By: Forest Langhorne
Leesburg, VA- On Thursday, October 20^th, the Tuscarora cross-country team participated in the 2011 Dulles District Championships at the Oatlands Plantation.  When the dust settled and the team’s scores had been totaled, it was determined that not only had 5 runners individually qualified for the regional meet but that both the boy’s and girl’s teams qualified for the meet.
The districts meet was kicked off with the girls race.  Sophomore Natalie Rosas started off fast, leading the team in the first mile and six places back from the lead.  She was closely followed by Junior Jannnen Hermann and Senior Karissa Love, trailed 20 seconds later by Junior Lori Kostka and sophomore Colleen Heberle.  However, by mile two, Rosas had kicked it up and was in second place, which she finished in with a time of 20:07, with Kostka and Love following close behind her with times of 20:31 and 21:16 respectively.  By the end of the race, the girls had qualified for regionals by a point, just barely beating Briar Woods for fourth place.
The guys started off the race with Senior Gabe Wilson leading the pack, but by the first mile had dropped back to fourth, with Senior Sam Rodgers and Sophomore John Dooney running with each other, and Junior Logan Feierbach following four places back.  However, by mile two, Dooney was leading the Huskies with Feierbach following right behind and Rodgers trailing him.  Dooney went on to finish 6^th  in the race with a time of 17:21 and Feierbach and Rodgers finishing 13^th and 14^th respectively, after Rodgers finished strong, passing two people to finish just six seconds behind Feierbach.  Wilson and Sophomore Matt Mettenheimer went on to finish 4^th and 5^th, once again qualifying for regional’s by only ten points. 
When asked about how he felt about the performance of himself and the team, Logan Feierbach stated, “We did incredibly well as a team…I feel that I did as well as I could; I was ranked 27^th going into districts and I finished 13^th, so I’m really happy.”  Sam Rodgers went on to elaborate about the team’s performance, “We did very well as a team, as we were only one of two schools to send both their boys team and their girls team to regionals!”
Many of the regional’s athletes are already expressing hopes for regionals.  “We aren’t that highly ranked for regionals, but I hope we place well as a team and I really want to make it to states.” said Natalie Rosas about her hopes for regionals.  “We still aren’t states ranked, but I want us to do our absolute best at regionals and I want people to advance.” said Feierbach about what he wanted the team to do at regionals.  And considering the training and ranking of our varsity athletes, it’s likely that at one of his hopes will come true.