Cross Country
Led By Sullivan, Girls’ Varsity
Zooms to 2^nd Place at States

By Margaret Lipman (November 17, 2005)

The girls’ varsity cross country team followed up their impressive second place finish in the Region B tournament with an even more estimable second place finish in the Division A VHSL State championship last Saturday at Great Meadows. 

The team’s top runner, sophomore Susanna Sullivan, finished third with an outstanding time of 18:58.63, easily making the top-15 All-State team.  Just shy of making the All-State team was her sister, senior Sarah Sullivan, who finished 18th with a time of 20:57.21.  Senior Kaity Hauter (33rd, 21:42.28), junior Elizabeth Fortenberry (44th, 22:14.92), freshmen Haley Turner (50th, 22:34.57) and Leidy Baldwin (55th, 22:46.08), and junior Emma Goetz (69th, 23:10.27) made up the rest of the team, competing against 121 other 5k runners.  In the end, Clarke County High School pulled out a decisive win in the State meet.  After Mason’s second place finish, came Patrick Henry High School in third place and Radford High School in fourth.

Sophomore Susanna Sullivan is cheered on by a large crowd as she heads for a thirdplace individual finish in the VHSL State Championship last Saturday at Great Meadows. Sullivan helped her team to a second place finish behind powerhouse Clarke County. (Photo by Bob Morrison, Bonnie Briar Productions)

Going in to the meet, the Mason team recognized Clarke County as their biggest competition for the race; on November 2, Clarke had also won the Region B tournament to Mason’s second place.

But the Mason girls’ second place finish at States is certainly an accomplishment of which to be proud.  The team finished in fourth place at States last year to another Clarke victory.  But with their times continuing to speed up and the dedication of promising underclassmen runners increasing, the girls’ cross country team is hoping to have an even better chance next year.