The Mathews High School Cross Country teams showed their strength at the Region 1A East Championship last Thursday at Eastern State in Williamsburg. The boys defied the odds and took first place, narrowly beating out the very strong Altavista team (68) by a score of 65 points. The girls’ squad (55) fell by a mere two points to Rappahannock County (53), one of the top teams in the state.
The girls’ squad gave it their all, but it was not quite enough to edge out the very strong Rappahannock team. However, the day was not completely unsuccessful. Mathews had four girls place in the top 15 overall finishers to receive All-Region honors, as well as three girls run all-time personal records.
Kate van Emmerik led the girls’ team, placing ninth overall with a time of 21:53. Ellie Gale (22:20), Kelly Nelson (22:26) and Kaitlyn Thompson (22:29) also made All-Region, placing 10th, 12th and 13th, respectively. Emily Brown followed, placing 22nd with a time of 23:37. Kristen Fauber (24:23, 29th) and Maria Spadaccini (25:55, 46th) finished out the Lady Devils’ strong showing.
Thompson, Nelson and Spadaccini ran all-time personal records.
The boys’ squad had the race of their lives to beat out Altavista for the region title. Led by Justin Adams (17:23, fifth), Tucker Blackwell (17:50, 11th) and Phillip Machen (17:52, 12th), the team placed three runners in the top 15 individual finishers to receive All-Region honors.
Nick Brown (18:21, 18th) and Jalen Thomas (18:32, 19th) were next to finish for Mathews. Thomas also broke the Mathews High School course freshman record for Eastern State, previously held by Kyle Slaughter (2009) by less than one second. Sam Jasinski (19:03, 27th) and Lance South (19:25, 35th) confirmed the win over Altavista.
The MHS squads both advance to the VHSL 1A State Championship this Saturday at Great Meadow, The Plains. While neither squad is favored to win, they have proved that they should not be overlooked.
“I feel really good about our chances at States,” head coach Drew Greve said. “There are some very fast teams and a lot of fast individual runners out there, but our runners do a great job of running together as a team—especially during pressure situations.” The girls and boys squads will compete at 1 and 1:45 p.m.