Cross Country: A Perfect 10! Potomac Falls Boys Win 10th Straight Dulles Title

By Dan Sousa
VivaLoudoun Editor
Leesburg (Oct. 21, 2010) - For years they watched their brothers, friends and neighbors continue the area's longest winning tradition and on Wednesday it was the current class of Potomac Falls High School boys cross country runners turn to carry the torch forward.

Juan Campos

While Panther coach Dolph Null says he doesn't even broach the subject of "the streak" -- Potomac Falls has won every boys XC meet since the Dulles District formed in 2001 -- with his runners, his team said it was clearly on their minds as they stormed the Oatlands course Wednesday. And besides they got enough reminder texts from those big brothers and neighbors prior to the meet.

Not to worry as the Panthers placed four runners in the top 10 -- senior Juan Campos (16:31, 2nd), senior Connor Wilson (16:52, 4th), senior Nick Morgensen (17:07, 7th) and junior Grant Deker (17:10, 9th) -- to forcefully make it 10 straight district titles as the Panthers scored 36 points to handily defeat runner-up Loudoun County (53 points), which wrestled away the regular-season title from PFalls this year after a 1-point dual meet win.

Raider Tommy Curtin alone at the front as he defends title.

The Raiders were led by senior Tommy Curtin who defended his regular-season title ... cruising to the finish line at 16:18, some 13 seconds ahead of Campos, who had run neck-and-neck with Curtin in the dual meet.

County also got strong finishes from sophomore Patrick Joseph (17:04, 5th) and junior Josh Showalter (17:08, 8th).

Loudoun County: Regular-Season Dulles District XC Champions

Potomac Falls Wins 10th Straight Dulles District Boys XC Title

The Panthers depth included sophomore Jordan Ferbreche at 14th with a 17:27 and all the PFalls runners were within the Top 25 as senior Patrick Wilson took 17th and senior Alex Mott 25th. After the victory the Panthers poised for photos with hands out-stretched to show all 10 fingers (one for each crown!) while forming a circle ... an 11th title next year will clearly pose a problem for the Panthers in this department.

Also advancing to the Region II meet were Freedom, led by junior Thorpe Lichtenberg who was third at 16:36, and surprise of the meet, Broad Run which took fourth to advance to Regionals from the Dulles District for the first time ever. Spartan senior Zac Kish led BR with a 17:11 to place 10th.

Advancing as individuals were Dominion seniors J.T. Duke (17:05, 6th) and Stefan Van Buren (17:11, 11th) and Woodgrove freshman Evan McCarthy (17:12, 12th).

And the last team to exit Oatlands, long after the first teams had already hit the road, was Potomac Falls as the Panther boys soaked up the final beams of sunshine and cooled down, content to know that they had continued a winning streak that had started when most of them were in second grade. Next year they would be sending the text reminders to the next group to pick up the torch.

The Top 15 Medalists

Check back for more photos from this meet later.

All-time Dulles District results