2006 Northwestern District
Cross Country Preview

Brentsville High School's running program has been very successful over the years.   Apparently, their ability to recruit new team members is greatly enhanced by their prior success.  According to head coach Rob Dulin, they have about 90 athletes that have come out for the 2006 Cross Country season!  Overall, Brentsville's team is fairly young, with approximately 60 out of the 90 athletes being freshman or sophomores.

Boys - The Brentsville Boys will be anchored by senior Adam Henken, Henry Meljus (sr) and Ray Delgado (jr).  Despite losing Nick Gehlsen to graduation, the Brentsville boys still have three athletes who were in the top five of the Northwestern District last year.  Sophmore Grant Burress should be greatly improved this year.

Girls - The lady Tigers are once again lead by senior Becky Stewart.  Stewart was suffered an injury during track season last year, however, coach Rob Dulin says she is healthy thus far in practice.  Maggie Gentry could very well be the Brentsville girls #2, so long as she stays injury free.  Gentry was hampered by an injury last year after showing a lot of promise.  Junior Amelia Emerson should is looking good in practice, and also has potential to be the #2 - it will be interesting to see how this pans out during the season.

Brentsville has three sophomores who have generated a lot of excitement for the girls team - Courtney McGowan, Lauren Bussian and Sarah Earman all look great in practice Coach Dulin told us. 

Boys - The Central boys lost four of their top seven to graduation.  However, Alex Hinbnam and Ben Snarr have been working hard this summer, and look great in practice according to Coach Melissa Wright.  "Alex is in his senior year, and you can tell that he is wanting to do well" in his final year of Cross Country Coach Wright told us.  "Senior Nick Funk comes to us from another sport, and brings with him a fantastic attitude" Wright Said.   Central also has another first time XC runner in sophomore Nick Dlugasch.  Coach Wright is very excited to see these athletes develop over the course of this XC season.

Girls - Sophomore Lauren Heishman and Junior Anna Beydoun are expected to lead the girls team this year.  Both look good in practice.  There are a number of girls that are capable of filling the third through seventh spot on the roster, and it should be exciting to see how this pans out for the girls.

James Wood Coach Mike Odna has had the boys and girls doing a lot of base running over the summer, and feels pretty good about their progress.

Boys - The boys team has seven seniors returning this year.  Tyler Beach (SR) returns for his last year at James Wood and should fill the top spot early on.  However, running a close second is Josh Wilson (JR) who is returning from an injury that sidelined him at the end of track season.  A dog fight exists between Nick Fitzgerald(SR), Darin Longerbeam (S0) and Dario Savarese (JR) for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th spots.  When mandatory practices started, it was obvious that the top guys had been training hard over the summer. 

Girls - Sophomores Roni Frye and Crystal Printz lead the lady Colonel's.  Frye became injured during outdoor track season and is battling her way back.   Printz made a lot of improvements in her freshman year, and has trained hard this summer.  Junior Claire McClellan and Sophomore Debbie Baldwin are in mix as well as Senior Lauren Pugh, and Freshman Laurel Andrus and Rachel Carson.  The top five spots on the girls team are up for grabs, and it will be interesting to see how things pan out.  Depth on the ladies team certainly exists.  The top (7) ladies are working hard in practice and Coach Odna is extremely excited about their potential this year.

Boys - Four seniors are expected to lead Handley's boys this year with Clint Schiavone as the #1 and sprint medley All American Erin McWhorter close behind. Daniel Carlton and Cameron Crowell  will likely vie for the #3 spot for the Judges. Junior Austin Cote, last year's no. 4 runner, will be pushed by junior Brian Barnett and sophomore Louis Ramirez and senior Eric Acome. Acome was looking fantastic last year, running as the no. 4 man prior to suffering a broken leg in the second meet last year and has not fully returned to form. Coach Stickley has been trying to gradually bring him up to par, hoping that Acome won't re-injure his leg. Ramirez was solid in the All-state 4 x 800 relay team during track season and Stickley has high hopes for him in Cross Country. Other notables are sophomores Matt Gowdy  who is returning from illness and Josh Brant

Girls - The Handley girls lost Erin Bender and Jessica Naylor to graduation.  Senior Anna Cote returns this year as the lady Judges #1.  Cote had a great Junior year, and should be a tough competitor in the 2006 Cross Country season.  Junior Jennifer Methien and Senior Katelyn Mason will vie for the #2 spot.  Girls Coach Mike McKiernan says he has a good mix of underclassman and seniors this year, with a total of 32 athletes who are on the team.  He has a number of athletes that are new to the sport, and says "its going to be exciting to watch them develop.  We had a great team camp at Bryce Resort, and the girls had a lot of fun" McKiernan said.  The Handley girls are fairly injury-free thus far, with a lot of new talent.  Katie Carper seems to be in good shape, after suffering an injury last year.  Watch for Casey Troxel, Whitney Kerner, Claire Bridgeforth, and Paula & Lauren Delmerico, who have been looking good in practice.

