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  There were few surprises in the Capital District Cross Country meet on Wednesday at Pole Green Park. Both team favorites, the Atlee boys and the Lee-Davis girls, took their respective titles.

  The Lee-Davis girls scored 29, while Hanover took second with 46 points. Atlee came in third with 57 points while Varina and Henrico rounded out the top five.

  For the boys, Atlee scored 21, while Lee-Davis finished second with 46 points and Hanover took third with 77. Varina came in fourth in team scoring with 98 points.

  As expected Atlee’s Ben Dejarnette ran away with his fourth consecutive boys’ title, in the process setting a Capital District course record of 15:54, a 44-second margin over second place Cody Snyder of Lee-Davis. The Raiders rounded out the top five with Andrew Cantanese and Andy Hesse taking third and fourth with times of 16:42 while teammate Wes Steenburgh came in fifth at 17:06.

  “We did what we should,” said Atlee head coach Jim Triemplar. “We took care of business.”

  DeJarnette finished an amazing run in which he claimed the district title for each year in high school. “I just wanted to come out, feel strong and not push too hard, but still put out a solid time,” he said.

  With a substantial lead early, Dejarnette was able to evaluate the course for this week’s regional which will also be run at Pole Green Park. “There’s a few parts of the course where I wanted to practice for next week where I was going to make moves, how the footing was, stuff like that,” he said.

  In the process, Dejarnette set a new record. “I just wanted to come out and it just sort of happened,” he said. “I was coming down the straight and I saw the time.”

  The Atlee boys took six of the top-10 spots to claim the district with Lee-Davis taking the remaining three positions. Hanover placed three in the 10-15 spots while Lee-Davis took 13th and 14th.

  “This has been a really good year for us,” Dejarnette said. “We knew during the summer we were going to be good and once we got everybody back in school, back racing, we realized that this is really a team that can go a long way.

  “This is a stepping stone,” Dejarnette said of the district meet. “Next week’s the big one.”

  Triemplar agreed. “We’ve had a real good season,” he said. “We’ve had some invitational victories and we’ve looked good in the Wednesday meets, but what teams will remember; where you get your respect, is district, region and states.”

  Lee-Davis head coach Neil Matthews also feels the Atlee boys have the potential to make an impact beyond the district. “Atlee is a very, very good team,” he said. “They’re one of the best teams in a long time in our district, maybe the toughest team there’s been in this district for a long time.”

  As far as his own team, Matthews was happy with their performance but still saw room for improvement. “All of my guys ran their season best time and you can’t complain about that,” he said. “They ran their best times and they just got beat by a better team.”

  The Lee-Davis girls turned in an extremely strong performance, taking the top three spots in the race. The Confederates’ Stephanie Cario finished the 3.1 mile race with a time of 19:37, 22 seconds ahead of teammates Amanda Lineberry and Jacki Ferrance, who came in neck and neck for second and third. Hanover’s Anna Gordon took fourth with a time of 20:09 and Atlee’s Ashley Riefner finished as the meet’s top freshman with a fifth place finish and a time of 20:27.

  According to Matthews, his girls surprised even him. “We had that 1-2-3 finish and I did not see that coming,” he said. “I think if you’d have told me that I would have thought it was possible it’s a reach because there’s some pretty good girls in the districts.”

  Cario, who pulled away from the pack at the midway point, afterward said she felt pretty good throughout the race. “Pretty much until the last 1000 and I didn’t want to give up since I worked the whole race,” she said.

  Lee-Davis placed four runners in the top-10 and six in the top-15 while Hanover placed three in the top ten. Atlee finished with three runners in the top-15.

  The district meet was the first time that the top girls from Lee-Davis and Hanover faced off against each other this season. “I think that had to do with two things,” Matthews said. “Mainly neither one of us could get healthy all year long.”

  Dejarnette and Cario were named their respective athletes of the year while their coaches, Jim Trempliar of Atlee and Neil Matthews of Lee-Davis won the respective boys and girls Coach of the Year awards.

  In Sub-Varsity action, the Lee-Davis girls also took the top three slots with Bonny Turnage wining the event with a time of 19:47. Teammates Emma Ballie and Bayley Johnson finished in 22:26 and 22:56 respectively. Atlee runners Paige Harrar and Bethany Young took fourth and fifth.

In the boys Sub-Varsity, Atlee’s Roohullah Alidost ran away with the win coming in with a time of 18:41. Hanover’s Britt Stobel took second with a time of 19:04. Lee-Davis runners Elliott Hinton and Brent Goodwin finished third and fourth with Atlee’s Zach Snider rounding out the top five.

Varsity girls results

Varsity boys results

Sub-Varsity girls results

Sub-Varsity boys results