Gannon Willcutts is at it again.
A little more than a week after winning the Ragged Mountain Cup’s individual title (and boosting Western to a team victory), Willcutts blazed through the Fork Union Cross Country Invitational 3-mile course with a meet record time of 14:48.89.
Willcutts got pushed to the record by home school runner Micah Pratt, who is attached to the Patriot Pacers. Pratt’s 14:52.20 bested the old meet record as well, which was set by Atlee’s Andrew Catanese back in 2010.
Willcutts’ victory combined with Trevor Stutzman’s third place finish to help power the Warriors to the team title as well, easily outpacing second place Osbourn Park. Jack Ehelenberger finished 10th for the Warriors and Davis Greene took 15th to help push Western to the top. Max Miller rounded out the scoring for the Warriors with a 36th place finish.
Outside Western’s championship performance, a number of local runners put together huge outings. Alex Lomong took eighth overall, Woodberry Forest’s Robert Singleton took 11th overall, FUMA’s Julian Yescas took 17th, Albemarle’s Henry Cohen finished 18th, James Carrington took 21st and Louisa’s Justice Anderson took 30th overall to round out the locals in the boys top 30 of the Colonial Division, the event’s top division.
As a team, Albemarle took sixth overall, Woodberry finished eighth, Fork Union was 11th and Louisa took 12th. Fluvanna County finished 14th, Monticello finished 17th, St. Anne’s-Belfield was 18th and Orange took 19th.
In the girls Colonial Division race, STAB’s Maddie Hunter finished second overall behind Osbourn Park’s Danielle Bartholomew. Hunter finished in 17:43.52, 20 seconds behind Bartholomew.
Albemarle sophomore Ryann Helmers took eighth overall and a pair of Western runners followed right behind her with Zoe Clay and Averi Witt taking ninth and 10th. Monticello’s Laura Habermeyer took 11th and Orange County’s Caroline Marquis finished 12th. Gena Lewis took 17th for the Mustangs, Kenzie Lloyd took 23rd for Albemarle, Gabriella Bock took 27th for the Patriots and Javaneh Brown of STAB took 29th to round out locals in the top 30.
The efforts of Helmers, Lloyd and Bock helped power Albemarle to a third place finish as a team. Monticello followed in fourth and Western took fifth. STAB finished eighth as a team and Fluvanna took 10th out of 16 teams.
In the Patriot Division, the race’s secondary grouping of runners, Albemarle won the boys team title while Albemarle girls took that Division title as well. Covenant’s girls took third in that grouping with eighth grader Ella Dalton’s second place finish leading the way.
