Call it an early barometer for the cross country season. A lot can change in a matter of two months until the post season arrives, but after Thursday’s Ragged Mountain Cup the storyline is cut and dry — the Albemarle boys and girls cross country teams can run.
Not since 2003 has an Albemarle relay team won the boys portion of the cup, and not since 2008 has a Patriots squad won the girls side. Now they have both thanks to a pair of deeply talented relay teams as Adam Visokay led the boys to a RMC record time of 41:25 to take first place and Allison Huschke piloted the girls to a top showing with a time of 51:08.
“This was really exciting,” said Patriots girls coach Cathy Coffman. “But the most exciting thing was to have the guys and girls teams win it together.”
Three years ago Albemarle boys coach Buzz Male was in awe of the key members of his cross country/indoor track/outdoor track team, calling the quartet of Anthony Kostelac, Garrett Bradley, Luke Noble and Zach Vrhorvac “the four best runners he’s ever had.”
Visokay finished up the record time as the anchor with a remarkable leg of 9:52, but with a healthy Chris Springer starting out with a third place 10:23 split, sophomore Ryan Thomas putting in a time of 10:19 to give him second overall and Ben Deal — racing for the first time in months since healing from a stress fracture — coming up with a ninth place 10:51 run, Male didn’t mince words after the race in which his team beat Western’s record on the course set back in 2008.
“This is my 38th year here and I think this might potentially be the best team we’ve ever had,” Male said.
Of course just before he said that, Male put things in perspective. While he broke out brooms in practice to try and motivate the Albemarle runners to sweep the event, taking the exhibition race is only the start of the season, not the end.
“I talked with the guys and said that states is way down the road and that’s the goal,” Male said. “We’ve got to be able to do this every day.”
Last year Deal ran out front for the Patriots, but as he nursed himself back to full strength, Visokay, who was a gold medalist in the Group AAA 3200 meter race this past spring emerged as an absolute force on the running scene. Visokay sees the win Thursday as measuring stick. The race also showed he’s more than capable of posting his team’s lowest time in each meet.
“Historically, Western’s always been very good so this let’s us know where we are,” Visokay said. “I know that I have to step up more this year.”
For the Albemarle girls, the only thing more remarkable than having a team led by underclassmen win this race was that its top runner, Huschke, fought off flu-like symptoms to post a personal record and her team’s lowest split at 12:11. For the junior, the added pressure of her health wound up playing an interesting mental role.
“That was kind of a lot of pressure,” Huschke said. “I was nervous but that makes me run better… I was a little achy.”
All three of Hushcke’s relay teammates finished inside of 13:30 with junior Ciera Ulan running a 12:29 to place second, junior Lauren Truwit coming in at eighth place at 12:59 and senior Alexandra Stokes clocking in at 13:29 for 12th place. And the Patriots’ depth didn’t end with their ‘A’ squad. Junior Kirsten Smith on the team’s ‘B’ squad posted a time of 12:45 for sixth place to lead that relay team to a third place finish with sophomore Emily Smith, senior Emma D’Antoni and Carolyn Pugh all placing within the top 25.
“We’ve got great leadership, great chemistry,” Coffman said. “Allison was great today. She was battling a cold and still PR’ed. She was not feeling that great. I can’t wait to see what she can run when she’s feeling super duper.”
Having swept the event last year, Western Albemarle took second in both the girls and boys races. David Taylor anchored the second place Warriors team tied with Springer for third overall at 10:23. Seniors Adam and Ben Schiller gave the Warriors the fifth and sixth place times at 10:41 and 10:42 respectively. Dallas Pugh rounded out the relay team with his run at 11:17, good enough for 17th overall. While the Warriors finished 1:35 behind the Patriots, they were 1:42 ahead of third place Monticello.
For the Western girls, Katie Farina, the Warriors’ top returning runner from last year’s dominant squad, came in third overall at 12:37 to pace her team. Teammates Annie Taylor, Sarah Grupp and Alice Ducharme followed suite by placing seventh, 10th and 18th.
Monticello had the third-place boys squad with Ryan Wolfe and Anthony Tamberrino finishing seventh and eighth. Reid Dickerson’s 19th place finish along with Dylan Ferrer’s 37th place run rounded out the relay group.
Outside of Albemarle, Western and Monticello, 15 other schools participated in the event.
Notes for boys
Top times on the day included Fluvanna County’s Chris Markham who placed in ninth tied with Deal. Miller’s Elias Hubbard came in 11th just two seconds behind Markham. Albemarle’s Joe Krohn and Aaron Elder took 12th and 13 for Albemarle as member’s of the ‘B’ squad which placed an impressive fourth place overall. Neslon County’s Miguel Zarate was the top finisher for the Governors, coming in 14th at 11:04. Fork Union’s Avery Martin took 15th. Western’s Gavin Ratcliffe placed 16th. Keith Montimy, a member of the fourth place Patriots ‘B’ relay team gave the school its seventh top-20 finish by crossing the line in 17th place. Ryan Donlon rounded out the top-20 for Louisa County.
The best finishers for each other school invloved included Eric Sidelko at Orange County, placing 13th. Charlottesville’s top runner was Malloy Owen who took 24th. Woodberry Forest’s Nick Evans was 26th. Ned Martin was the top scorer for William Monroe with a 49th showing. George Brumbaugh was the first runner to finish for Covenant at 54th. St. Anne’s-Belfield’s
Notes for girls
Fluvanna sophomore Nicole Douma nearly cracked the top three, finishing three seconds behind Farina for fourth place. Fluco teammate Deven Burger was close behind in ninth and Stephanie Bossong gave the team three top-20 times with a 17th place run. Senior Madeline Hermsmeier posted the top time for Monticello with her freshman sister, Isabelle coming in 14th. Charlottesville’s Katherine Blanchard paced Charlottesville with an 11th place time. Madison County freshman Katie Berry finished tied with D’Antoni for 15th. Meg Pritchard was St. Anne’s-Belfields top runner, finishing 19th. Orange County freshman Helen Gilliam rounded out the top-20.
For the other three schools participating on the girls side, the top runner for Nelson was Romna Bryant at 23rd. Louisa’s Casey Clune took 28th. Monroe’s Ally Ladd landed 33rd.
Interestingly enough in the girls race, five of the top-20 runners were freshmen and only four were seniors.
