On Thursday, October 22nd, the Charger Cross Country team competed in the annual rite of fall- the Concorde District Championships.  Focusing on this meet as the key point in the season, the Chargers ended the championships with mixed feelings, having both reason to celebrate and to wonder "what if". Both teams finished in 5th place, on the outside looking in at the four teams who will advance to next week's regional championships, also held at Burke Lake Park.

On the boys side, Junior Chris Foley defended his repuation as one of the region's best by taking a career best 2nd place in the district championship, in a personal best time of 15:24.31, good for seventh place on Chantilly's All-time list.  Despite being nipped for the district title, Foley is still someone who will be watched for a top finish at both the regional and state meets to come in the next two weeks.  While the boys did not qualify for regionals, many of them celebrated personal best times.  Junior Matt Cumpian and senior David Harsh took the 2nd and 3rd spots for the team in 26th & 27th places (16:43 & 16:46 respectively), while senior Andrew Zulick (17:15) and junior Harold Dockins (17:16) finished in 33rd and 34th places to complete the scoring for the team.

The girls team also took a fifth place, losing out on a tiebreaker with Westfield, who both finished with 123 points.  Leading the way to her first All-District finish was junior Rachel Grochowski.  Rachel stormed her way to a solid 6th place finish, in 18:38.66 (11th fastest time in CHS history), earning an individual trip to regionals, where she will also vie for an individual state berth (top 15).  All of the other four scoring girls also celebrated personal best times, even if they were disappointed not to advance.  Sophomores Erin Horil (19th- 19:26), Kacey Norwood (28th-  19:58) and Hannah Strub (36th- 20:32) and senior Katrine Gast (34th (20:13) comprised the solid girls squad.

The regional championships will be held at Burke Lake Park on Thursday, October 30th, with the boys running at 3:15 and the girls at 3:45 pm. The top 15 individuals  advance to the state meet on Saturday, November 8th.  Based on their performances this week, and all season, both Foley and Grochowski stand excellence chances of placing, and continuing their excellent seasons.

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

Thank you to Tom Foley & Chris Dolan for their wonderful photos, found at: http://picasaweb.google.com/CHSrunning & at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kippercd/.