Many of the top local high-school cross country runners from last season, like Junior Allen from the Oakton Cougars, Sasha Minsky from the Potomac School Panthers and Molly Weithman from the Bishop O’Connell Knights, graduated in June and now are on college teams.
The big question about the 2024 campaign is who will emerge as the top runners from area schools.
Some might be Luke Carter, Trip Moser and Eli Levine from the Potomac School, Yorktown’s Reid Dalley and Washington-Liberty’s Emmett Engelhardt on the boys side. Potomac School has many top returners, giving the Panthers the potential to repeat as state champions.
For the girls, Madison’s Kiki Van Der Weide and Lydia Mikhin, Langley’s Lila Pesavento, Hazel Calway and Madeleine Spanner and Oakton’s Caroline Sapperstein have the potential to be top runners.
The Yorktown Patriots are the defending 6D North Region girls champions. The team graduated its top two runners in that race last fall, but returns the majority of its other finishers from the event.
Traditionally, the cross country season opens for most public-school teams with the running of the annual and multi-race Monroe Parker Invitational at Burke Lake Park. That’s the case again this fall, with the meet scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 7 at 8 p.m. There will be varsity, junior varsity and freshman races. The varsity races are at 9:15 a.m. (boys) and 9:45 a.m. (girls).
Other big meets are Sept. 21 at Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg, at Great Meadow in The Plains, Oct. 5 and the Mile Stat Invitational on Oct. 19.
The annual four-team Arlington County meet is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 24 at Bluemont Park at 4:30 p.m. Yorktown is the defending champion in the boys and girls meets.
This year’s private-school state championship meet is Thursday, Nov. 7 at Panorama Park in Earlysville north of Charlottesville. The Virginia High School League’s Class 6 public-school state meet is Nov. 16 in Leesburg.
Preceding district, conference and region meets are held days prior to the state events.
