The AD’s report
Mother Nature did her best to extend Rapp’s regular spring season, including flooding-induced school closings, but our teams managed to get in all their games and bring home some wins.
Varsity track is the lead story once again, with an unfortunate omission from last week’s report on the meet at Madison. Jacob Devine took first place in the 200 meter dash there and our news staff wants to be sure he is credited with that accomplishment!
The team participated in the Bull Run District Meet on Wednesday, their final tuneup before heading to Northumberland today (Thursday, May 22) for the Rapp River Conference Meet, the first step on the road to the states. Top finishers from the district meet included Gavin Jenkins — third in the high jump, fourth in the 1600 (mile) and fifth in the 3200; Jessica Thorne and Julia Estes, fifth and sixth respectively in the 100 meter hurdles; Emma Endre, third in the 400; Sara Garcia and Jessica Thorne, fourth and sixth respectively in the 300 hurdles; and Julia Wood, who took first in the 3200.
Rapp’s track team features more regional and state qualifiers than ever before, including Julia Wood in the 800 and 1600 (where she is the defending state champ), and Emily Allen in the 3200. Regional qualifiers include Sara Garcia, Jessica Thorne and Julia Estes in the 100 and 300 Hurdles; Gavin Jenkins in the 1600 and 3200; Kayla McGhee in the 800, 1200 and 3200; Emily Allen in the 800 and 1600; Evan Hit in the 1600; and Emma Endre in the 400. Good luck to our teams today as they seek to add to the number of Rapp participants in the Region 1A East Championship to be held next Thursday (May 29) at Charles City.
Boys’ varsity soccer played a rare Saturday morning game May 17 against Warren County and came away with a convincing 5-2 victory, with four goals by Amrit Tamang. The boys dropped a game Monday night (May 19) to defending state champ George Mason — where seniors Tamang, Ben Estes, James Davis, Steven Hensley, Shane L’Amoreaux and Daniel Schlosser were honored.
Track seniors Davis, Hitt, Tamang and Davis Sheffield were also honored the same night. The boys dropped another game Tuesday night to Manassas Park, but are focusing hard this week in practice for the upcoming tournament, where they will face only schools in our 1A size bracket. The boys’ varsity team travels to the Northern Neck District on Tuesday for a first-round game. Lastly, J. V. soccer wrapped up their season Tuesday night (May 20) with a thrilling 1- 1 tie against Manassas Park.
Girls’ soccer also dropped a tough game last week to defending state champ George Mason, and then fell short in their contests against Warren and Manassas Park, the latter a 1-0 heartbreaker on Senior Night. The bright spot of the night — aside from some outstanding plays in a tight game — was the honoring of seniors Lachelle Yates, Keelee Armor, Natalie Bosch, Lily Elsner, Lily Endre, Michelle White, Shelby Burnett and Taylor Ordile. Another very bright spot is the fact that the girls’ team will be hosting a conference playoff game at 7 p.m. Memorial Day night (Monday, May 26). We don’t yet know who our opponent will be, but our girls are hoping that our fans will fill the stands for this home playoff appearance.
In other soccer news this week, the athletic department is thrilled to announce that White and Tamang have both been selected for inclusion on their respective Bull Run District First Teams. Additionally, freshman Estes was honored with second team placement. Quite the honors, especially when one considers that Rapp is the only 1A ( smallest size grouping) school in a nine-team Bull Run District filled with four 2As and four 3As. Congratulations to our postseason honorees!
In baseball and softball, our Junior Panther teams wrapped up their seasons last week with a game at Locust Grove, falling short to the much bigger school but showing their mettle as they have all season by keeping it competitive. Their coaches are more than satisfied with their teams’ performances this season, with both teams bringing home more victories at that level than we’ve seen in a while.
Our varsity teams traveled to George Mason last week, dropping a pair of district games, and then wrapped up their home seasons with games against Central and Manassas Park. Both teams saved their best for last, with baseball taking Manassas Park to 12 innings before falling short and softball losing by just one run — that elusive district win continued to be just out of their reach. Seniors were honored Tuesday night, with Dylan and Evan Hitt getting well deserved recognition on the baseball side and Maddie Kopjanski garnering applause on the softball side. Both squads travel to the Northern Neck next week for Rapp River Conference Playoff games on Tuesday.
The Rapp athletic department would like to thank all of our county citizens who supported our teams this past year and hope to see you back ( with a friend!) when our fall seasons roll around. Offseason work is already beginning, with open gyms planned for volleyball and basketball, and football workouts beginning as well.
Stay in touch with Rapp athletics through rappahannockathletics.org, and know that our student athletes may have the summer off from school, but are continuing to work hard in the gym and on the fields to better prepare themselves for next year.
— Jimmy Swindler