Savage leads New Kent at BRD meet

By Alan Chamberlain | November 1, 2012 3:34 pm

Above, New Kent’s Austin Savage puts on a finishing kick to place second overall in Bay Rivers competition. At bottom, New Kent’s Danielle Holzhauser (above) sprints past Lafayette’s Morgan Crookston as the pair race to the finish line in the Bay Rivers District cross country meet. Click on Photo Gallery for more photos.

Alan Chamberlain Photos

Led by Austin Savage’s second place overall finish, New Kent’s Trojans qualified for this week’s Region I cross country meet by capturing third at last Thursday’s Bay Rivers District meet.

Savage ran 16:26.6 over William & Mary’s 3.1-mile course, falling just short in a final kick to overtake the meet’s overall winner, Lafayette’s Jason Menzies. Menzies finished less than a second ahead of Savage in 16:25.7.

Savage had a little too much ground to make up in the final stretch run after trailing early. At the one-mile mark, he held 11th position, but had closed to the number six spot by the time the lead runners reached two miles. At the end, it came down to Savage and Menzies, but with less than 200 yards to go, Menzies held a 30-yard lead on the fast closing Savage. Lafayette’s Kurtis Steck placed a distant third in 16:40.

New Kent scored 103 points to place third overall. Lafayette won with 35 followed by Jamestown with 66. York took fourth with 119.

Andrew Carlin became the second Trojan to cross the finish line, placing 19th overall in 17:46.7. Tanner Smith ran 20th in 17:55.2 followed by Tyler Brightwell (28th, 18:08.3) and Micah Scorsone (34th, 18:19.7) to complete New Kent’s top five scoring positions. Chris Rolince placed 42nd in 18:50.8 followed by Ben Johnston (45th, 18:56.4).

By finishing in the top 15, Savage qualified for the All-Bay Rivers team.

New Kent’s Lady Trojans finished ninth overall with 222 points. Grafton won the team title with 26 followed by Jamestown’s 71.

Danielle Holzhauser posted the best performance for New Kent, placing 25th overall in 22:40.4. Others scoring for the Lady Trojans included Heather Sledd (34th, 23:23.3), Alexys Gray (52nd, 24:52.7), Megan Turner (53rd, 25:19), and Lynsey Harris (58th, 26:30.1). Kelsey DeHart placed 64th in 28:08.5 followed by Talia Hohman (67th, 29:50.4).