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Cross country notepad Date published: 9/7/2010 By Tom Leiss Coming into Saturday's Chancellor Invitational, Colonial Forge's boys and girls teams were already a favorite to win the Commonwealth District and Northwest Region, and contend in the state. Saturday's first-place sweep did nothing to hamper those thoughts as the Eagles finished ahead of top-ranked Midlothian in both races. Colonial Forge coach Michael Porter said that both Trojans' teams were missing a top runner, so that might have had some effect on their result. "We weren't expecting to win," he said, "but when we found out they weren't going to be at full strength, we knew it was a possibility." A week earlier, the Eagles' girls finished second and boys fifth at the Great Meadow Invitational. Porter said it was a good showing by the girls, but the boys didn't do as well as expected. The coaches worked the boys hard during the week leading up to the Chancellor meet and made sure they knew why. An emphasis was put on making sure the boys followed through on the game plan that was worked out beforehand, unlike at the meet a week earlier. "They all know they are only going to get out of it what they put into it," Porter said, adding that the hard work they put in during the week showed on Saturday. "We told them after they finished, 'Welcome to your season.'" Even with the girls team's good results in both meets, Porter said individually senior Hannah Dickinson was disappointed with her 32nd-place showing at the Great Meadow meet (20:57). She improved her time on Saturday to 20:41.8 and finished as the Eagles' second-place finisher--fifth overall. Porter said the team's ultimate goal this season is to focus on the state meet and do what they have to do to get there. The solid early results are good, but what is important to Porter during the weeks leading up to the postseason is that the teams follow the plan set before each race and meet their goals. "We are right where we expected to be at this point," he said. --Tom Leiss
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