The Bishop Ireton cross country team traveled to the Woodberry Forest school this past Saturday to compete in the Woodberry Forest Invitational where they would meet 20+ teams on a course that many would call “quite difficult”. As the Ireton football team battled the Tigers on the gridiron, the Ireton harriers mixed it up with the likes of Paul VI, Woodberry and Episcopal on the infamous Woodberry golf course. The weather was perfect and the competition was intense which made it a great day for the Ireton XC program.
The Ireton ladies took to the course first as the weather started to warm up from the earlier cool morning temperatures. Margaret Nealon led the way for the Cardinals as she finished 25th overall and was followed closely by Eva Irwin. Rounding out the top 5 were Mary Johnson, Lauren Freshwater and freshman Maria Manzek. Nealon’s time was good enough to earn her a spot on the varsity top 7 and will race as Ireton’s #4 girl this weekend at the Oatlands Invitational. The JV ladies placed 4th overall out of 13 teams as they defeated such teams as Episcopal, PVI and Brooke Point.
Next up were the varsity girls who ended up finishing 8th out of 20 teams. Aubrey Gartlan led the way again for the Cardinals as she finished 35th overall. She was followed closely by Sophomore transfer Alex Georgi (42nd) and Marin Nolan (58th). Rounding out the top 5 were Sarah Fyffe and Shannon Gordon. Both Nolan and Gordon are in their first cross country season after competing in volleyball and cheerleading over the past few years. “They’re just all around great athletes” said Coach Byrnes “They’ve both competed in track over the past few years and this is a little bit different but I knew they were capable of competing in cross country and we’re lucky to have them”. There were also come impressive performances from the freshman ranks as Annie Barletta, Kelsey O’Hern and Loren Gant all finished within Ireton’s top 8. Barletta will compete with the varsity top 7 this weekend at Oatlands.
Speaking of impressive freshmen, the Ireton JV boys race unveiled a little bit of what the future may look like from the boys side. Four out of the top five spots for Ireton in the JV race were filled by freshmen. Michael LoGrande took the top spot as he finished 15th overall and broke 20 minutes. Close behind were Steven Gottlieb (17th), Jack Leyden (23rd), Stephen Washington (39th) and Conor Padden (50th). Ireton’s top 5 finishers were good enough for a 3rd place team finish overall as they defeated all other private schools in the event.
Finally it wad the varsity boys’ turn on the course. The weather had really heated up at this point and the hilly Woodberry course was sure to make it tough on everybody. Finishing with exactly the same time, Liam O’Connor and Mike Andersen crossed the line together for a strong 1-2 punch for the Cardinals. Finishing 3rd for Ireton was Kevin Moran who was then followed by Nick Manzek and Murphy Costigan. Dan Burns, Connor Pearson and Alex Carpenter rounded out the top 8 for Ireton. The Ireton varsity boys placed 5th out of 27 teams as they defeated all private schools except host Woodberry. Coach Byrnes said, “I think it was a great day overall. Obviously, I was a little worried about losing so many seniors after this season but what I saw today made me confident that this new batch of freshmen on both the boys and girls side will more than make up for the athletes we lose to graduation. We came here to get a feel for what the Independent State meet will be like since it’s raced on the same course and in the end we competed very well against some tough competition…I’m happy with how we did today on such a tough course”.
The Ireton cross country team will compete this Saturday at the Oatlands Invitational in Leesburg, Virginia.
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