Clarke Runners Dominate
Biddle-Snead’s Win Leads Sea of Orange
By Greg Brill
The Winchester Star
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THE PLAINS — They didn’t get 15. Not even 17.
But 20 points will do just fine for the two-time Group A state champion Clarke County High School boys’ cross country team.
With junior Simon Biddle-Snead heading the sea of orange and repeating his state title, the Eagles placed four runners in the top five and six in the first 11 Saturday afternoon at the Group A meet to post the best score the state has seen in 30 years with their 20 points.
So dominant was Clarke that its seventh man finished two spots from making the all-state team, coming in 17th.
In winning Group A for the second straight year, the Eagles made many reach for the record books. Rappahannock County’s meet standard of 17 set in 1971 is still safe. But the 20 Clarke put up is the lowest — for any classification — since Handley won the Group AA meet with 20 back in 1975.
The Eagles have won three titles total (1999 and 2004 were the others) and Clarke swept the team championships for the second straight year. Clarke’s girls also won big, posting 38 points.
“It’s nice having two teams up on the podium again,” Clarke coach Nancy Specht said. “You know, everything hinges on what you do the second week of November. And they proved to everybody that they’re winners and they’re strong — that they deserve to be up there.”
Early on, Nelson County sophomore Josh Morris ran with Clarke’s pack on Great Meadow’s 5K course. Auburn senior Jeff Floyd stayed with the group throughout and kept the Eagles from sweeping the top four spots.
But coming down the final straightaway, Biddle-Snead had no competition. With a winning time of 16 minutes and 9 seconds, Biddle-Snead missed the state mark by two seconds set by Central-Woodstock’s Adam Bennett in 1994.
Next to cross was Clarke’s the lone senior, Michael Leonard (16:29). The pack was interupted when Floyd grabbed third, but junior Bryan Broy (16:45) placed fourth, freshman Ben Veilleux fifth (16:49), and freshman Chris York eighth (17:00) to complete the Eagles’ run to another championship.
“I’m really happy with the way I ran and I’m extremely happy with the way the team ran,” Biddle-Snead said. “The team is much more important than anything I can do. Those guys have improved so much. I’m really lucky to run with guys like that.”
Of course, Biddle-Snead’s teammates probably feel the same way about him.
“It would have been nice for him to get the state record, but no one was there to push him,” Specht said. “But you always know he looks good when he finishes.”
In 2004, Clarke beat Patrick Henry-Glade Spring by 20 points. Patrick Henry was second again, but well back with 90. Radford got third with 132 points.
For the last 17 Group A meets, Region B has dominated. Not since J.J. Kelly did it in 1988, has any team outside of the region come away with the top prize. Since 1981, Region B has won the meet 24 of 25 times. During that span, Central won five straight state titles. Brentsville and Stonewall also had good runs.
But this Clarke team might be the best ever. This group of Eagles were so good that two returning runners that had a counting score among Clarke’s top five at the state meet last season could not crack the lineup this year in the postseason.
Leonard ran seventh for Clarke last season. But as the Eagles’ most improved runner, he ran third at both the Region B and Bull Run District meets and got second in his final high school race.
“I was planning on a third,” Leonard said. “It feels really good. We packed pretty well.”
“He was like the Mad Hatter, looking down at his watch,” Specht said. “It was like, ‘Mike, watch what’s in front of you.’”
Everyone else had to watch and learn with plenty of orange jerseys in the front. The Eagles even had a shakeup in finish. Veilleux was second at both the district and region meet, but was only Clarke’s fourth runner at state. Up stepped Broy, who placed eighth at the region meet. York became a counting score for the first time in the postseason, taking junior Daniel Callan’s spot. Callan had been in the top five in his first two races before dropping to 17th Saturday.
“If one guy has a bad race, it doesn’t faze us,” Broy said. “Like last week, I didn’t run up to par. I just felt like today I had to redeem myself. It says a lot about the team that no matter what happens, we still run well.”
The Eagles had six on the all-state team, with sophomore Joe Racer finishing 11th (17:07).
When the team begins practice next August in its quest to three-peat, only Leonard won’t be around. A couple more new faces could crack the lineup, just like Veilleux and York did this season.
Johnson-Williams’ eighth grade team scored 24 points to win their middle school league meet.
So with so much talent around, is it time to label the Eagles with the D word.
“I wouldn’t call us a dynasty yet,” Biddle-Snead said. “I think it takes a good decade before you could call us a dynasty. But we only lose Mike Leonard. It’s looking good for us.”
And that’s bad news for a long time for the rest of Group A.
