In the final regular season meet and JV race of this year there were a lot of strong showings amongst the girls and a lot of races to be proud of with the varsity girls taking home 3rd and a lot of big improvements were made.
Sophomore Eva Weaver led the way for the patriots running very quick 21:39 over a minute faster than her time from over the weekend! She was followed in by Savannah Meriwether who ran a season's best of 22:04 and her fastest time since 2019. They both worked with senior Lillian Peskova (22:24) most of the race to put the first 3 Albemarle Runners in the top 16. Freshman Emily Uthlaut had yet another breakout race to run a PR of 22:44 after a super strong second half that included a big surge at 4km to catch a lot of girls. These four athletes will be joining Jenna Coleman, Maddie Gypson, and Hanna Guyton who sat out this race as the varsity top 7 that competes at regionals and states in the next few weeks.
Also in the varsity race Bella Sonen ran her first race of the season back from a foot stress fracture. She finished in 23:52 with a strong final kick for an exciting first day running faster than easy pace. Another junior, Bella Popovsky ran 25:09 to finish 34th overall in a very solid season for her and senior Grace Kohler finished her final race on her home course in 25:25 These girls will be the alternates for the varsity top 7 for the post season and will continue to train throughout the next few weeks.
In the JV race, the JV girls enjoyed a fun final race to the season with a second place finish. Stella Klosek stepped up in a big way to drop over a minute off of her PR and break 26 minutes for the first time in 25:43. Stella is a sprinter during the track season and her growth over the fall with longer distances promises lots of growth during her spring season! Freshman Brooke Blankenship ran 26:30 to also grab a huge PR dropping 1:19 from her Albemarle Invitational time on this same course. Autumn Murphy had her first race in a while, also back from injury and her smile lit up the race course as she ran the race with Brooke to finish in 26:36. Shelby Owed ran 27:50 to finish off a big season of improvement with every 5k she has raced being over a minute faster than last season's PR. Sophia Rankin ran 30:06 to finish off a big season of growth for her and junior Avani Abhyankar ran 34:13. Maddie Hephner continued to surprise herself to finish her second full 5k of the season in 36:46 after back in August being worried that she would even survive the race. Elise Guiffre ran 38:33 to finish a very consistent junior year.
None of the races ran particularly fast today as despite the cool weather the sun was super strong and PR's were hard to come by making the girls who managed to find them all the more impressive. It is always sad to see a season end as this week marks the final week of practice for the JV team but the amount of growth and momentum going into next season is very exciting!
Comments