Young, Bowles win records for Lakeside

As we put the fall sports season behind us and move indoors for basketball and wrestling, the final postseason awards for our fall teams has come to an end.

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All-county teams for softball, volleyball and football have been named. That leaves only cross country.

The sport sounds fairly simple. Stand in a spot, then run into the woods when the gun goes off. About 20 minutes later, run back out of the woods, cross the finish line, grab some Powerade and call it a day.

Of course, that doesn't take into account the months of preparation and work that goes into that 3.1-mile race. The mental part of the sport is one of the toughest elements an athlete can face.

That being said, I'm glad I don't have to sit down and chose who will be on the cross country all-county team. No, I'll let the stopwatch make those decisions.

Fortunately, area schools now have a level playing field when it comes to cross country times. Blanchard Woods Park opened this fall, and nearly every team in the county spent plenty of time on the rigorous cross country course.

So for comparison purposes, our list this year concentrates on the top 30 times run at Blanchard Woods Park during the several meets run there this year.

Augusta Prep's cross-country squad created a course on its campus, so the Cavalier runners didn't make it out to Blanchard Woods Park this year. Their top runners, Jim Hull (16:50) and Maryclaire Regan (21:03) led the way for Augusta Prep.

For the rest of the county, the numbers don't lie. Lakeside swept the boys and girls individual titles with the efforts of Atom Young and Anna Bowles. Those two own the boys and girls course records.

Greenbrier, who holds five of the top 10 spots in both boys and girls standings, appears to be the strongest team overall.