This year, the annual Arlington County cross country meet at Bluemont Park is this month compared to being held the first week of October the last three falls.
The Sept. 24 girls and boys varsity high-school meets are at 4:30 p.m. and include the Bishop O’Connell Knights, Wakefield Warriors, Washington-Liberty Generals and Yorktown Patriots. Yorktown won both team titles in 2023, with the W-L squads each second.
The top two boys finishers from last season, winner Reid Dalley of Yorktown and runner-up Emmett Englehardt from Washington-Liberty, are expected to race again. Wakefield’s Noah Gunville, fifth in last year’s race, is a returner as well.
Englehardt won this season’s opening Monroe Parker meet at Burke Lake Park and Dalley finished sixth.
The top three finishers in last year’s girls race graduated. The top returner is Yorktown’s Ellen Malloy. She was fourth a year ago and Sofie Keppler of Yorktown was fifth and also returns, as does Quincy Daigle of Wakefield (sixth last year) and Meg Lubas of Washington-Liberty (seventh a year ago).
Malloy was 21stand Keppler 23rd at the Monroe Parker meet earlier this month.
The Wakefield teams finished third last season and the Bishop O’Connell squads were fourth.
