By Duncan Nixon
Correspondent
The Jefferson District 5000 meter year-end cross-country meet was held at Panorama Farms on Oct. 23. Panorama Farms is a private property not open to the public for running or walking It is located in northern Albemarle County between Free Union and the Charlottesville-Albemarle airport. It is obviously an excellent venue for scheduled cross-country events. It is the home course of the University of Virginia cross country teams and it was the site of the Division 1 men’s and the Division 1 women’s cross country championships in 2023.
When cross country is run as a team event, as was the case in the Jefferson District meet, the scoring is based on the finishing position of the first five runners of seven for each team – low score wins. The Fluvanna girls had an excellent start in this calculation as senior runner Anna Amato finished third in a time of 18:58 and junior Ruby Frazier was fourth in a time of 19:21.70. Amato was only three and a half seconds off second place. The Fluco girls third, fourth and fifth finishers came in 30, 31 and 35 for a team score of 103. Unfortunately, this was not close as all five of Albemarle High’s runners were in the first 13 to finish. The Fluco girls third fourth and fifth finishers were all underclassman – Lacey Rhodes, a sophomore, Eliana Portman, a junior and Amaris Garcia, a freshman. The Fluco girls finished fourth of seven schools.
On the boys side of the meet, Fluco junior Jack Jeffries was the first Fluco to finish, coming in 16th, in a time of 17:17.40. The other top finishers for the Fluco boys were, freshman Levi Rensch, junior, Jonathan Gretz, freshman Maxwell Cantangello, and sophomore Chase LaRochelle. All of these runners are underclassmen.
Fluco cross country Coach Melanie Kennedy said that all of the Fluco runners in this meet, posted their best time of the year, an amazing accomplishment, no doubt due to the serious competition.
