By David Steinbacher
Special to the Herald
(From the issue of 11/18/04)

The Bishop O'Connell Knights captured the team gold medal in both the girls and the boys 2004 WCAC Cross Country Championships. In addition, both Bishop Ireton High School and Paul VI Catholic High School turned in excellent results. The prestigious meet was held Nov. 14 at Lake Fairfax.

The order of finish for the girls was: 1) O'Connell — 48 team points; 2) Our Lady of Good Counsel High School — 49; 3) Academy of the Holy Cross — 70; 4) Bishop McNamara High School — 90; 5) Paul VI — 100; 6) Ireton —163; 7) Seton School — 180; 8) St. Mary's Ryken High School — 210 and 9) St. John’s College High School — 249.

Spearheading the Lady Knights were freshman Katie Walls — third overall (21:39), senior Christine Walls — fourth (21:47), junior Julia Terrell — sixth (21:58), freshman Karen Nirschl — 16th (23:07) and freshman Susan Nnaji — 21st (23:23).

"I am very pleased with my race," said Katie Walls. "I am also impressed with how well our entire team ran."

"One of my shoes came untied about 600 meters into the race," said Christine Walls. "My other shoe came untied about half way through the race. It was very annoying, but I kept on running [with them untied]."

Leading the Paul VI Lady Panthers were senior Liz Grazioli — fifth overall (21:51), freshman Mackenzie Singh — seventh (21:58), freshman Kate Still — 27th (23:52), sophomore Elizabeth Shine — 29th (24:18) and junior Johanna Fulghum — 35th (24:49).

"I am very happy with my race," said Grazioli. "There were a lot of hills and we had to literally run through two creeks. We've been training hard. This is a good race to end my high school career."

"The girls ran a gutsy race. They did everything that we asked them to do. We've got a very young team — only one senior," said Paul VI assistant head coach Keith Mitchell.

Leading the Lady Cardinals were freshman Julianne Tela — 15th overall (22:51), freshman Kristina Fabi — 31st (24:26), sophomore Laura Resetar — 37th (25:04), senior Megan Miller — 41st (25:36) and junior Alyssa Krauss — 44th (25:47). "Coach just told me to do the best that I could," said Tela. "It was a pretty difficult course,"

"I had a pretty bad cold. Unfortunately, I didn't do as well as I could have," said Krauss.

"The girls have worked hard all year," said Ireton head coach Rich McCoppin (assisted by Brad Byrnes and Anne Sawkiw).

The boys’ order of finish was: 1) O'Connell — 49 team points; 2) Gonzaga College High School — 54; 3) Ireton — 63; 4) St. John’s — 98; 5) Good Counsel — 115; 6) DeMatha High School — 171; 7) Paul VI — 172; 8) McNamara — 212 and 9) St. Mary's Ryken — 246.

Spearheading the Knights were senior Mark DeWine — first overall (17:43), junior Mark Tynan — second (17:48), junior Mark Petroski — seventh (18:11), sophomore Drew Carpenter — 18th (18:50) and junior Mike O'Donnell — 21st (19:05).

"I went over the entire course in great detail before the race," said DeWine. "I knew that I couldn't take it out too fast. I laid the ‘hammer’ down with approximately a mile remaining in the race."

"I went out there and ran the best mental race that I have ever run in my life," said Tynan.

"I absolutely thought that we were going to win the boys team title," Petroski added.

Leading the Cardinals were senior Matt Gordon — third overall (17:54), junior Robert Sagar — fifth (18:06), junior Matt Sagar — sixth (18:07), junior Nick Herndon —11th (18:25) and junior Anthony Murray — 38th (20:51).

"I really enjoy the friendly competition with Mark DeWine of O'Connell," said Gordon. "I was very pleased that I broke 18 minutes. Our overall team could have done a little better."

Gordon will be participating in the FootLocker High School Cross Country Sectional Championships in Charlotte, N.C., on Nov. 27.

"I improved my previous time at Lake Fairfax by about seven seconds," said Robert Sagar. "We all wanted to run this meet as if it were the last meet of our lives."

"Today was the highlight of the entire year," Matt Sagar added. "It was a difficult course. I am definitely pleased."

"This was the best race of my season," said Herndon. "I really cranked it up the last 800 meters."

Leading the Panthers were: sophomore Robert Grazioli — 20th (19:04), junior Jeff Robertson — 26th (19:34), senior John Mich — 36th (20:43), junior Martin Bordelon — 43rd (21:05) and sophomore Joe Landers — 47th.

"This was the best that I've ever run the race at Lake Fairfax." said Grazioli. "Our boys team is not quite as deep as our girls team. We only graduate one senior [John Mich] — we should be pretty good next year," said Paul VI assistant head coach Keith Mitchell.

In addition, Alexandria resident Matt Chandler (St. Mary's) and Herndon residents Ryan Colas and Richard Barry (both of St. Josephs) led the Gonzaga Eagles.

"I was very depleted at the end of the race," said Chandler. "I gave it my best."

Colas said it wasn’t his best race overall. "I took it out too fast and died at the end," he said.

Barry said he did the best that he could. "We wanted to win it for veteran coach Heather Sanders, but [we came up a little short]," he said.