50th annual VISAA Cross Country Championships
(Fork Union) 293 runners representing more than 30 teams competed in the Division 2 (schools with 160 or less HS males) on Friday at Fork Union. Navigating the crowded field and maintaining the pace proved a challenge for most of the Caisson runners. Avery Romp (the season’s Most Valuable Runner) and Doug Marsh rounded the first mile mark at a respectable 6:01, but were unable to sustain the pace and finished in 20:10 and 20:33, good enough for 76th and 96th places. Evan LaQuaglia finished in 157th with a time of 21:56.
Fourth place finisher Cody Chapple ended the season on a high note with a PR of 22:51(his fifth PR of the season) in which he shaved off almost five minutes from beginning of the season to the end. Chapple was awarded the team’s Most Improved Runner award last week at the Sports Banquet. Eighth grader Gareth Romp also ran a PR of 24:14 and scored in fifth place– quite an accomplishment having a runner as young as eighth grade score for a XC team.
Rounding out the team were Camren Rager who could not repeat his PR performance of23:07 at the VIC Conference Championship, slipping by more than 3 minutes. Final Caisson runner James Beard, as well could not pass his PR from Conference of 24:30 and slipped back almost 2 minutes. They have many accomplishments to be proud of this season and will make the most of them next season.
