LCA runners seek to push limits at state meet

Liberty Christian Academy cross country coach Rebekah Trittipoe challenges her runners to press on beyond their perceived limitations and discover their true potential on the course, as the Bulldogs will strive to do at Friday’s Virginia Independent Schools Division I state championship meets hosted by Woodberry Forest.

She said the experience is as much spiritual as physical and compares it to running into an abyss.

"It’s a place few athletes are willing to go, to experience the pain and the mental fortitude to go beyond what they think they’re capable of doing," said Trittipoe, the second-year coach who completed her 14th Mountain Masochist 50-mile Trail Run on Saturday. "You have to push open the door. You just don’t know what you can do until you totally leave it all out there."

Abby Quigg, the junior younger sister of Sarah Quigg who graduated last year and older sister of Hannah Quigg, an up-and-coming eighth-grader, went there in the Oct. 29 Blue Ridge Conference meet hosted by Miller School. She closed a seemingly impossible gap on North Cross frontrunner Anna Sawyer and powered up a hill in the closing 300 yards to win by seven seconds in 22 minutes, 35 seconds on a very challenging course in Crozet.

"Our eyes locked," Trittipoe said of the moment she watched Quigg race to the finish line. "She was working really hard, gaining on this kid, and I told her, ‘You can get her. I know this is your day. You go and reel her in,’ and she did. To see how much of a lead the North Cross girl had, you never would have thought she could have caught her, but she did."

Rebecca Roberts, a senior first-year cross-country runner who also pole vaults in track and field, also pushed herself to the edge of the envelope in that BRC meet, staying with Quigg as long for as she could before finishing fifth.

"She was totally wiped," Trittipoe said. "She left it all out there."

Trey Fisher entered the abyss on the last leg of the 3,200-meter run at last year’s VIS outdoor state tournament, running a perfect race before crashing and crawling across the finish line in 2:03.

At the Virginia Independent Conference meet at Miller, Fisher won by nearly 30 seconds in 17:25 to lead the Bulldogs to a second-place team showing.

"Trey ran a very calculated race [at the VIC meet]," Trittipoe said. "Trey did real well in terms of making his move and getting out from the pack on that first hill. He’s a very smart runner and he decides ahead of time what he wants to do and he goes out and does it. He’s very motivated. He has the heart of a lion."

Fisher and his LCA teammates, including North Cross transfer Ike Podell, who placed fifth in the VIC championships, will have to put together the perfect team race to have a chance to place against an extremely strong state field. They will try to get out to a fast start to avoid being boxed in on the opening downhill chute at Woodberry Forest.

"We’ve been running hard, all summer and [especially] in August," Trittipoe said. "It’s a very long season and you’re tired. You’re always on that edge of ‘How hard should I train? Am I going to hurt myself.’ I teach the kids to listen to their bodies and train accordingly."

They have trained on the trails at Candler’s Mountain and along the roads that pass Liberty University’s intramural fields. They have done speed work on the track and on hills similar to those they can expect at Woodberry Forest.

"We’ve been trying to train smart without over training," Trittipoe said.

She has great, but realistic expectations for LCA’s boys and girls at the state level, with the Division I girls race set for 2:30 p.m. followed by the boys race at 3.

"The teams at states are so deep and so good," she said. "It’s going to come down to personal efforts that are going to be outstanding. We’re going to have individuals make key statements as to what kind of runners they are and what kind of talent they have."

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