One year later, and it’s another sweep at the Ragged Mountain Cup.
But this time, Western Albemarle and not Albemarle took home the hardware.
The Warriors’ boys and girls cross country teams took home the team relay titles at the RMC, flipping the script on the Patriots who managed to win both last year.
The Warriors’ boys top relay team had a particularly hard fought battle with second place Albemarle, but even AHS senior Ryan Thomas’ individual-title winning effort on the final leg couldn’t overcome Western’s depth.
“We kind of figured it was going to be the closest cup ever,” said Western coach Lindy Bain. “We thought we had a great shot at getting them and the guys ran what they needed to to pull it off. It was a lot of fun to watch.”
The sudden emergence of Gannon Willcutts didn’t hurt either. The Western sophomore blazed out to a 10:19 opening two-mile leg for the Warriors, staking Western to an 8-second lead on the field. Willcutts’ leg was good for second place overall, just five seconds behind Thomas. Andrew DeJong’s fourth leg was also critical for the Warriors and he finished fifth overall. Trevor Stutzman and Nathaniel Hashisaki rounded out the varsity A team’s championship effort.
“The last two years Albemarle has had us beat and they earned it,” DeJong said. “But this year everyone contributed and each one of us played our role.”
Thomas’ made up a lot of ground on the fourth leg despite DeJong’s own strong performance and nearly pulled off the comeback.
“I know I made up a lot of ground, I tried my hardest,” Thomas said. “I’m a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to catch him, but there’s only so much that I could’ve done. I’m happy with everybody’s performance, it just wasn’t necessarily our day today.”
Western’s depth extended beyond that first team of four too. The Warriors’ second quartet took third in the race, edging out Albemarle’s B team that took fourth. A strong effort from Riley Covert on the first helped spark Charlottesville to a fifth place finish. He ran his leg in 10:27 to set the Black Knights up for a strong day.
Zach Gentry of Albemarle took fourth place with DeJong behind him. Alex Lomong of Fork Union, Malloy Owen of Charlottesville, Peter Lomong of FUMA, Chris Ferguson of Charlottesville and James Ballowe of Nelson rounded out the top 10.
On the girls side, Western had an easier time fending off the Patriots, with Annie Taylor’s individual title winning 12:14 helping the Warriors top Albemarle by more than two minutes. Taylor’s lead proved to be critical as the junior put Western up on Albemarle by nearly a minute.
“We put (Taylor) first so we thought we’d chance it and try and get a lead from the beginning and try to hold it,” said Western coach Katie Pugh. “We didn’t think it’d be quite that big.”
Western also got a monster performance from ninth-grader Averi Witt, who placed sixth overall and Chance Masloff who took seventh.
“I think adding (former field hockey player) Chance Masloff and then Averi Witt (becoming) eligible to run varsity really help us,” Ducharme said. “We’re just a lot closer as a team time-wise and that makes workouts a lot better, it’s easier to run as a pack.”
Ducharme rounded out the championship relay team with a 17th place finish. Western’s second relay team took fourth, with Sarah Grupp leading that team with a 13:34, good for 11th overall.
Albemarle’s girls battled into the runner-up spot with depth, building on freshman Sydney Winterton’s fifth place finish with top-25 placings from Emily Smith, Olivia Lewis and Trellie Zwoyer.
St. Anne’s-Belfield’s ascendant girls cross country program took a big step forward with a third place finish led by sophomore Maddie Hunter’s third place individual performance. The sophomore’s opening leg put Emma Colavincenzo, Hope Vanderlinde and Meg Pritchard to combine for the the third place slot.
“It’s been really exciting, our team’s worked really well together this summer,” Hunter said. “We’re really close as a team.”
Monticello rounded out the team top five, with Isabelle Hermsmeier’s 13:24, good for ninth overall, leading the way. Fluvanna had the top one-two punch in the girls race with Nicole Douma and Devon Burger placing second and fourth respectively. But the Flucos couldn’t claw their way into the top five.
Charlottesville’s Kellyn Kusyk, a sophomore, took eighth individually while Samantha Madison of Louisa took 10th to round out the top 10.
Four ninth graders placed in the top 25 in the girls race, with Winterton, Witt, Orange’s Caroline Marquis and Covenant’s Emma Breault all getting into the mix. Hunter Lund of Albemarle was the lone boy ninth grader in the top 25.
