On Saturday, September 20th, the Chantilly Chargers Cross Country Team competed against 101 schools from Virginia, Maryland and as far as New York, at the Oatlands Invitational in Leesburg, VA.  Against the huge fields, the Chargers more than held their own, with several individuals earning honors, while the teams proved competitive in most divisions.

The biggest highlight of the day came in the Girls Varsity B race, where Chantilly's #1 runner, junior co-captain Rachel Grochowski, earned her first career win in cross country or track, after going all the way to the line against her closest competitor from Thomas Jefferson HSST.  Her time of 19:43 for the 5K course was amongst the top 20 fastest of the day, and was the 3rd fastest from Virginia AAA and the fastest Northern Region time of the day. Her win followed up her strong 6th place finish from Tuesday's Monroe Parker Invitational, and confirming her good form this fall. Her win also led the Varsity Girls to a 22nd place in the 53 teams competiting.

In the JV division, sophomore Kacey Norwood also had a standout race, earning a 10th place medal in the 9/10 division. Her's was a particularly satisfying race, as she has dealt with a number of injuries this pre-season, but is seemingly returning to the form that made her a top-5 contibutor to the varsity team last year.

For the boys, junior Chris Foley continues to show tremendous form, and demonstrated that he will continue to be a major player on the state stage this season.  Against the best field he has faced thus far, he took a strong 11th place in the 325 runners in the Varsity A race, the fastest of the day.  Facing multiple All-Americans, Foley showed that he can more than hold his own, and that his Monroe Parker Invitational win will serve as a springboard to even bigger things this season.

The JV boys also enjoyed strong races in cooler, early morning temperatures.  The the JV 9/10 division, the team earned the best team placing of the day, with a 6th place of57 teams.  They were led by sophomore Samuel Tucker III, who earned a medal for his 22nd place.  The team got strong contributions from freshman Luke Ivers, and sophomores Cameron Young and Craig Lensi(all of whom earned automatic lettering times), and sophmore Ryan Smith, who returned from and early season ankle injury. In the 11/12 division, senior Jimmy Balladares ran the 5th fastest time of the day for the Chargers in taking his 2nd JV medal in two weeks, finishing 10th place in a time of 18:40.

The Chargers will compete on Wednesday, September 24th at Lake Fairfax  Park, in their final regular season Concorde District meet (which will also be Senior Night). They travel to Hereford High School, in Parkton, MD next Saturday to compete in the Bull Run Invitational on the MD state meet course.

Full results can be found at: http://www.chargercctrack.com/ccresults.html

As always, thank you to Tom Foley for his photos, found at: http://picasaweb.google.com/CHSrunning.