The LCHS Athletic Booster Club and the Athletic Department would like to recognize and congratulate the following student-athletes.

2009-10 LCHSABC Scholarships & Athletes of the Year

Female Scholar Athlete Scholarship: Liz Asai
Liz served as a captain on the Competition Cheer Squad and was All District in Gymnastics. She is the personification of being able to balance an extremely rigorous academic load of AP classes, the Academy of Science and extracurricular activities. She is currently ranked in the top two students of the Class of 2009 with a cumulative GPA of 4.31. Liz will be attending the University of Virginia in the fall.

Male Scholar Athlete Scholarship: Peter Satagaj
Peter was a key member of the 2006 State Champion Tennis team, winning several crucial matches during the playoffs. He rose to be the #1 seed on the team this year, where he reached the district finals. He was also a member of the Cross Country team, and his work ethic and attitude were invaluable to his coaches and teammates. He has balanced these achievements with outstanding academic success, maintaining a cumulative GPA of 4.14. He has attended the academy of science and takes part in numerous AP classes. Peter will attend Carnegie Mellon in the fall.

Female Athlete Scholarship: Rochelle Latka
Rochelle has been a member of our two time state championship winning VB program and has also been named All State in softball as a centerfielder. This year she added the honor of being named All Met in softball. She currently holds 4 VHSL records in softball and will represent LCHS at the VHSCA All Star game in July. Her high level of achievement on the fields and courts extended into the classroom where she maintained a cumulative GPA of 4.13. Rochelle will attend William and Mary in the fall.

Male Athlete Scholarship: Bret Tagg
Bret is a three sport athlete, who actually competed (and lettered) in four different sports during his tenure at LCHS; Cross Country, Football, Basketball and Baseball. As a Junior, he was the starting shortstop on the baseball team and the starting shooting guard in basketball. He decided to try football as a senior, earned a starting position and caught his first TD catch vs. Dominion. Unfortunately, he suffered a knee injury later in that same game that ended his high school sports career. True to his character, Bret maintained a positive attitude and became a volunteer asst. coach during the basketball season, as well as assisting the baseball team in the spring. Bret has maintained a GPA of 3.87 and will be attending Brigham Young University in the fall.

Female Athlete of the Year: Kerry Sarver
In an age of specialization, Kerry has gone ‘retro’ by playing three sports and rising to the top of each. She is a three sport letter winner and has earned 11 Varsity Letters out of a possible 12 HS seasons. In 2004 the tradition started of hanging pictures of Region and State Title winners in the gym foyer. We have hung 5 pictures for girl’s athletics during that time, and she is the only person who appears in all of them. During her four years at LCHS she has helped her teams to win 6 District Regular Season Titles, 7 District Tournament Titles, 4 Region Championships, 1 State Runner Up, and 3 State Championships. Kerry had the rare opportunity of participating in four state championship games at the Seigal Center in Richmond during her athletic career. She also capped off her senior high school career in the spring by winning the District Title in Tennis Doubles. This year alone, her teams went a combined 67-6. Her four year record in basketball was 92-19 and the volleyball team posted an 83-4 record over her three years on Varsity.

Male Athlete of the Year: Joe Bushrod
Joe has approached LCHS athletics as a ‘warrior’, in the sense that he is someone who will never back down from a challenge and just flat hates to lose. He became a starter on the Varsity football and basketball teams as a sophomore. He endured losing seasons in both, but decided that was not going to be his legacy. He, as much as any other student-athlete, was responsible for the turnarounds of both programs. During his senior year, he led two teams into the post season for the first time in a decade; he quarterbacked the football team to a first round playoff game, and as a point guard led the basketball team to the region Semi-Finals. Joe was named All District in both sports for his efforts.

Congratulations to all our Senior-Athletes.
We wish you well in your post high school pursuits!

In a post-season track meet with some of the top runners from VA, NC, MD, and WV, Julie Strange concludes her junior season with another win. At the Milestat.com Elite Track Gala in Richmond, Julie Strange ran her first 5000 meter race on the track. With no clue how to run 3.1 miles on a track we decided to try to run comfortable and then move with 800 meters to go. She executed the plan perfectly. The race began with a large pack of girls and then about 1 mile into the race there were 4. They ran in a pack until the last 2 laps when Julie upped the tempo and dropped the other runners and won by 12 seconds. She ran a new PR for 5000 with an 18:22.76 for 3.1 miles. This was a great end to a great season.

Julie Strange ran the 1600 on Saturday morning at the state track meet. She entered the race as the #7 seed. The lead runners started the race at a very slow pace which kept the entire fast section of about 12 girls in one pack. They went through the opening 800 in about 2:40.5. Julie fortunately realized that this pace was too slow for her needs. She surged to the front on the 3rd lap and caused a major break-up in the pack. The slower runners were dropped and the race was on. After the opening 2:40.5 for the first 800, Julie closed the 2nd 800 in about 2:31.5 and crossed the line with a 5th place finish. Another outstanding race to finish off the week-end.