The juniors and seniors are definitely stepping up and taking the lead for the Liberty Eagles. "No domineering personalities, just a core group that wants to work hard when it is time to work and play hard when it is time to play" according to Coach Dee Thompson. "We have 42 kids, so our numbers are up from 33 last year. All are healthy at this point" Thompson said. 

Boys - The Liberty Boys lost their top 2 to graduation: Evan Ashby and Greg Carroll. Hoping to fill in is Tyler Farnsworth, Zach Boone, Jason Lloyd, Daniel Peyton, Eric Blease, Miles Costello, Kyle Griffin

Girls - Top 3 girls have returned:  Stephanie Giunta, Deanna Andrews and Andrea Gillis.  Last years 4 and 5 runners for the Liberty girls graduated ( Danielle Memory and Suzanne Giunta) but they have some new prospects that the coaching staff are optimistic on:  Bailey Fallon, Lizzie Prosser, Laura Ayers, Lindsey Noe, Linsey LaBarge are hopefuls.

Stephanie Giunta has the best chance to get to state ( like last year) Hopefully Deanna Andrews will get there also. The girls team may have a shot at getting out of districts.

Boys - Two juniors are expected to lead the Millbrook boys this year - Bobby Vance and Stephen Lassiter. 

Girls - Senior Jillian Pollack is expected to lead the Millbrook girls in her final season of high school Cross Country.   While Pollack is Millbrook's solid number one runner, it will be exciting to watch sophomore Sullivan Parkes.  As a freshman, Parkes had an outstanding year, and made a lot of improvement during track season.   

Boys - Ryan Witt is expected to lead the Sherando boys, with sophomores Scott Guichard and Danny Stiefvater competing for the number two spot.  Stiefvater is nursing an injury, and will hopefully be healthy in the beginning of the season. Coach Tim Ritter says that David Sperry and Sean Whitson are both looking strong in practice.

Girls - Latasha Watson is nursing an injury, but should lead the lady Warriors this year.  The second thru fourth position is up in the air - Morgen Plaza (jr), Julee Steele (so) and Catlin Shultz look good in practice.  Shultz has never run before, but has impressed Coach Ritter who believes that she has a lot of potential. 

The Warriors XC team recently had an all night relay race where they raised funds for the team.  The race began at 5:30 PM and finished at 6:30 AM the next morning.  The team camped out as they ran close to 100 miles!

Boys - "No doubt about seniors Daniel Arnold and Chris Grigsby being our captains and team leaders this year" according to boys coach Mike Tanner. "They both have been vocal at practice, making sure the youngsters and rookies (we have 11) know what needs to be done, and have been great examples with their work ethic and effort" Tanner said. 

Coach Tanner told us that he has a lot of first year runners on the boys team.  "It’s been exciting to watch them develop into runners over the last month.  All of them have shown that they have the potential to have an impact on the season.  It will be a pleasure watching it all play out as the season progresses" Tanner said.

Sophomore Roger Patricio, who was quite the standout in middle school, is back from ACL reconstruction surgery.  He is steadily improving at each practice, and should be able to reach, and eventually surpass, the intensity level he was at before the injury.

Girls - Like the boys, the Wildcat girls are a very young team.  Out of the 23 girls on the roster, 12 are either new to the sport or freshman.  Kasey Ewing is the only 4 year senior entering this season.  "She is the girls captain and has set a good example by working hard this summer", according to girls coach Jeremy Burnworth.  "Kasey should be much improved this season"

Warren County’s top three runners, Mara Smith, Kasey Ewing and Jenny Nichols are looking really strong this summer.  Mara Smith is Warren County's top returning runner.  She has worked hard this summer and looks to start off this season the way she finished last season when she qualified for the State Meet.

Coach Burnworth said that "most of the newcomers to the girls team  have worked very hard this summer and should surprise a lot of people this season.  A few stand outs this summer have been Susan Maddox (10), Colby Ferguson (12), and Bernadette Sayer (10)".

Jenny Nichols (12) is back off of leg injuries which hampered a potential very good season for her last year - which she started as the girls #2 runner.  She is healthy and looks to regain her spot as one of the top runners for the lady Wildcats.

Visit Our
Sister Site!
Clutch
Runners.com