan Price is the undisputed leader of the girls' team. Her pre-season intersquad 5K time of 19:49 put her 95 seconds in front of the Tigers' second faster runner, Victoria Burress (21:24). Jill Marianos, Lindsey Bradshaw, Myra Kinder, Lauren Colletti and Sarah Van Doren rounded out the top seven while Kenzie Fennell and Erin Grasse clocked in within five seconds of seventh place on the team.

"They're all together and we need one girl to really, like, push it and lead the other girls," said Price. She later added, "During workouts, I really try to push and tell them to stay as close as they can to me right now."

In order for the team to be competitive at states, Price projected that the girls will need five runners clocking in at under 20 minutes. Her classmates Kinder and Marianos clocked in two and three behind her at Great Meadow while the junior Grasse matched Marianos's 22:10 to the second. Colletti, a freshman, checked in 11 seconds later and the senior Van Doren rounded out BD's top six at 23:00.

While Price, Marianos and Kinder are expected to perform well in their final high school season, Price has already noticed that Burress, Bradshaw and Colletti are showing exceptional potential for this year.

"They really work hard, they definitely show me that they're good and they want to work hard and they definitely have the work ethic," said Price, who ran 12 miles this past Sunday morning as part of her daily ritual. "They ask us (seniors) questions, do the circuits... You can tell that it's in their heart, that they want it."