On Thursday, October 30th, the Chantilly Cross Country team was represented in both the Boys and Girls Northern Regional Championships, and in both races, the Chargers showed why they earned the right to be there. Even though they qualified as individuals, they did their team and their school proud.

Junior co-captain Chris Foley continued his career-best season with a personal best time of 15:20.7 for the 2.98 mile Burke Lake Course, finishing in a career high regional finish of 2nd place.  Even at this late part of the season, when many of his competitors are hitting or passing their peak from, Foley continues to demonstrate a suberb level of fitness and speed, and ever-improving competitiveness, as he targets the state championships next week at Great Meadow.  With only a handful of AAA runners having beaten Chris this season, it is reasonable to expect that he has a solid chance of running with the leaders towards a high All-State finish, as has been one of his goals all year.

The girls team was represented by  junior Rachel Grochowski, who ran 18:43 to finish 23rd.  While she was disappointed not to make the qualifying top 15 to advance to states, Grochowski completed a season that was easily the best of her career.  Her 23rd place was actually her lowest finish in any race this season, which included medals in four invitationals (including a 1st place finish), her first All-District Honor, and a personal best at Burke Lake (18:38.7),which places her 11th on the CHS All-Time list.  With another year and a half left in her high school running career, it is reasonable to believe that this breakthrough season can be a springboard to even more success on the track, and next fall, in her senior year.  The coaching staff is very proud of Rachel's development this year, both as a sportswoman, and indeed, as a team leader.

Chris Foley will represent Chantilly on November 8th, at Great Meadow, in the Plains, VA at the Virginia AAA State Championship.  The team is grateful for all of the support it has received this year.

For full results, please go to: http://www.chargercctrack.com/ccresults.html.

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