THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 26, 1995 TAG: 9510260602
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C8 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
The firing of the starting gun was still minutes away, but for the men in black, there seemed to be little doubt about what was about to take place.
Who's No. 1?'' Jason Arcido screamed into a huddle of his teammates.
``Kellam!'' the group shouted back.
``Who's No. 1?''
``Kellam!''
Introducing the Kellam boys cross country team - talented, confident and, regarding their pre-race chant, absolutely correct.
The Knights bunched four runners in among the top 12 finishers and roared to their fourth straight Beach District cross country title Wednesday at Mount Trashmore.
Kellam's performance was one of several outstanding efforts by the Virginia Beach runners, who capitalized on ideal weather conditions. In the girls race, Bayside put five runners in the top 12 to top regular-season champion Kempsville and defend its 1994 title.
``This was the best district meet performance we've put in in the five years I've been coaching here,'' Bayside's Lanny Doan said.
In the boys individual race, Cox' Kris Beck, ranked fourth in the area, ran the hilly, 3.1-mile course in 16:39 for a 10-second victory over No. 3 Billy Edwards of Tallwood. The time was a personal best for Beck and his first-ever victory over Edwards, who beat Beck by 23 seconds a few weeks ago and was unbeaten during the regular season.
``I took the lead at about the second mile, but Billy was with me the whole race,'' Beck said. ``It was quite a duel.''
No such duel emerged in the girls individual race, where Kempsville's top-ranked Adrienne Parker smoked through Trashmore in a course-record 18:44, 20 seconds faster than Tallwood's Pam Edwards.
Remarkably, the time was 1:13 faster than Parker's district championship time of a year ago.
``I'm a lot more focused this year,'' she said.
The top four teams in both divisions, along with any top-15 individual finishers not on those teams, qualified for next week's Eastern Region meet.
A showdown between Maury's D.J. Williams and Norview's Melvin Williams will highlight the Eastern District cross country meet, which gets underway at 3:15 p.m. at Mount Trashmore.
The Great Bridge boys team, solid favorites to win the Eastern Region title, makes its post-season debut today in the Southeastern District meet at Churchland High. The girls race begins at 4 p.m.; the boys begin at 4:30 p.m. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by VICKI CRONIS, The Virginian-Pilot
At top left, Tallwood's Billy Edwards, right, and Jue Starchia meet
after running. Edwards ran 2nd in the boys race. At top right,
Adrienne Parker is all alone at the girls finish. Runners toil along
the Mount Trashmore ridge, below.
by CNB