There will be a changing of the guard of sorts regarding some of the top local runners during this fall’s upcoming high-school cross country season.
Many of highest-finishing girls and boys runners from various schools over the past few seasons graduated in June, more so on the boys side, and are now on college teams. So other runners will be attempting to move into those top positions during the fall campaign, which begins in coming days with different meets.
Some teams kick off their 2023 seasons at Saturday, Sept. 2 meets. Many others don’t start until the annual Monroe Parker Invitational the morning of Saturday, Sept. 9.
After that, local squads then will participate in other invitationals, along with having dual meets against district and conference rivals.
Postseason competitions begin and last through season-ending public and private school state championships in late October or early November.
Liberty and Concorde district public-school championship meets are Oct. 26, with private-school teams Bishop O’Connell, Flint Hill and Potomac School participating in conference finals around the same time.
Among the returning top runners are expected to be O’Connell’s Molly Weithman, Langley’s Hazel Calway and Lila Pesavento, Madison’s Lydia Mikhin, Yorktown’s Sofia Sheldon and McLean’s Calypso Rolly on the girls side. Weithman is the defending Division I state private-school individual champion, as well as a winner of multiple other meets last fall.
Potomac School’s Sasha Minsky and Oakton’s Junior Allen and Connor Eklund are expected to be top returning boys runners.
In Arlington, an annual popular meet is the four-team Arlington County championships at Bluemont Park, this year held Wednesday, Oct. 4 at 4:30 p.m. Weithman is the defending girls champion and Sheldon was second. Yorktown is the defending team champion for the girls and boys.
Some of the top teams from last season were the Potomac School girls and boys, the Oakton High girls and boys, the Yorktown girls and boys and the McLean and Langley girls. All are expected to be strong again this fall.
The Langley girls and Oakton boys are the defending 6D North Region team champions.
The defending Division I private-school state champions are the Potomac School boys, with Minsky finishing fourth individually at states.
The Potomac School girls finished third in the state last season and return some top runners, and the Oakton boys and Langley girls each were second in the public-school Class 6 state championships.
