Seen in today's Washington Post...HS girls running roughly 2:00/mile pace!
"With all of the experienced runners assembled on the 2.98-mile Burke Lake Park course Thursday, Kvartunas got all she could handle from Lake Braddock freshman Sophie Chase. The duo traded the lead a few times, but Kvartunas outkicked Chase over the final 200 meters to eke out the victory in 5 minutes 52 seconds. Chase was second in 5:54."
Burke Lake is a rare thing in cross country - a consistent gold standard upon which to measure runners from year to year.
The 1-2 runners yesterday each live within a mile of me and ran 14:59- starting to get in fairly fast territory.
A lot of the course is on a road so even weather conditions are less significant in terms of times year to year.
Alan Webb holds the course record in an incredible time 13:57(the road element just had to help him, I would think).
Sharif Karie (a 4:02 high school miler) ran 14:19 and Jim Hill ran 14:26. Webb's time is obviously impressive, but it demonstrates to me why Ritzenhein is one of the best high school XC runners ever - he beat Webb that year by 20 seconds.
By the way, the Oakton coach is one of the better high school coaches in the country, and more importantly, simply a great guy and an asset to the community.
Wow. I ran at Burke Lake (15:10) in the 80s--I can't believe they still run the same course. Does a deep all-time list exist anywhere?
another view wrote:
By the way, the Oakton coach is one of the better high school coaches in the country, and more importantly, simply a great guy and an asset to the community.
How are you able to determine that the Oakton coach is one of the better coaches in the country?
Burke Lake All-Time List. Only updated thru 2005.
It's interesting that only one of the girls' top 26 times was recorded after 1999 (Melissa Dewey in 2004).
I wonder how many of those girls had successful college careers?
Bill B - typical snarky Let's Run response - the Let's Run jealousy rises again.
Trust me - as a good high school runner (sub-4:10 miler) and member of a three time state championship team back in the day, this fellow is good. My father coached state champions before going into business - a great high school coach, too.
So is the coach at TJ. They add a lot to the sport.
It amuses me as to the negativity on this site. I am glad I am professionally accomplished and well off and very educated - must be why I am not envious and insecure.
Bill B's question seemed neutral to me. Seemed like he just wanted to know what made the coach so special. Relax.
Just wondering, but how old are you? 14-18? 18-24? 24-30? 30-40? 40+? I mean no harm. It's just a curious question.
Hard to say if he is one of the best in the country ... not an easy thing to quantify. Speaking only as a parent of one of his first runners at Oakton, I can say he is a very, very good coach. There are other good coaches in Virginia, and the fact that three or four of the AAA teams more or less have passed the AAA boys state championship around over the past ten years lets you know where they are. Tiller lost five of his seven from last year's state championship team and his boys are back in the hunt for this year, so he seems to know how to develop young runners.