Finishing touch to two fine careers

She was a girl on a mission.

With a half-lap to go in the Group AAA track and field championship 1,600-meter race on Saturday at Sports Backers Stadium, Kathleen Lautzenheiser had moved from mid-pack to within striking range and was ready to make her final charge.

Give it your best shot, Midlothian’s distance prodigy thought to herself as she leaned into the turn.

Finish strong. Leave everything you have on the track.

Let the record show that the William and Mary-bound senior outkicked a stellar field, blew through the finish line in 4:56.22 and claimed the state title in her final high school race.
Her splits were 74-76-75-71, commendable considering the brutal heat and the fact that she’d placed third in the 3,200-meter race (10:47.64) just four hours earlier.

“Honestly, I really didn’t have much of a race plan,” she said. “After the 3,200, I was just trying to use whatever I had left.

“The last 600, the pace started moving a bit. I realized I wasn’t totally exhausted, and I just tried to move up.

“Then, at 200, there was a little opening …”

Lautzenheiser also helped lead the girls’ 4x800-meter relay team to a third place finish in Friday’s events. Claire Benjamin, Marie Johnston, Amy Witt and Lautzenheiser (9:15.92) crossed the line just seven seconds behind winner West Springfield (9:08.32).

Manchester’s Nikki Nunn fell just a quarter inch shy of a state title in the girls’ long jump. She hit 19-05.50 to Grassfield’s Jazmen Townsend’s 19-05.75. Nunn took seventh in the triple jump with a distance of 26-08.25.

On the boys’ side, James River’s Ted Richardson took fourth in the 3,200-meter event (9:25.27).

The state cross country champion stayed with the lead pack for the first half of the race, but Chantilly’s Christopher Foley jumped out to a blistering pace with 1,200-meters left. He cruised to a 5-second lead over Western Branch’s Blake Theroux. Natnael Meseret of Robert E. Lee, Richardson and Andrew McCullen of Oakton formed the first pack behind the leaders.

Weldon Bradshaw is a special correspondent for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.