ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: BOYS CROSS COUNTRY TEAM

Last Friday, a historic Cross Country season ended for the Dominion Titans as they finished in second place, becoming the first state runner up in school history, behind only the Loudon Valley Vikings, who is ranked number one in the nation.

The Titans accomplished a lot, not only individually but as a team as well. Dominion is one of only three teams in the state at any level with seven runners under seventeen minutes for the 5k race this season. The team’s top five finishers were separated by only fifteen seconds.

When commenting on the historic performance and season, head coach Jon Wesoky raved about the Titan’s ability to run as a team, in a sport that has so much to do with individual performance, “As a team, what I will remember most is how this team ran as a pack and won as a team all year.   Winning the school’s first ever Invitational title in September and finishing on the podium at States shows how great this group was from start to finish.”

There were some great individual performances that built up to the second-place finish: Junior Nick Vandenheede led the way in 20th place, followed by Junior Omar Aoughab, Sophomore Ian Whitfield, Senior Harry Challis, Senior Harrison Helmich, Sophomore Luke Miller, and Junior Jarod Johnson.

“At the State meet, our two seniors, Harry and Harrison, worked together in the last 1/2 mile to pass over 15 people each which gave us the points we needed to finish where we did…a great way for them to end their HS XC careers.”

Along with the excellent performances from the seniors and the other runners, Wesoky discussed how this team and program should remain successful for years to come. The team returns sixteen of their top twenty runners for the 2018-2019 season, with many also running winter and spring track and field, so it is pretty clear that the future of cross country looks very promising for Dominion.