Of the four winning teams at the Liberty and Concorde district cross-country championship meets, three finished first by thin margins — and the fourth by a more substantial amount.
In the girls races, the Langley Saxons won the Liberty crown by five points and the Oakton Cougars the Concorde by a comfortable 12. In boys, the McLean Highlanders (Liberty) and Centreville Wildcats (Concorde) each won by seven.
The races were held on a warm Wednesday (Oct. 30) afternoon on the 2.98-mile Burke Lake Park course.
The Langley girls had their top five runners finish in the first 24, led by Hazel Calway’s second in 18:47 and a sixth from Lila Pesavento (19:04).
Also for Langley, Adeline Middleton was 10th (19:32), Sanika Meka 12th (19:36), Paige Poulos 24th (20:11), Corinne Jaggard 25th (20:14) and Sadie Waters 29th (20:21).
Herndon’s Meghan Sullivan won the race by a minute in 17:48.
Marshall’s Samanthan Dabich was third (18:57) and Daniela Diaz fourth (19:01).The Oakton girls were led by the third-place of Caroline Sapperstein in 18:42, with Sophie Lewis fourth in 18:51. Abbi Mesfin was 12th (19:48), Raquel Lewis 15th (20:11) and Sophie Burrell 18th (20:26).
The second-place South Lakes girls had a fifth from Caroline Elliot (18:58) and sixth from Ava Ryan (18:58).
Kiki Van Der Weide won the race for the third-place Madison girls in 17:41, with teammate Lydia Mikhin second in 18:14.
For the Centreville girls, Devyn Telleen was seventh (19:06) and Amy Cheong ninth (19:25). Westfield’s Maria Pekarsky was eighth (19:08).
The McLean boys were led by the third-place finish of Carter Lineweaver (15:51) and a seventh from Colin Park (16:21). Akay Onat was eighth (16:24), Alan Tang 12th (16:31), Vikram East 21st (17:11), Owen Thibert 24th (17:14) and Tommy Millwad 25th (17:15).
Langley’s Gavin Silva was ninth (16:28) and Marshall’s Matthew Kane 11th (16:31).
Elijah Post was top finisher for the champion Centreville boys in third in 15:21, with Danny McGlynn fourth in 15:22, Wyatt Jessup eighth (16:12), Evan Plath ninth (16:29) and Hubert Chang 11th (16:31).
For the second-place South Lakes boys, Jason Raffel was fifth (16:03), George Hood sixth (16:03) and Kian Beumer seventh (16:08).
Chantilly’s Tristan Thurneysen won the race in 15:12, and his teammate Jack Morgan was second in 15:14.
