John Handley senior Bobby Lockhart broke away from the field well before even the two mile mark as he went onto tying Alan Webb's course record of 14:43 to win in the strongest field ever assembled in Charlotte. "I was pretty happy with my race. I didn't know how fast I should go out or what I was capable of. I hit the mile mark at 4:40 and the two mile mark at 9:30. I picked it up after that. I could hear Debole behind me and people were telling me that I was on pace to break the record, so I picked up the pace, but didn't sprint it in," said Lockhart. Adding to how impressive his race was that he won over an extremely competive field. By far it was the best ever in the meet's 22 year history as the entire top eight went under 15 on the course. Despite the win, Lockhart has future goals. "I really want to do well at nationals, especially since I ran bad there last year." Lockhart wasn't just pleased his race perfomance, but as well with his fellow comrades from Virginia "I'm just real happy Virginia had three guys in the top eight! It's awesome! I expected Hower to make top eight, but Keally was a surprise."
Ocean Lakes senior Matt Keally was a surprise to many to crack the top eight after a subpar state meet race. But Keally ran an amazing race as he stuck with that top pack and pulled out a devastating kick on the final stretch as he finished 4th in a time of 14:54.
Few also really knew who Marion senior Fleet Hower was, but they all know now as at one point he was running second in the race as he hung onto to finish in a 6th place finishing time of 14:55. "I felt pretty good about my race. I thought the most important thing to do was to be in the top ten at the mile, which I did. After that I felt pretty confident that I could make top eight," said Hower. Making it to nationals was bittersweet for Hower, after having an injury plagued junior year where he sat out all track season due to a stress fracture. "This means a lot to me because 6 months, I didn't know if I was going to be able to even run in the fall."
Along with the great news of Virginia sending three guys to the national meet, Virginia made what was supposedly going to be a hardfought battle between Florida for the state team title a cakewalk as we beat Florida 46-70. Joining Lockhart, Keally, and Hower for the Virginia top five were Fork Union junior Kippy Keino and Rockbridge County junior John Crews who finished 13th and 22nd respectively with stellar times of 15:17 and 15:26.
The Virginia girls had no one in the top eight, but still had some very impressive and respectable performances. Leading the Virginia girls was Oakton's Keira Carlstrom who took a heartbreaking 9th place with a personal best time of 17:55. Finishing second for Virginia was JMU bound Shannon Saunders of Jefferson Forest who also finished with a personal best of 18:04 to take 13th place. Following right behind Saunders was Jemissa Hess of C.D. Hylton as she finished 14th in a time of 18:06. Shannon's twin sister, Kristen also had a breakthrough run as she was very pleased in making her goal of being all-south as she finished 20th in a personal record time of 18:20. Rounding out the Virginia top five was Centreville's Dacia Barr as she took 30th with a time of 18:37.