Heritage Girls Finish Third at AA State XC Meet

Cross country sponsored by potomac River running

By: Dan Sousa

The Plains (Nov. 13, 2006) – The Heritage High School girls cross country team raced into history Saturday as the Pride became the first Dulles District girls team to ever finish in the top three at the AA state meet. Also in the AA girls race, Potomac Falls freshman Christina Lee finished 10th with Dominion junior Bekki Misanin right behind in 11th. Loudoun County freshman Julie Strange was 17th.

Heritage High School girls cross country team celebrates its third place finish at the 2006 AA state meet Saturday.

The Heritage High School girls cross country team
celebrates its third place finish at Saturday’s AA state
meet at Great Meadows.
(photo by Bill Casola/http://www.billcasola.com/)

The Pride scored 154 points to finish three points ahead of Region II foe Handley (157). Nationally ranked Blacksburg (31) and Brentsville (41) finsihed 1-2. The tough Great Meadows state course and an unseasonably warm day took its toll on many runners Saturday.

Heritage’s finish matched the Potomac Falls boys squad third place finish from 2004. Since the Dulles District started in 2000, three teams had gone to state prior to this year with Potomac falls fourth in 2003, Loudoun Valley fourth in 2001 and Potomac Falls seventh in 2000.

The Pride may just be starting their state run as Heritage had three freshman scoring Saturday including Hannah McLaughlin (21:00.46) 34th, Ashleigh Dyson (21:48.71) 52nd, and Amanda Ward (22:16.33) 70th. Heritage also relied on some string senior leadership as Bini Kronenberg (21:26.39) 41st, and Jayde James (21:45.50) 50th finished their careers strongly. The Pride will have two other runners back next year from the 2006 team with sophomore Lauren Stephens (22:22.91) 77th and junior Ellyn Moulton (23:08.85) 97th.

Lee ran a 19:58.62 with Misanin less than a second back at 19:59.09. Strange came in at 20:23.21.

On the boys AA side, Potomac Falls sophomore Josh Hardin was 22nd with a 17:11.48 and Dominion senior Brian Gould was 28th at 17:28.04. In the boys AAA race, Gidey Teferra was off his usual pace, finishing 77th at 17:43.38.