Madison High School sophomore Anna Stone held off a pair of sprinting rivals enroute to an 11th-place finish and the best 5-kilometer time of her career Saturday at the Glory Days Grill Invitational in Centreville.
Her time of 19 minutes, 8 seconds smashed her previous record by 14 seconds. It also ensured James Madison would finish in 18th place, 20 points ahead of nearby rival Herndon (433 to 453) even as the Hornets' Carolyn Hennessey placed second overall in the race.
Stone tried to get in front of the 187-runner field early, she said, since she knew some narrow spots would inhibit her chances to pass runners later in the race. While Stone's sprint at the finish gained her just a second of time, it allowed the Warhawks to gain two spots in their overall placement.
"I hadn't seen the course before, so I wasn't quite sure where it was finishing," Stone said. "I could tell that the girl behind me was catching up on me at the end so I just sprinted as fast as I could. That was a PR for me, and I was really happy to get a medal."
Medals were awarded to the top 15 finishers in each race.
Madison High School sophomore Christina Galiano's time of 19:32 gave the Warhawks two runners in the top 20. The rest of Madison's female runners finished in the second half of the top-tier varsity race.
Stone, who's aiming for a berth at the state championship meet later this year, said the deep field made it tough for the team to measure itself against schools it will face in the district and regional meets.
"A lot of teams were here from other regions, and a lot of teams from our region were not here," she explained. "But it was fairly easy compared to past races, and we got a lot of PRs as a whole and our team is steadily improving."
The boys' team used an average time of 17:18—lifted by Joseph Galiano, who finished 27th at 16:34—to finish in the top half of the 32-schools in the seeded boys varsity race.
In the varsity team competition, Potomac Falls ran away with the boys' title, easily outpacing second-place Robinson. The major story of the girls' competition was the race for first place between Jefferson and Bishop O'Connell. Jefferson (91) placed five runners in the top-40 to edge O'Connell (92).
