MHS harriers compete at state meet

Eleven Middlesex High School (MHS) runners — six boys and five girls — participated in the Class One state cross country meet Saturday at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. This is reportedly the first year in recent memory that MHS has sent runners from both girls and boys full teams to the state meet.

Girls results

The Middlesex girls cross country team finished in 11th place at the state meet with 234 points. The top three girls teams were Auburn, first, 89 points; Mathews, second, 94 points; and George Wythe, third,  94 points. (In cross country, the lower the points score, the better a team’s performance.)

Times (and where they placed) for the five Middlesex runners participating in the state cross country meet Saturday at Virginia Tech include, girls, in alphabetical order, Kyla Blazek, 31:02, 91st; Rylee Buck, 24:01, 36th; Sarah Laster, 30:03, 87th; Makayla Moore, 25:13, 59th; and Aleena Reza, 25:32, 63rd. A Middlesex girls runner that had been running in the Charger girls number one spot did not run, due to injury.

Boys results

The Middlesex boys cross country team finished in fourth place at the state meet with 234 points. The top three boys teams were Parry McClure, first, 29 points; Eastern Montgomery, second, 61 points; and Mathews, third, 89 points.

Times (and where they placed) for the six Middlesex runners participating in the state cross country meet Saturday at Virginia Tech include, boys, in alphabetical order, Chris Butler, 19:46, 60th; Thomas Dobb, 17:50, 19th; Dylan Janisko, 20:59, 86th; Tanner Janisko, 19:56, 65th; Darius Jones, 19:43, 58th; Cameron Lambert, 17:01, seventh; and Gunnar Marston, 17:50, 19th.

Coach comments

“I am super proud of all of my runners this year. We had a combination for girls and boys of 30 runners. Cross country is not an easy sport, but these athletes come out every day pushing to become better, faster runners.

“Even if a runner didn’t make it to state this year, they were an important part of the team in working hard to push those ahead to run even faster. There were many of these runners that didn’t wait until the season to start running. Many of the boys got together over the summer and on weekends. This is what helped lead to the success they had. It’s a pretty amazing accomplishment to be fourth in the state out of all of the single A schools in the entire state of Virginia.

Regional meet

Earlier this month at the regional cross country meet, the MHS boys were regional runners-up and the MHS girls captured third place. Middlesex runners named to the All-Region team and medaling include, girls, in alphabetical order, Rylee Buck and Iyana Jenkins; and boys, in alphabetical order, Thomas Dobb, Cameron Lambert and Gunnar Marston.