Murphy leads Lake Braddock to 6A crown

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Lake Braddock star Kate Murphy ran 17:08 at Great Meadow to win the Virginia Class 6A girls cross country championship race for the second straight year and her team won the title again with 46 points. Her time was four seconds faster than Weini Kelati’s winning time in 2015.

The James Madison boys edged Lake Braddock 63-66 for the boys team title as Peter Smith from Oscar Smith won a close race in 15:26. RESULTS

Heather Holt ran 17:18 and led George C. Marshall to the Class 5A girls team championship. She won by 29 seconds. Marshall finished with 53 points thanks to five in the top 18. Foot Locker returnee Waleed Suliman of Douglas Freeman won the boys race in 15:13 for his second straight title. Aptly named Deep Run put three boys in the top 11 and won the team championship with 76 points. Glenn Allen was second with 105 points.

Peter Morris ran 15:14 and led Drew Hunter’s old school, Loudoun Valley, to the Class 4A boys state title. LV went 1-4­-6 up front and scored 45 points – two points lower than 2015 when Hunter ran 15:04. Morris improved his time by 66 seconds from one year to the next. E.C. Glass, which had a trio up front at 3-4-8, won the girls title with 36 points. Noel Palmer of Liberty Christian Academy ran 18:04 to claim a title last held by Kelati, last year's Foot Locker champion.

A day earlier at the small-schools state meet, Blacksburg dominated the action in the Class 3A division. The girls put six in the top 10 and scored 26 points, led by race winner Samantha Marin (18:18). Likewise, the boys put three in the top 10 and scored 43 points. Junior Karl Theissen of runner-up Abingdon won the race in 15:58.

Maggie L. Walker swept the team titles at the Class 2A level, the boys scoring 82 points and girls 43. Freshman Jessey Ball of Lebanon took the girls race in 19:26, while sophomore William Miller from James River ran 16:11 for the win.

In Class 1A, Auburn and Radford proved to be the top programs and the schools alternated 1-2 finishes. The Auburn boys scored 37 points, linking up 5-6-7-10, to secure the title over second-place Radford. Mary Elliot led the Radford girls (1-7-9 up front) to a 52-53 victory over Auburn. Elliot paced the field with 20:21.