JF girls repeat as Region III champions, boys runners-up

DALEVILLE — A couple of brother-sister tandems were largely responsible for Jefferson Forest’s girls cross country team capturing its third consecutive Region III championship and the Cavaliers’ boys squad finishing runner-up for the second straight season, Wednesday at Lord Botetourt’s 3.1-mile Greenfield Park course.

Sophomore Mary Deis was the girls’ champion, winning in 20 minutes, 47 seconds, and senior brother Robert Deis placed an area-best fifth in the boys race in 17:28.

Meanwhile, senior Olivia Jackson came in 11th in the girls race in 22:10 and sophomore brother Ben Jackson finished 15th for the boys in 17:56 to pace the Cavaliers.

“It was nice to have two brother-sister acts finish all-Region,” JF coach Jerome Loy said.

Both of Forest’s teams actually had three runners in the top 15, with junior Leigha Schimmoeller taking third for the girls in 21:24 and Todd tenPas holding off a late charge from E.C. Glass sophomore Dylan Beck to finish 12th for the boys in 17:44.

Spotswood won its third Region III boys title in a row with 73 points, just 10 points ahead of JF (83).

“We finished where we expected,” Loy said. “I expected the girls to win, we expected the guys to run second, but to give Spotswood a fight, and we did. We were really close.”

The Cavaliers might have won their second team title in four years had regular third runner Justin Resendes not passed out in the third mile after suffering another bout of Vocal Cord Dysfunction, which restricted his breathing.

“He ran a real strong first mile and I told him, ‘Back off, back off. Be patient, be patient,’” Loy said. “And he just got caught up with the pace. I saw him at two (miles) and I just shook my head because I knew he wasn’t going to make it. He had drifted from eighth to about 15th and you could just tell. He had his head down and his breathing became labored and I didn’t think he’d finish at all.”

Remarkably, Resendes picked himself back up after his collapse, recovering in time to finish in 21:05, beating nine other runners to the line.

“He’s probably the strongest member of our team because he still finished,” Robert Deis said. “He was up in the top 15 until about the end of the third mile and he still had the strength to finish, so we’re proud of him.

“He’s a reflection of our team,” he added. “We’ve just got to finish as strong as we can. We leave it all out on the field.”

Brookville’s girls repeated their runner-up finish to the Cavaliers (48-93), despite running without McKenna Coalson, who was sick and unable to run. She was Brookville’s fastest finisher at last week’s Seminole District meet, placing fourth overall.

“(Finishing second without Coalson was) a little bit of a surprise, but we’ll take it,” Brookville coach Cory Morris said. “Without her, we had to all step it up and we did, so I’m very proud of them. We performed really well. They did what they had to do.”

Cathleen McCarron was fifth overall in 21:33 and Kaitlyn Brown took 12th in 22:11.

“The top 15 is what I was shooting for,” McCarron said. “I was trying to just stay as close to the front as I possibly could. There was a lot of good competition all around. It was really challenging.”

The Bees’ boys narrowly missed the Group AA state team cut, placing fifth with 163 points, behind Glass (140).

“That was one of our goals for the year, to get both teams to the state meet,” Morris said. “To come short of that for the boys is sad. The boys are looking forward to next year and the girls are looking forward to the state meet.”

The Hilltoppers qualified for state as a team in their first year competing in Region III.

“I was kind of hoping we might be third (but) my goal all year was just to get to the state meet and they did (so) I was real pleased,” Glass first-year coach Jerry Salmon said. “I think we can run better. We’d like to be in the top 10.”

Though the Cavaliers didn’t have home-course advantage as they had for the district meet, they did scout out the course on Halloween, so they wouldn’t be in for any surprises.

“I’m really glad we trained on this course, so I knew when the uphills were coming and I knew when I had recovery time on the downhills,” said Mary Deis, who led from start to finish, pulling away from Schimmoeller in the second mile. “I try not to look back. I try to focus on what’s ahead and not worry about what’s behind me.”

Robert Deis and his teammates also are looking forward, to next week’s state meet at Great Meadow in The Plains.

“It’ll be way more challenging, but it will be nice to have a little bit of a break from all of these hills,” he said, noting the Greenfield Park course was almost as challenging as JF’s own at Wolf Branch Farm. “The state course is quite a bit flatter, a lot faster, with way more competition, so we’re hoping to run our best times of the whole season next week.”