Victory Lap: Blacksburg Boys and Girls Win Cross Country States
- McKinley Owczarski
- Feb 10
- 4 min read
Writers Note: Cross country meets are scored by adding the positions of the first five finishers on a team, and lowest score wins. For example, if a team had runners place 2nd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 10th, they would finish with 30 points.
For Blacksburg High School, the VHSL Class 4 State Championship was not just another race--it was a chance to leave a legacy in cross country history. After five months of exhaustive training, one week of strategizing, and countless nights of race visualization, the Bruins were prepared to put their talent to the test. Five kilometers were the only thing standing between Blacksburg and a state championship, and the Bruins were poised to bring home the trophy.
The road to victory began well before the event took place. Throughout lunch the whole week, it was difficult to ignore the excitement and anticipation radiating off the athletes. Murmurs of race strategy filled the cafeteria. I sat down at the table mid-conversation and immediately picked up on their discussion of the race course. “How can we best attack the hills?” and “Should we go out conservative, or rather ambitious?” were some of the questions I heard. I asked the obvious question: How are you guys feeling leading up to the state championship meet?
“We’re cross country runners, of course we get nervous before races,” Runner Asher Roach (12) jokingly responded.
A send-off led by the band to the roar of over a thousand BHS students boosted the team’s spirit as they departed for Leesburg, Virginia.
The girls’ race began at 1:00 the next day. Although Blacksburg was the overwhelming favorite entering the meet, talented schools like Atlee and Hanover were targeting the Bruins, eager to pull off an upset. As the starting pistol echoed through the brisk November air, all 104 ladies leapt forward and vied for position. Although the runners were initially in a tight clump, the Lady Bruins quickly took control. After they pushed up a few hills and proceeded through the halfway point, it was apparent that Blacksburg was rapidly pulling ahead as a team.
After the seven ladies completed the race with an impressive 37 points (the second lowest point total among the 12 championship races on Saturday), they were crowned champions. To put that in perspective, the best POSSIBLE finish is 15 points. Leading the way was freshman Lola Olsen (19:03, 3rd place), followed closely behind by freshman Ruthie Delapp (19:41, 8th place) and sophomore Eliza Conaway (19:42, 9th place). Rounding out the point-scorers was junior Tess Dickhans (19:54, 11th place) and freshman Reilly Thomas (20:06, 15th place). All five runners received All-State recognition and medals for their accomplishments. Rounding out the team was senior Alexis Plaster (20:54, 37th place) and freshman Harper Olsen (20:54, 38th place). Although not among the scorers, they played a crucial role in pushing opponent runners further back. This marks the girls’ second state title in the last three years and 20th consecutive podium finish (1st, 2nd, or 3rd place).
Head Coach Stephen Howard harped on the importance of getting to the line healthy. “Not once during the regular season did we have all of our girls healthy at the same time. For the girls, we backed off on mileage and intensity quite a bit [leading up to the meet] so that everyone could feel healthy and ready to go when it mattered the most.”
Howard also noted how impressed he was at how the underclassmen performed, explaining that running maturity for the younger athletes was “insane” at the state meet. “Young teams tend to get overhyped at the state championship and go out too hard in the first mile. However, it was evident that they had stayed relaxed through the start and pushed the second half of the race.”
In response to the girls exceeding their sky-high expectations, the boys delivered an equally dominant performance shortly after. Similar to the girls, the boys were the favorites by a staggering amount. While the ladies saw a few individuals emerge in the front, the lead pack in the later race was tight from start to finish. Mimicking their counterpart’s strategy (and success), the boys pushed through the hills when opponents began to slow down. The first Blacksburg runner to finish was freshman Rivers Matthews (16:07, 5th place). Behind him was senior Asher Roach (16:23, 7th place), junior Ben Bailey (16:24, 8th place), senior Miles Wilson (16:30, 10th place), senior Miles Ermann (16:33, 12th Place), senior Deland Washburn (16:35, 12th place), and senior Ryan Bagchi (16:55, 21st place). The Bruins demonstrated their depth with six runners receiving all-state recognition, the most in school history.
One of the guys who exceeded expectations was Ben Bailey (11), who finished third on the team despite being the 7th runner entering the day. When I asked him how he was able to perform so well, he responded “I was just trying to get up the hills without it hurting too much and be able to make a surge at the top if necessary.”
Rivers Matthews (9), the first Blacksburg runner to cross the finish line, harped on the importance of teammates in important races. “I thought of it more as a process with my team. We would go out as hard as we could and push each other, which helped me stay focused and helped our team succeed.”
The combined success of both teams is a testament to the effort and dedication that these athletes have put forth over the last few years. The weekend saw championship streaks extended, school records surpassed, and personal records achieved. Although the season winds down and the runners take a well-deserved break, the coaches are no doubt eyeing a repeat victory next year. For now, the school’s trophy case has two more reminders of what it truly means to be a Bruin.
Written by Miles Ermann
Photography provided by Jim Dickhans
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