Running fast, easy

Ben Dejarnette turned in another dominating win in the Central Region Cross Country tournament yesterday at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville.

The Atlee senior blew home in 15 minutes, 49 seconds - 23 seconds ahead of runner-up Ted Richardson. Dejarnette's confident performance has become typical of his senior season. A year ago, he said he based his regional race on the pack leader. This year, Dejarnette dictated the race from the front.

"The first mile, especially, I was just trying to stay under control," he said. "I started to ratchet it up a little bit in the second mile, that's where I got my gap. And then the third mile, I was able to just get up the hill and finish off the race, try not to let it get close."

The Raiders made a strong challenge for the team title and were tied with region champions Douglas Freeman through the first four runners. Freeman fifth man Carson Hogge finished 22nd to give the Rebels the Central Region title by seven points, 61-68.

Senior Alec Ward led Freeman to the finish, finding an extra surge to finish third ahead of Colonial District champion Roger Cooke of Hermitage.

"I was really excited about how the race went," Ward said. "Right from the start I knew that it was going to be really close, we were going to have a great race, because I saw all of my teammates move up to the front pack, we all stuck together. We really fed off each other and were really able to push each other up to the front. That's what we've been hoping to do all season and we all clicked on the same day today."

Atlee's team also advances to the Group AAA tournament next Saturday at Great Meadows. Dejarnette said having a strong team around him has made him that much more successful individually.

"When your teammates are responding well to the training and you're doing the same training, it just gives you confidence that you're going to be able to run fast," he said. "They push me in workouts just like I push them and then we've developed as a unit more than any other team I've been on. That makes it nice, to be able to have the individual success and the team success right with it."

RESULTS

Team: 1. Douglas Freeman (DF) 61; 2. Atlee (A) 68; 3. Hermitage (H) 90; 4. Maggie Walker (MW) 115; 5. Deep Run (DR) 123; 6. Midlothian (Mid) 198; 7. Manches ter (Man) 215; 8. Lee-Davis (LD) 215; 9. Cosby (Cos) 221; 10. James River (JR) 243; 11. Thomas Dale (TD) 248.

Individual : 1. Ben Dejarnette (A) 15:49; 2. Ted Richardson (JR) 16:12; 3. Alec Ward (DF) 16:31; 4. Roger Cooke (H) 16:37; 5. Eric Williamson (TD) 16:42; 6. Booth Hornsby (DR) 16:44; 7. Justin Kendall (LCB) 16:45; 8. Silas Frantz (DF) 16:46; 9. Wes Steenburgh (A) 16:49; 10. Dupree Bostic (H) 16:50; 11. Peter Askin (MW) 16:51; 12. Greg Kaczka (DR) 16:53; 13. Evan Niciphor (Cos.) 16:53; 14. Kyle Ward (DF) 16:55; 15. Cody Snyder (LD) 16:56.