Two senior runners looking to start the cross country season on a big note, a boys program looking to build upon a fantastic 2014 season, two girls programs taking the necessary steps to establish outstanding reputations — the 2015 Ragged Mountain Cup had more than its fair share of storylines. On the individual level, Western Albemarle’s Gannon Wilcutts and St. Anne’s Belfield’s Maddie Hunter stole the show. On a team level, the Warriors for the boys, the Monticello Mustangs and Saints for the girls put on quite the performance.
The Girls Race
For years it has been Western Albemarle, Fluvanna County and Albemarle all tied up in a knot competing against one another. For the first time since 2007, the Monticello girls broke the cycle of champions between those three as the Mutsangs managed to edge STAB and Western Albemarle to walk away with the girls team championship.
“We’re so excited, we got second place last year and so this year we were really hoping for a win,” said Monticello senior Laura Habermeyer. “We wanted PRs (personal records) and each of us wanted to drop times, but we also wanted to just bring our team into this because we’ve got a lot of new runners. I’m really excited for the rest of the season.”
Habermeyer played a huge role in that as her time of 12:26 was good enough for second overall individually on the two-mile course. With Gena Lewis landing in seventh at 12:44, Kate Walz clocking in at 13:36 for 14th and Renee Craft taking 16th at 13:47, the Mustangs managed to edge the second place Saints by 13 seconds.
Entering the final leg of the race, the Saints trailed by 23 seconds, but Hunter’s blazing 12:16 time made it a neck-and-neck race. While her team finished just shy of winning the girls race, Hunter edged Habermeyer by 10 seconds to win the individual girls title and put St. Anne’s ahead of third place Western Albemarle by 39 seconds.
“I’ve always been the first leg, so I was a little nervous running the fourth leg,” Hunter said. “It was really nice, my teammates got me in a great position and the girls were all amazing so it was really nice running with them. (Taking second place as a team) is very exciting. We’ve grown to 40 kids running now. Hopefully that means in the future of this program the girls can win (this race).”
Averi Witt led Western, clocking a 12:42 that was good enough tied for fifth place individually. Fluvanna’s Kristen Cabrera took third at 12:32. Orange’s Caroline Marquis rounded out the top five runners by tying Witt at 12:42.
The Pariots had their two teams take fourth and fifth overall as teams with Ryann Helmers leading the way with an either place finish at 12:46. Seven of the eight Albemarle runners for those two teams finished with times of 15 minutes or less.
The Boys Race
Looking to chase Tyler Stutzman’s record set back in 2008, Western’s Gannon Willcutts came awfully close to pulling off a record-breaking performance as he led the way for the Warriors with his individual title. The senior clocked in at 9:52, just 10 seconds off the RMC record. With his three teammates finishing sixth or better, the Warriors ran away with the boys title, beating Albemarle by almost three and a half minutes.
“It was hot but it was expected and we’ve been practicing in 90 degree weather,” Willcutts said. “Today I wanted to get out hard, used the downhill of the first part of the course to kind of slingshot me… At this kind of race it’s a time trial. You’ve got to think ‘Ok, where am I going to push, where am I going to conserve, how am I going to stay relaxed.’ So really going out I was thinking about keeping my shoulders relaxed, my jaw relaxed, just breathing and going through the motions. At one point coming up the hill I was hurting, but I wasn’t going to back down — it was just hurt through the rest of the race.”
Trevor Stutzman took second overall coming in at 10:11, while Jack Ehlenberger and Davis Greene came in at fifth and sixth with respective times of 10:56 and 10:58.
“It’s awesome — a win is a win,” Willcutts said. “We came out expecting to win and we did. We’re just going to keep on moving through the season and expecting to win. There will be no ‘Oh, we won, that’s great!’ We expect to win every meet all the way through the state championship. That’s how we practice, that’s how we talk before the meets. We expect to win.”
The second place Patriots were led by sophomore Johnathan Muhler and senior Henry Cohen. The ninth and 10th place runners finished just one second apart with Muhler running the first leg for Albemarle in 11:12.
Fork Union senior Alex Lomong took third overall at 10:16, finishing just behind Stutzman to help the Blue Devils take third place as a team, 14 seconds behind Albemarle. Louisa County finished fourth as a team with Josh Bishop coming in at eighth at 10:59, just three seconds off of finishing in the top five. Woodberry Forest placed fifth as a team paced by Robert Singleton who took fourth overall with his 10:34 race.
