Cross country teams tune up for districts

The last regular season cross country meet of any given season is usually used as an indicator for the teams involved. For the Culpeper County High School that was the case Wednesday afternoon as the Blue Devils played host to Fauquier, Liberty and Stonewall Jackson in the final tune up before the Cedar Run District meet.

The CCHS boys raced to an impressive victory with Daniel Austin pacing the Devils in second place with a personal best time of 18:03. Dira Hansen won the girls' race for the Devilettes and led Culpeper to a second place finish overall.

"I PR'd and the whole team ran really well today," Austin said. "We are all around the time we need to be. I know a few of us want to run a little bit faster, but we've still got another race to do that. We've been steadily improving every week and that's what we wanted to do all season."

Hansen finished the race in 20:52, nearly a minute and half faster than the second place girl, Fauquier's Emma Helsel.
"I wanted her to go out pretty hard," CCHS girls' coach Paul Lutz said. "She did that today. She hasn't peaked yet and I think maybe part of that is that the weather had been holding her back a little bit. I'm hoping for the district it is about 20 degrees cooler."

Though Fauquier harrier Talbot Armstrong won the boys' race in 17:45, the Blue Devils placed five runners in the top eight finishers to finish with 24 points, 13 ahead of the second place Falcons. CCHS's top five runners, Austin, Stephen Reynolds, David Holden, Charlie Bayne and Tim Smith all finished within 31 seconds of each other and Devils' coach Kim Williams said that pack mentality would come in handy as districts and regionals approach.

"We're very close," Williams said. "We're almost inside my target of 20 second between our No. 1 and our No. 5. if we can do the exact same thing next week we'll be in good shape."

Shane Mettlen can be reached at 825-0771, ext 127 or

Boys
Culpeper 24
Fauquier 37
Liberty 81
Stonewall No score

Culpeper's top finishers
Daniel Austin, 18:03
Stephen Reynolds, 18:16
David Holden, 18:20
Charlie Bayne, 18:34
Tim Smith, 18:34
12. Alex Wyman, 19:10
19. Thomas Steimel, 20:33

Girls
Fauquier 41
Culpeper 46
Liberty 74
Stonewall No score

Culpeper's top finishers
Dira Hansen, 20:52
Cassie Elliot, 22:49
12. Natalie Martell, 24:19
13. Amber Sweeney, 24:27
17. Lauren Odend'hal, 25:42
20. Kate Batiste, 25:51
28. Brooke Croft, 32:16