The county’s best

By Corine Gatti

Published: September 20, 2008

FISHERSVILLE — The Fort Defiance girls’ cross country team and the Robert E. Lee boys’ squad took first-place at the Augusta County Invitational at Wilson Memorial High School on Saturday morning.
It was a day packed with tents, T-shirts and celebration for Fort, who as a team, averaged 22-minutes, 8-seconds during the 5k run over hilly terrain. Senior Whitney Fulk led the Indians and captured first place crossing the line at 19:57.
“It’s a different team from what we had last year. I lost about three of our top five. The varsity girls that we got here today, about half of them, this is their first year,” said Fort coach Dave Stewart. “But Whitney Fulk has been one of the top ones in this race all through her career but has never been able to pull out and actually come out with the win. So today, that was super for her.”
Fulk said that she had an extra push from Waynesboro freshmen Meredith Figgatt.
“I heard a few things about her,” Fulk said. She is an insane runner and has great future in front of her. She was right there with me until the end. I didn’t think I would win. In the last 100 or 150 meters, I think that’s when I pulled away from her.”
Figgatt finished second at 20:13. The course ended on hill, but that did not bother the Little Giants.
“Really, the hardest thing I was worried about was tripping over a rock or something. I liked doing this because of all the people that compete,” Figgatt said.
Giants coach Julie Stevens said that she knew she had a good team.
“I am very proud of them, and what Meredith has done,” Stevens said. “I knew we would do very well both our girls and our boys. I was not surprised.”
Fort’s Faith Lucas placed third, Stonewall’s Tracey Swope finished fourth, the Blue’s Whitney Fitzgerald came in fifth, Fort’s Annie Shreckhise came in sixth, the Little Giants’ Vicki Andersen finished seventh and Buffalo Gap’s Laura Knott finished eighth.
The Giants’ Edward Ennis had a successful run finishing fifth at 17:35, Wilson Memorial’s Quinton Knott followed with 17:58 and teammate Michael Barnes recorded a time of 18:03 for seventh.
“This was my best time,” Ennis said. “It was a little tough towards the end because the last hill. It feels really good.”
Although Waynesboro had a solid showing for the boys, the Leemen were the head of the pack as a team with a total time of 1:29:23. Lee’s Andrew Lightner placed second, Zach Kearney was third and Dillon Sowers placed fourth.
“We were confident that we would pull ahead of [Fort] Defiance,” Kearney said. “We run together a lot, so I think that helped us.”
Topping the boys’ individual race was Stuarts Draft senior and defending Southern Valley District champion Lucas Moffett at 16:51.
“It feels good,” Moffett said. “But cross country is team sport and we run as a team.”
For the girls varsity run Stonewall Jackson ranked second, Stuarts Draft third, Waynesboro fourth, Robert E. Lee fifth, Riverheads placed sixth, Page County seventh and Wilson Memorial placed eighth.
For the boys, Fort Defiance ranked second, Buffalo Gap third, Wilson Memorial fourth, Stonewall Jackson fifth, Waynesboro sixth, Page County seventh, Stuarts Draft eighth and Parry McCluer placed ninth.
In the JV races, Fort’s Allison Alexander finished first for the girls and her teammate Charlie Pruitt crossed the stripe first for the boys. For the B-squad, Draft’s Emily Wilson placed for the girls and Kelvin Vega-Gomez of Fort came in first in the boys heat.
In the girls middle school 3K run, Katy Patterson of Parry McCluer placed first and teammate Sam Armstrong topped first in the boys event.