For many local teams, the cross country season will begin on Friday at Loriella Park in Spotsylvania County at the 22nd annual Chancellor Invitational.
As of yesterday, 25 teams were entered, including most of the Battlefield and Commonwealth district schools. Included in that group is Mountain View, whose boys are the defending Group AAA champions.
Another top-flight Group AAA team that will be taking part is Midlothian, whose girls finished second and boys third at last year's state meet.
Chancellor coach Nate Brooks said he's expecting there to be more Group AAA teams than AA teams this year. It's a good early test for the teams competing.
"For a majority, it's a meet to see where we're at, to set an early time" he said. "Some teams use it for training.
"It's also a good way to get your young [runners] a chance."
Friday's schedule will start at 9 a.m. with the boys' varsity race, followed by the girls' varsity race at 9:30. There will be junior varsity boys and girls races at 10 and 10:30 a.m., respectively.
Brooks said having the race on the Chargers' home course isn't really a big advantage, because many of the Battlefield and Commonwealth teams and runners train on it during the summer and the season.
He added that some out-of-area teams also come from time to time because it's a "challenging course."
Some of the Group AA teams that will be running also get a chance to run the course they may see in the Region I meet later in the season, while Group AAA teams get a chance to get a feel for each other.
Brooks said they try to make the meet not just a race, but also a good experience for the runners and the spectators.
"It's not just come, get on the line, race and go home," he said. "There's a lot going on around the race."
They offer food for the runners and spectators and despite much of the course being in the woods, there are many good areas to watch and cheer on the runners.
There will have to be new individual champions in both varsity races this year.
Defending boy's winner Colin Mearns (16:08.9) of Jamestown graduated last year. However, Gabe Fisher (16:53.1) of Riverbend, the top local finisher, will be on hand to try and improve on his fifth-place showing.
On the girls side, George Mason did not enter the meet this year, so 2009 winner Natalie Young (19:50.9), who is a junior, will not get a chance to defender her title. Last year's top local girl runner was third-place finisher Kaitlyn Davis (20:22.2) of Mountain View, but she has graduated.
--Tom Leiss