Today was the Virginia Catholic State Championship Meet, featuring teams from 12 Catholic schools from around the state, ranging in size from large schools like Bishop O'Connell and Pope Paul VI to small schools like Walsingham and Roanoke Catholic.  On the boys side, St John Paul the Great dominated, winning over Catholic High School of Virginia Beach by 78 points, while Saint Sebastian Academy repeated as girls champs, pulling out a 9 point win over Bishop Ireton.  Seton boys improved on their finish from last year, moving up from 8th to 4th, while the girls dropped one spot from 8th last year to 9th this year.

For the boys, Michael Brand was recognized at the awards ceremony, finishing 13th with a time of 18:17.  Patrick Gross also broke 19 minutes, finishing in 23rd place at 18:55.  As has been the case all season, our 3rd through 6th runners finished in a pretty tight pack, with Max Wilson (19:22), Dan Jackson (19:25), Jerome Kramer (19:43) and Peter Konstanty (19:53) coming in within 31 seconds.  Our 1st-to-5th split (the time between our team's first runner and our fifth runner) was 1 minute 26 seconds, which was the best split for the boys competition.  This helped us score 137 points, tied with Paul VI,  Because of the way cross country is scored, getting your 4th, 5th and even 6th and 7th runners in before other teams get their 3rd, 4th or 5th can really help your team score.  Even though he did not score, our sixth place runner, Peter Konstanty, placed ahead of Paul VI's 6th place runner, which gave us the tiebreaker to claim 4th place.   Not only that, but Peter placed above Paul VI's 4th and 5th place runners, which caused those Paul VI runners' scores to be one point higher.  

For the girls, Lily Griffin and Rose Waldron led the way with times of 24:25 and 24:28, respectively.

Here are the Seton results:

Only one personal best - Ben Ellis - on this course, which was not as hilly as some others but quite challenging.

Here is the breakdown of the boys vs Paul VI for 4th place:

For the girls, Monica and Noemi bettered their time on this course from last year.  Our five-person girls varsity team finished ninth, with Lily, Rose and Monica leading the way followed by Penny Penny and Mary Catherine.

In the JV race, Philomena and Cora finished together, with Noemi just a few steps behind, followed by Colette.

For the boys, Joseph Dwane was our 7th runner in.  Patrick Kay did well in the JV race, placing 14th and getting the 8th best time for a Seton boy, beating out Kieran, Michael Brox and CJ.  Gabriel Dwane and Peter Hartung also bettered their time on this course from last year.  Nick and Joey finished strong, after taking on the difficult Occoquan course.