Ever wonder what it would be like to win a county, conference, or state championship?
Photo by Ted Plunkett, Milestat.com
Megan Fitzpatrick doesn't. That's because last fall, the Bishop O'Connell senior had a breakout season and won the Arlington County, WCAC, and Virginia Independent School championships, in addition to picking up wins at the Oktoberfest Invitational and the Maymont XC Festival Gold Division race. This year, Fitzpatrick is in good position to sweep the postseason once more, but her WCAC foes aren't going to make things easy.
One such foe is Chinyelu Asher, who was a blessing to a struggling Holy Cross squad last year after she transferred midseason from track powerhouse Eleanor Roosevelt and placed second at the Maryland-Washington Private School State Championships, defeating her closest WCAC competitor, Archbishop Carroll's Ashley Seymour, by over a minute. And Seymour is no slouch; one of the area's top 800-meter specialists, she placed second at last year's WCAC Cross Country championships, losing to Fitzpatrick by a relatively small margin of 17 seconds.
Teams to Beat
Bishop O'Connell is about as strong of a team as Fitzpatrick is individually. Last year the Knights, like their star runner, swept the Arlington County, WCAC, and VIS State Championships, and look poised to do it again as they only lose one of their top five. Alex Nihill and Michelle Van Horn both had excellent freshman campaigns last year and will help add firepower to O'Connell's squad.
Other teams worth watching are Good Counsel, which loses but one runner from their team which placed third at last year's WCAC championships, and Paul VI, which returns an excellent number one runner in junior Lizzie Greene.
