Washington-Lee’s Isabel Amend approached center stage at the Northern Region cross country championship meet award ceremony before heading in the wrong direction. The junior approached a line of harriers who had already been honored before realizing she needed to accept her medal.
You’ll have to excuse Amend. She’s new to this whole cross country deal.
One week after finishing second at the National District championship meet, Amend, competing in her first cross country campaign, placed fifth at regionals on Nov. 4 at Burke Lake Park. Her time of 18 minutes, 14.1 seconds on a muddy terrain was the second-fastest mark among National District competitors and Amend’s top-15 finish punched her ticket to the state meet. Edison’s Myah Hicks (17:50.7), the National District champion, placed second. Lake Braddock’s Sophie Chase won the region title with a time of 17:38.9.
While Amend is a cross country rookie, success in sports is nothing new. Amend reached the state meet during indoor track and outdoor track seasons during her sophomore year and intended to maintain her level of achievement.
"The thing that was motivating me the most was just keeping up [my] reputation," Amend said. "I made it to states in indoor and outdoor, so I just wanted to get to states in cross country."
Thursday’s race was the first time Amend ran in wet and muddy weather.
"The conditions were less than ideal," she said, "but it was fun."
Amend helped W-L finish ninth as a team with 248 points. Lake Braddock won the region championship with 71 points. Amend’s twin sister, Helen Amend, just missed qualifying for states with a 17th-place finish (18:49.7).
Yorktown finished 14th out of 16 teams. Alice Zytek led the Patriots with a 47th-place finish and a time of 19:40.21.
In the boys race, Yorktown finished 15th out of 16 teams with 406 points. West Potomac won the event with 78 points. Yorktown’s top finisher was Ryan Hart, who came in 35th with a time of 16:22.1. Washington-Lee’s Jordan Ricker finished 99th (17:18.9) and Wakefield’s Filagot Dinku was 108th (17:34.9).
— Jon Roetman
<b>Wakefield Football Concludes Season</b>
The Wakefield football team reached the 20-point mark for the second time this season and rushed for 222 yards in a 41-21 loss to Mount Vernon on Nov. 5. The loss during the regular season finale dropped the Warriors’ record to 1-9.
Drew Powell rushed for 106 yards for Wakefield and Louie Green totaled 89 yards on the ground. Powell completed 8 of 16 passes for 113 yards.
Wakefield’s lone victory was a 20-0 win over Falls Church on Oct. 8.
<b>O’Connell Loses to Paul VI</b>
The Bishop O’Connell football team wrapped up its 2010 season with a 17-15 loss to Paul VI on Nov. 6, dropping its final record to 3-7.
<b>Yorktown Graduate Honored</b>
Matt Stotler, a 2007 Yorktown graduate and senior defensive lineman at Columbia University, garnered CoSIDA/ESPN Academic All-District honors. He holds a 3.37 GPA.