Nagging leg problems have slowed Washington-Lee girls cross-country runner Kallie Sims down in recent weeks. But at the National District championships last Thursday afternoon, the junior, working through the aches and pains, ground her way to a hard-fought first-place finish on the 2.9-mile Burke Lake course. Sims finished with a winning time of 19 minutes, 26 seconds, ahead of runner-up Emily Hellmuth (19:52) of Yorktown.
"I've been hurting a lot in practice recently and haven't been running as many miles," said Sims.
But she found her rhythm at districts.
"I sort of pulled away halfway through," said Sims, who last year finished 12th at the district championships. "I felt really good, and decided to keep the pace. "[Capturing first] was a goal of mine. I always had it in the back of my mind, but didn't take [winning] for granted."
Washington-Lee coach Bill Findler said Sims has shown dramatic improvement this season.
"Kallie's come a long way since last year at this time," said Findler. "She just works extremely hard. She has been working hard since the beginning of July, and that's why she's run faster."
With Sims leading the charge, the Generals captured the girls team title at districts with 29 points, besting both second-place Yorktown (48 points) and third-place Wakefield (103).
Four of the district race's top five finishers were W-L runners — Sims (first), Karin Ohman (third, 20:14), Lane Wollereton (fourth, 20:19), and Sarah Weber (fifth, 20:24). Also for the Generals, Virginia Taylor (16th), Laura Strehle (19th), and Jennie Eherenhalt (20th) put forth solid races.
Yorktown had six runners finish in the top 15 — Hellmuth (second), Emma Causey (ninth place), Brianna Arthurs (11th), Amy Wilcox (12th), Erin McCracken (14th), and Suzanne Elliot (15th).
Wakefield's Jasmine Riley finished sixth overall.
LIKE THE WASHINGTON-LEE GIRLS, the W-L boys also finished first in the team standings. The Generals (27 points) finished ahead of second-place Mount Vernon (58), third-place Stuart (65), and fourth-place Yorktown (99).
Washington-Lee had five runners finish in the top 10. Chris Tyson (16:19), Matt Dinan (16:29), and Peter Gurney (16:51) finished third through fifth, respectively, while Stephen Dunlap (17:06) and John Denton (17:07) were seventh and eighth.
"I think they ran great," said Findler, of the W-L boys. "They've worked real hard and come a long ways. They all ran about a minute faster [individually] than they had [at the early-season Monroe race]."
Mount Vernon's Ermias Regassa finished first overall in the district boys race with a time of 15:56. Yorktown had two top 15 finishers — Benjamin Bartlett (12th place) and Fabian Rowe (14th). From Wakefield, Andrew Lund was a 13th-place finisher.
THE GENERALS lost, 2-1, to Langey, the No. 4 seed out of the Liberty District, in the first round of the regional tournament on Monday at Oakton.
After the teams played to a scoreless tie at halftime, the Saxons took a 2-0 lead on goals by seniors Julie Wilson and Gretchen Gardner. Washington-Lee would answer with a goal by forward Emily Huston with 3 minutes, 24 seconds remaining in the game, but it would prove too little, too late as time ran out on the Generals.
The loss by the National District's top seed meant the each of the four teams from the National were eliminated in Monday's first round by teams from the Liberty. Earlier in the day, No. 4 seed Edison fell to Liberty champion Madison, No. 2 seed Mount Vernon fell to Liberty No. 3 seed Fairfax, and No. 3 seed Falls Church fell to Woodson, the defending region and state champion.