Paced by pair of Deis, JF sweeps 15th straight boys, girls XC crowns

FOREST — Sometimes, sibling rivalry transcends gender.

Such is the case for Jefferson Forest’s Robert and Mary Deis, a brother and sister tandem who swept the boys and girls individual championships at Wednesday’s Seminole District cross country meet at Forest’s Wolf Branch Farm.

After seeing his younger sister surge past teammate Leigha Schimmoeller as they approached the home stretch of the girls race, winning in 20 minutes, 34 seconds, Robert Deis set his sights on a first-place finish in the boys race that followed.

He and fellow Cavalier senior Todd tenPas ran neck-and-neck for the first mile before Deis pulled away in the final two, winning in 17 minutes, 18 seconds. He led a 1-2-3-5 Forest finish that also included junior Justin Resendes (third in 17:45) and sophomore Ben Jackson (fifth in 17:56).

“I always love watching her go first,” Robert Deis said of his sister Mary, both of whom were district runners-up last year. “She’s a good inspiration to me.”

Mary Deis had plenty of motivation from Schimmoeller, who ran beside her, as they had earlier this week in practice, for all but the final 100-meter sprint to the finish.

“They were stride for stride for three miles,” JF coach Jerome Loy said. “That was amazing.”

“It was awesome not only to run next to somebody, but to run with a friend,” Deis added. “We motivated each other and encouraged each other the whole race.”

However, heading for the finish line, the two were not content to finish hand in hand.

“We paced each other, but we always just go all out,” Deis said. “I won coming up the last hill.”

She said Schimmoeller could just as easily win next Wednesday’s Region III championships, hosted by Lord Botetourt at Greenfield Park.

“We kind of went back and forth, flip-flopped, all season,” Deis said. “We’ll see what happens at regionals. It could be either one of us.”

JF’s boys and girls teams continued to feed off of each other’s success, winning their 15th consecutive district championships.

The girls held off a spirited charge from Brookville, which matched the Cavaliers with four runners in the top eight, winning by a 25-33 count.

The boys then placed four runners in the top five and six in the top 12 to fend off Seminole District newcomer E.C. Glass, 22-47.

“No one wants to be on the team that loses the first district meet,” Loy said, acknowledging running on their home course favors the Cavaliers. “Our T-shirts say ‘Protect This House.’ Home field (advantage) is there, but you’ve got to have the runners. You can’t just show up. You’ve got to be able to perform.”

“The seniors were running their last district race and last race on this course,” tenPas added. “We wanted to (win No. 15) for coach Loy because we know he wanted it.”

Glass first-year boys coach Jerry Salmon was pleased with the performance of his young team, which features three freshmen, three sophomores and only one senior, John Adams, in the top seven.

“We ran as well as we could today,” he said. “The future looks great.”

The Hilltoppers were paced by sophomore Dylan Beck’s fourth-place finish in 17:48.

Adams settled for seventh in 18:07 after falling back from Beck — who he’d run side-by-side with for most of the race — in the final 800 meters when he experienced severe cramps in his side.

Loy said many of the Cavaliers pushed themselves to the limits on the picture perfect day.

“A few of our runners, if the course was five yards longer, they wouldn’t have finished,” Loy said. “OJ (Olivia Jackson), if she had to go five yards farther, she wouldn’t have made it.”

Jackson survived a late charge from Brookville’s McKenna Coalson to place fifth by a second in 22:10.

The Bees got third- and fourth-place showings from Cathleen McCarron and Mary Ellen Wendt, respectively.

“I guess I’m happy with it,” McCarron said. “I ran as fast as I could. I was hoping to get out fast, stay with everybody else up there and do my best.”

Wendt came in fourth in 22:01 after placing eighth as a sophomore and 10th last fall.

“That was definitely my best finish,” she said. “I tried to stay with the girls I was running with at the moment and gradually started picking them off.”

Forest’s girls, the two-time defending Region III champions, expect an even closer rematch with the Bees next week.

“Our biggest competition is going to come from Brookville,” Loy said.

JF’s boys should again be tested by Glass, which gave the Cavaliers their closest test out of three meetings this season.

“This was our first year in the Seminole District and it was probably a little tougher than the Western Valley District,” Beck said.

He is looking forward to the Region III meet, after the Hilltoppers finished 12th in the Northwest Region last fall.

“If I run like I did today, I should be able to place pretty high,” Beck said, adding that “If we really work hard and want it bad enough, it’s possible,” that Glass could qualify for the Group AA state meet as a team with a top-four team finish.

“It’s going to be a challenge,” Salmon said of the Region III meet. “It’s not as hard a region as the Northwest Region, but it’s a very good region. It’s not going to be a walk in the park. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

The Cavaliers will travel to Greenfield Park as a team on Saturday to get familiarized with the course, which is similar to their own in difficulty.

“Hopefully, we’ll go up there to try to bring home some hardware,” Robert Deis said.

Altavista sweeps Dogwood District

Running on its home course at Frazier Farm, Altavista’s boys and girls cross country teams defended their Dogwood District championships in convincing fashion on Wednesday.

The Colonels’ girls got a 1-2-3 finish from Sarah Murphy, who won in 21 minutes, 34 seconds, Jessica Myers (22:11) and Brittany Robinson (22:16) to capture their seventh consecutive title. They dominated runner-up Chatham 26-64.

Daniel Blanks finished first in 17:49 to pace the boys pack as Altavista ran away from Nelson County, 27-48.

The Governors got second- and third-place showings from Matt Brown (18:03) and Albert Lachance (18:08) before the Colonels’ Forster McCracken (18:12) and Stephen Mattox (18:26) rounded out the top five.

The top two teams and 15 individuals qualified for next Wednesday’s Region B meet at Panorama Farms outside of Charlottesville.