Most normal high school cross country programs usually at most have one or two state championships. Woodbridge is not a normal Cross Country program. The school now boasts a mighty nine state championship titles, good for second in VHSL Class 6, with two wins back-to-back. As abundant as these state championships are, they do not come easily, every single state win has come off the backs of the hard-working athletes of the program. This year has been particularly taxing for the team due to the immense amount of pressure on them to repeat
Milesplit.com ranked Woodbridge as the preseason favorites, this gave the team a target on their backs the entire season. To compound that, the cross-country state championship team from last year had six out of its seven members return going into this season. Of those, five were seniors. This put a lot of expectations on the group because not only were they expected to repeat, but this would be their last chance to snag another title.
Before the first meet of the year, seniors Owen Renquist and Cameron McDuffie were asked about their thoughts on a potential title defense. Owen Renquist said, “winning would be great” and that winning two state championships would be “a great legacy to leave.” Cameron McDuffie said that the team is “honestly more motivated than last year” and that winning another title would “solidify us as a dynasty.” Both agreed that the pressure of winning another title “doesn’t faze us.”
And faze them it didn’t. Woodbridge put up a dominant near-20-point win at the state meet. This performance wasn’t as easy or effortless as you might assume, there were quite a few complications in their championship run.
At the district meet, the team had four athletes that were unable to compete or finish the race, this forced sophomore alternates Ethan Mishler and Henry McCarthy to step up and not only race but get points for the team. Woodbridge barely escaped the district with a three-point win and faced similar struggles at regionals. At the region meet, Woodbridge had several sick and injured athletes, but even through that, the team persevered to pick up a two-point win in a nail-biter of a race. All this turmoil ended up not mattering as the stars aligned on the morning of November 16th, as all the athletes were healthy and were able to display what they could really do.
Not only were the races leading up to states hard, but the road to even get there was probably worse. These athletes had to train in blistering heat, run every single day from June to November, run before school starts, and then run again at night.
Despite the challenging road, the athletes were all smiles after the win. In follow up interviews after the victory Senior Owen Renquist said that it was “amazing to see all their hard work payoff” and that “celebrating with the team was really fun”. Senior Cameron McDuffie stated that the win was “unreal” and that going back-to-back has been a “goal for us.” He added that the team showed the state that they weren’t “one hit wonders.” This team proved that they weren’t a group of Vanilla Ice’s with their second state win in a row.
Through all this season’s ups and downs, this cross-country team persevered and showed they had the championship DNA of a true high school sports dynasty. From arduous work every day of the summer, a tough road to even get to the state meet, and the immense pressure of the expectations of the running community weighing on them, they weathered it all and showed the entire state that they were better than anybody else.
