Friday, September 23, 2011
More than competitors - they're cross country contenders
Five young athletes have helped Christiansburg become an established cross country title threat.
Allison Sherman
Eliza Eaton
Cassie Linkous
Megan Burns
Rachel Bishop
Ray Cox covers recreational, high school and college sports in the New River Valley. If you have information you’d like featured,
e-mail ray.cox@roanoke.com or call 381-1672
Ray Cox
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CHRISTIANSBURG -- A portion of the Christiansburg High girls cross country team was departing the high school grounds and turning on the shoulder of Franklin Street one recent chilly afternoon. Suddenly overhead there appeared a pair of swiftly moving military jet aircraft flying relatively low.
No, the girls weren't outrunning the jets.
But the training exercise for the aviators did serve as an interesting symbolic companion piece to work done by the runners below preparing for their next meet.
For the first time in a long time, there is a feeling that the Blue Demons girls program is about to take wing.
"I think we've really made the commitment this year to work our way up in the ranks to hopefully be on the fringe or among the best teams in the state," Christiansburg coach Shane Guynn said.
Christiansburg is already among the best teams in the state by virtue of membership in the Group AA River Ridge District. Between defending state champion Hidden Valley and Blacksburg, those two have won the state or been runner-up each of the past five years. Montgomery County rival Blacksburg won three in a row 2006-08 and was runner-up twice more in 2010 and 2005.
The goal now for Christiansburg is to be among the best programs as a peer, not an also-ran.
Nobody knows that rivalry with the Bruins and other district members any better than Guynn, who once ran for Christiansburg.
"Being in the same district with Blacksburg and Hidden Valley, it's sink or swim with them," he said. "We've decided to try to start swimming a little bit."
Christiansburg got wet with a top-five all classifications preseason state rank by milestat.com and have leveled off at No. 7 this week. Only the Bruins at No. 3 are ranked higher among AA schools. When the first state rankings came out, Guynn complimented team members but warned them against getting too carried away.
"He said, 'Use it,'" said Eliza Eaton, the only senior among Christiansburg top-five runners. "This is where people think we are, now let's go out and show it. This isn't exactly where we are, but we have to be the proof now."
Christiansburg's runners have lived up to the challenge, one benchmark being a fifth-place finish at the huge Knights Crossing at Cave Spring Sept. 11. The Demons trailed only third-place Jefferson Forest and fourth-place Blacksburg among state AA teams.
Eaton zipped through the 5K with an eighth place time of 19 minutes, 30.22 seconds. Teammates Allison Sherman (31), Megan Burns (42), Cassie Linkous (50), and Rachel Bishop (59) were Christiansburg's next finishers in the multi-classification and multi-state field.
Of that group, Sherman and Linkous are juniors, Burns is a sophomore, and Bishop a freshman. Because of how young Bishop is, Guynn confessed to being worried about how she would react to competition with older and stronger girls. He's been happily surprised at her poise.
"She's done just fine," he said.
Bishop has further helped the program by being one of its many recruiters. She's gone to her friends with her sales pitch for cross country.
"I've brought in eight, 10 others maybe," she said.
Guynn talks about his team being committed. This group is committed. Members of the high school's distance running community have become seriously hopped up about the future. Out for the team this year, boys and girls, are no less than 62 runners. To put that large number in perspective, the program is up from 40 in 2010.
The sport's appeal sells itself for some of these girls.
"I can't explain why I started running," Linkous said. "But once you start, you just want to keep going."
