Cross Country is often one of the most overlooked sports at Oakton High School. Both the Boy’s and Girl’s teams have been some of the most successful teams at Oakton over the last 10 years. It is currently postseason for both the teams. 2 weeks ago at Burke Lake the Concorde District Championships took place. The boy’s team was healthy and ready to win their first district championship in 5 years. Lead by juniors Ahmed Hassan and Khalid Abdeleraouf, the Oakton Boys put in a strong performance. Junior Ahmed Hassan was set for a  primetime matchup with Senior Brandon McGorty of Chantilly High School. Hassan won this battle and beat the recent Stanford commit by a whopping margin of 27 seconds. The rest of the Oakton 7 also ran very well finishing all above the top 25.These all-around strong races lead to a concorde championship for the Oakton Boys.

The girls team seemed to have the odds stacked against them with their top 3 runners getting injured right at the start of postseason. That meant that underclassmen would have to step up in order for the team to succeed. The absence of the top 3 runners mean that  juniors Gaby Katz, Joanna Moffitt, and Rachel Green would all have their opportunity to shine. All three of the girls finished in the top ten that race. This led to another district championship for the dominant girl’s team. Junior Gaby Katz almost won first overall in the girl’s race but was narrowly outkicked by a Chantilly runner. “The feeling of winning districts was impeccable, it was just really nice to see that all the hard months of training had finally paid off” said junior Gaby Katz. The Oakton team was flying high and ready to prove themselves at Regionals.

The following week was the Regional championships, both of the teams were expecting a more challenging competition from Madison and Lake Braddock who they had not previously met at districts. The boys put up another strong performance placing second overall to a very talented madison squad. Ahmed Hassan was again the star of the team nearly winning back to back races but was barely outkicked by McGorty who he had beaten just a week before. The boys team was buzzing but also focused on the real goal of states which was just 2 weeks away. The girls team placed 3rd overall, still without their top 3 runners out. The girl’s team is still hoping to gain back one of their top runners in time for states, which would help the team out tremendously but are still prepared to fight without her. The State Championship  will take place on Saturday, November 12th at the Great Meadows Course.

The State’s race had it’s ups and downs for the Oakton team. The boys team was expected to have their best finish in 5 years and the girls were expected to continue their dominance at states. The boys were poised and ready to perform, unfortunately they did not. Ahmed Hassan and Logan Duffy had strong performances but the other members of the seven lacked. The team ended up finishing 4th and while that is not a terrible finish, it is below the standards that they were expecting. “It just stinks that we worked so hard all season and then we were not able to reach our goal” said captain Ahmed Hassan. The girls on the other hand, put up a strong states performance finishing in second place. The team was still missing their number one and two runners but even without them they still secured runner up. This is the second year in a row that the girls have finished as runner-up, so hopefully next year they can seal the deal and win States. Now that the cross season has ended, a very talented Oakton team are ready to prove themselves in the indoor track season and bring home some more hardware.              

                                                                   Photos Courtesy of Becky Kendall