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Monticello boys headed to state championship

After finishing second in last week’s Jefferson District championship, Monticello’s Nathaniel Hermsmeier was hoping that he’d find a way to make the season last one week longer. He thought that cracking the top 15 would be his ticket.

“Basically I just set out to get 15th place and hold,” Hermsmeier said . “I just wanted to go to states.”

With an 11th place finish, Hermsmeier will be going to the Group AA championship next week. However, the junior runner will be joined by his teammates as the Mustangs enjoyed a day where all of their runners ran quality races at the exact same time, something they had struggled with earlier in the year, giving them fourth place as a team.

“We were not expecting this at all,” Hermsmeier said. “We’re all so happy right now.”

Originally, the sights of the Mustangs simply wanted to finish ahead of Jefferson District rival Western Albemarle, a team that won the JD title a week before. But Mustangs did one better by qualifying for the state championship, something that none of the current runners have reached before.

“I told the kids that this was a really competitive region and that we could finish fourth or finish eighth and still run a good race,” said Monticello coach Doug Bloor. “But if we were going to do anything, we were going to have everyone run a time that would count. It happens that we were able to do that.”

With Hermsmeier providing the first boost for the team, Thomas Campbell, Mike Albert, and Dakota Thompson-Diggs all did their part by placing in the top fifty for the Mustangs.

Tommy Curtin from Loudoun County wound up taking first place overall while Potomac Falls took the top team honors for the boys.

Joining Monticello next week will be this year’s JD champ, Louisa County’s Chris Springer. Springer put forth the top finish for any Jefferson District runner. Also heading to the state meet will be Western Albemarle’s Henry Giles. The Warriors placed sixth as a team.

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