The Lake Braddock boys’ cross country team placed second at the 2013 VHSL state meet, finishing just two points behind 6A champion Chantilly. As Bruins head coach Michael Mangan recalls, Chantilly had two runners edge Lake Braddock harriers near the finish line, snatching a state title from the Bruins by a paper-thin margin.

Lake Braddock returns several members of last year’s team, including individual state runner-up Alex Corbett. Is falling just short of a state title something the Bruins think about?

“Every single day since that Saturday in November,” Mangan said. “They know how close they were.”

The Lake Braddock boys enter the 2014 season as a motivated group looking to capture a state title. The Bruins put on a strong performance on Saturday, Sept. 6, winning the Monroe Parker Invitational at Burke Lake Park. The Bruins finished with a score of 58, with four runners in the top 10. West Springfield finished a distant second with a score of 190, followed by Robinson (third, 197), Patriot, (fourth, 201), Thomas Jefferson (fourth, 201) and two-time defending state champion Chantilly (sixth, 231).

Due to high temperatures with debilitating humidity, Mangan said the Bruins (and other teams) ran a conservative race. Lake Braddock harriers took it easy for the first mile-and-half before picking up the pace.

“They did a great job,” Mangan said.

Kevin Monogue placed second for Lake Braddock, finishing with a time of 15 minutes, 24 seconds. Corbett placed third (15:25), Colin Schaefer was seventh (15:50), Ben Fogg took ninth (15:58) and Cavanaugh McGaw finished 37th (16:38).

Monogue and Corbett figure to be two of the Bruins’ top harriers throughout the season.

“They have slightly different skill sets,” Mangan said. “If they work together, it’s really going to help us out. Alex is probably a little bit stronger and can probably handle carrying the pace early on. Kevin [is probably a stronger finisher].”

The Lake Braddock girls’ team finished second with a score of 99, 24 points behind first-place Madison (75). Patriot finished third with a score of 140, followed by Washington-Lee (178), Osbourn Park (214), Battlefield (219) and Robinson (228).

“That’s outstanding for us,” Mangan said of the runner-up finish. “… Those girls are very young. Only [junior] Sonya Butseva, our No. 2, has any real experience in a championship cross country race. All the other kids are replacing kids from the year before.”

Daly Ferguson, a junior, was Lake Braddock’s top finisher, placing sixth with a personal-best time of 18:52. Butseva placed 11th with a time of 19:12. Freshman Sarah Daniels finished 12th for the Bruins with a time of 19:16, sophomore Kate Murphy was 26th (19:44) and sophomore Taylor Kitchen finished 44th (20:14).

“I think we’re going to be phenomenal over the next couple of years,” Mangan said. “This is the year to get the experience, but at the same time, our goals are the same every year at Braddock.”