Kathleen Lautzenheiser (left) holds off Chantilly's Lia Divalentin for the state title.
by Phil Murphy
DigitalSports Northern VA
On Saturday at Great Meadow, the Midlothian girls' cross country team ran away
with their third consecutive Virginia AAA state title — pun fully intended. The
Lady Trojans became only the second team ever to three-peat in the girls Class
AAA competition; the Lake Braddock Lady Bruins won four straight state titles
from 1985-88.
This year, Midlothian Coach
Stan Morgan’s squad had
two runners place in the top six and five in the top 40 for a winning score of
57, finishing well ahead of Oakton (110), Western Branch (131) and Lake Braddock
(139). All three years of the Lady Trojans’ reign have been won by a margin of
no less than 41 points, finishing directly ahead of a Northern Region opponent
in each championship.
Not even the heralded Lake Braddock team of the
late 80s was that dominant.
This team’s future may even be brighter than
its present, as three of the aforementioned top five Lady Trojans are sophomores
or freshmen.
"We even have a few more freshmen coming in," sophomore
Kathleen Lautzenheiser said. "It’s exciting. We’ll have a strong team
even though we have three seniors leaving. I think we should be able to do well
next year and the year after that."
Lautzenheiser took individual honors
after finishing third a year ago as a freshman. Her winning time of 17 minutes,
56.41 seconds was just two seconds ahead of runner-up Chantilly junior
Lia
DiValentin, but over a full minute lower than her time from last year’s
state title race.
"Over the last 100 meters, I could hear the crowds
chanting 'Lia!,' so I knew she was within a second of me," Lautzenheiser said.
"I knew she was right there. I think the weather helped me, though. I love the
cold. My legs weren’t getting tired like last year and I felt a lot stronger at
the end. I just told myself I had to keep pushing."
DiValentin forced the
champion to the brink over the final stretch, but Midlothian’s star sophomore
simply had the late energy necessary to take home the title.
"I still
have not developed a really great kick like Kathleen and her teammates have,"
DiValentin said. "Even though she’s younger than me, props to her. Obviously
she’s an amazing runner and they come around once in a while.
"I’m just
going to work on that kick. With my endurance I was fine. It was just that my
legs blew up. I’m going to work on my legs and adding some muscle down there soI
can stabilize at the end of the race."