New Balance Ocean State Invitational 2008

Bromfield's Emily Jones kick started her invitational season with a dominating victory in the Girls Championship Race at the Ocean State Cross Country Invitational in Rhode Island last weekend. It was the first major race for Jones, whom is eyeing a return trip to San Diego in December.

Highlights and Results from: NB Ocean State Inv. (RI), McDonald's XC Festival (VA), McQuaid Inv. (NY), Roy Griak Inv. (MN), Stanford Inv. (CA), Carlisle Inv. (PA), Jim Danner Inv. (OR), Culver Inv. (IN), Palatine Inv. (IL), LoboCat Inv. (CO), Albuquerque Academy Inv. (NM) & Midwest Meet of Champs. (OH) The best weekend yet.  That's an easy way to describe this weekend's national cross country action.  Most of the top teams in the land took part in an invitational, with some teams coming up very big.  US#5 York (IL) kicked off their season by winning the Palatine Invitational, one of the big highlights of the weekend thus far.

MQUAID: FM girls over Burnt Hills 27-61, Burnt Hills boys over FM 80-88. OCEAN STATE: North Shore girls 3rd, Greenwich 4th WARWICK: Suffern boys over Warwick, Warwick girls over Pope John....more to come....

Liana Epstein leads the Lake Braddock girls to the Ocean State Invite in Rhode Island this weekend against a large field of top teams in the Northeast and New York including NE #2 Glastonbury (CT). (Photo by Ted Plunkett) While a large majority of Virginian high school cross country teams will be competing at Maymont on Saturday, there are also many other meets where teams will be racing at this weekend in-state and out-of-state. Lake Braddock is traveling the furthest as the Bruins head to the New Balance Ocean State Invitational in Warwick, Rhode Island. The Lake Braddock girls, ranked #5 in Virginia, will be competing against some top teams in the Northeast region and from the state of New York including NE #2 Glastonbury of Connecticut. Thomas Jefferson may have avoided direct competition last week at Oatlands having their "A" teams compete in the "B" division, but will not be avoiding top ranked squads this week at the Carlisle Invitational in Pennsylvania as the #3 ranked boys and girls team in Virginia will race against the top 6 ranked boys teams and top 5 ranked girls teams in Pennsylvania. Thomas Porter and Kaitlyn Davis of Mountain View will look to invade Maryland on Saturday and seize first place finishes on the home course for Maryland State Championships at Hereford for the Bull Run Invite. Porter's likely top competition will be Graham Bazell of Altholton High School in Maryland, who was the only runner willing to attempt to challenge Andrew Colley last week at William & Mary. Davis was the top Virginia finisher at Oatlands and will look to pick up her second major invitational victory this season after starting the season with a first place finish at Chancellor. Many teams in the Southwest portion of the state will be headed to Bristol Cross just across the state border in Tennessee. Almost the entire Eastern Region will be at the Chesapeake Invitational to get an opportunity to preview the regional championships course at Bells Mill Park.

The 16th Carlisle Invitational is shaping up to be quite a show this weekend.  On the boys side the top 6 ranked teams in the state will be in attendance, and top 5 for the girls.

McQuaid, Suffolk Coaches, and Ocean State lead the way this weekend as ArmoryTrack.com spreads out and tries to cover as much as possible.  FM vs. Burnt Hills at McQuaid should be about as exciting as it gets.  The Hoffman Invitationl at St. Lawrence shoudl be a great NCAA DIII meet as it previews the natioal qualifier course.

  Christopher Hunt and myself did a bit of traveling last year to bring you some of the best coverage of track and field and XC we could provide.  This year will be even better.  Last weekend we opened up with Chris at The Red Raider Run in Rockland County on Friday.  The next day we were at The Big Red Invitational in Somers