Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 14, 1995 TAG: 9510150002
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Glenvar's Trish Nervo winds up her Metro cross country career with a chance to become the meet's first four-time winner.
The Highlander senior will be shooting for a sweep of Metro titles today at the Baptist Children's Home in Salem and there isn't anyone ready to challenge her.
Only two other runners have won three titles - Salem's Lori Archer (1988-90) and Andrew Lewis' Bobby Brugh (1974-76).
Brugh, according to some veteran coaches, was good enough to win as a freshman in 1973, but there was no Metro meet that year.
Archer ran as a freshman in 1987, but finished third negating her as a four-time winner.
A developmental meet will be held at 1 p.m. today. The boys' varsity race is scheduled at 1:30 followed by the girls at 2:15. A junior varsity boys' and girls' race will be held at 3 p.m.
Nervo, who will be going for a fourth consecutive Group A girls' crown next month, might have had some competition from Blacksburg's Sarah Hendricks. However, Hendricks, who has lost this fall to the Glenvar runner, will be in Maryland for a meet.
Nervo will run for the last time against one of her possible successors as Roanoke's premier girls' runner - Roanoke Catholic freshman Maeve O'Meara.
O'Meara was fourth at the Radford and Blue Ridge Invitationals behind Nervo and Hendricks. Coming into this year, O'Meara dominated the junior varsity and developmental races for public schools and placed second overall in last year's state Catholic schools' meet.
The most interesting race of the day will be the boys, where Christiansburg's Justin Mosby squares off against Staunton River's Brian Harlor, Lord Botetourt's Robert Pauley, Northside's Tommy McGuire and Cave Spring's Ben Dowdy. This will be the first year that Christiansburg, the defending Group AA champion, will compete in the Metro.
Pauley, Dowdy and Harlor finished 1-2-3 a year ago in the Metro ahead of sixth-place Jeremy Bartley from Alleghany, who also is in the field.
Mosby, a heavy favorite, has beaten Pauley, McGuire, Dowdy and Bartley in races this fall. Just over a month ago, he won the Highlander Invitational with a time of 16:37, far ahead of the 17:12 by the second-place Dowdy.
Christiansburg will be a heavy favorite to win the boys' team title while the girls' crown could come down between Cave Spring and the Blue Demons. The Cave Spring girls have placed first or second in every year but one since 1984.
by CNB