Staff Report
alexandrianews.org
Titan Shannon Smythe at State Championships. (Photo: Austin Smythe)
On Saturday, T. C. williams High School sophomore Shannon Smythe competed in the Virginia AAA State Championship at Great Meadow. Shannon started off strong running a 5:50 first mile, but the leaders had set a fast pace. She settled in with the second pack of runners and stayed within the top 30-40 runners the whole way. She finished 38th out of 140 runners with a time of 19:49.
The grassy course at Great Meadow was actually in pretty good shape considering several inches of rain over the past few days. The Group AAA Girls was the fifth race of the day so more than 500 runners had already passed through. The course went from soft underfoot to thick, deep mud in several places. According to race officials, the results today were at least 15-20 seconds off last year’s times due to the condition of the course.
Shannon Smythe (Photo: Austin Smythe)
Smythe was the only Titan runner who qualified for this event. While she finished 38th among female AAA runners, she was 58th of the 399 total runners from every high school that was represented.
The Lake Braddock girls won the AAA State championship, with West Springfield finishing third and West Potomac, fourth.