Julie Strange ran the first of her two events tonight at the State Track meet. Julie ran the 3200 and ran a new personal best time and a new school record of 11:12.57. This placed her 3rd in the state which goes along nicely with her 3rd in the state from cross country. Julie will race tomorrow in the 1600 to go for the double medal week-end.

On Wednesday, the track team traveled to Louisa County High School for the Regional Championship. They scored points in their first event with the relay team of Tyeesha Paige, Jessica Larson, Shelby Rombach, and Kitty Foster earning the 6th place medals. Anna Sullivan tied her best jump of the year with an "oh so close" disappointing finish that was only one place away from qualifying for states. Adam Yesuf and Becky Tupaj both ran their fastest times of the season in the 200. The lone runner advancing to the state meet was Julie Strange. She had a very nice day with a 3rd place finish in the 1600 and the Regional title in the 3200. The 1600 had the runners coming down the homestretch 3 wide in a sprint for the win. All 3 girls were timed at 5:11 with Julie being outleaned by the other 2. She came back with a solid race in the 3200 to win by about 7 seconds.

The Raiders’ Boys Tennis Team finished their season today. They took it down to the wire in the Region II quarterfinals, but Monticello edged them out 5-4. It was only fitting that the players who played the best of anybody on the courts today were four-year team members, seniors Rob Allinson and Peter Satagaj. Allinson over the four years steadily improved his game each year and broke into the starting line up on a full time basis this year. Today, in his singles match, he took the first set. His opponent outlasted him in the second set in a tiebreaker. There was not a single person in the Raiders’ bleachers who had any doubts about the outcome of the third set before it started. Allinson has been an important anchor in the sixth seed position for the Raiders this year. Once again the anchor held. In the third set Allinson seized command and won his singles’ match. All the way at the other end of the courts, another story was playing out. Senior Captain Peter Satagaj was doing what he has been doing for four years. Nobody knows how to dig deeper than Satagaj, no one is a more intense competitor. In the first set , his opponent grabbed a 2-5 lead. If we have seen it once, we have seen it a dozen times. Satagaj decides enough is enough. The next five games were all Satagaj’s for a 7-5 first set win. We also know what happens next. Once Satagaj turns the momentum in his direction, he seals the victory with a statement. Second set – Satagaj 6-0 for the victory. Congratulations to the Raiders this year. Juniors Chris Czupak and Andrew Sinden established their credentials as premier players in the Dulles District. Seniors Sid Lord and Chris Bell as first year starters helped the team time and time again. Good luck to Patrick Robinson, Jeff Ali and Oscar Fuentes, the other seniors on the team. You showed you were a player, Rob Allinson. Finally, a thank you to four year starter, two time number one seed Peter Satagaj for four great years of memories

The Raiders Women's Lacrosse team took to the road this afternoon in the final game of their successful season when they travelled to Western Albermarle in Crozet, Virginia for the first round of regionals. After falling behind 4-0 early in the first half, the Raiders rallied in their strongest 15 minutes of the season to tie the game up 6-6 at halftime. Unfortunately Western Albemarle scored the next 7 goals, before Katie Martin broke their streak by scoring with 12 minutes remaining in the second half. The final score was 21-8.

The Raiders continued to show balance in their attack with multiple points by 4 players. Rachel Solis led the scorers with 3 goals and 1 assist, Brooke Hewartson had 1 goal and 2 assists, Katie Martin had 2 goals and 1 assist and Hannah Young scored 2 goals. In addition to the 4 scorers, Christine Rihn contributed 1 ground ball, and Emily Siefert and Jaci Shepherd played solidly on attack.

The Raiders held their own in the midfield with strong play on the draws: 9 draw controls by Martin and 16 draw possessions by the midfielders.  

The defense also made a strong showing against the balanced and poised Western Albemarle team. Goalie Jessie Joseph anchored the defense with 6 solid saves. Other leaders for the defense were Hannah Arnold (4 ground balls, 1 interception), Ginny Burke (2 ground balls), Kasey Fletcher (1 ground ball), Hannah Young (2 ground balls), Kaitlin Ireland (2 ground balls), Brooke Hewartson (8 ground balls, 1 interception), Sydney Hewartson (1 ground ball, 1 interception), Katie Martin (8 ground balls, 1 interception), and Caila Cummings (2 ground balls). Lesya Chopivsky, Madi Kelliher, Krista Kearney, Caroline Joseph, and Dominique Lategano also contributed on defense.

The Raiders bid farewell to 4 seniors who have been with the program for 4 years: Brooke Hewartson, Kaitlin Ireland, Ginny Burke and Katie Martin, and newcomer Krista Kearney.

Friday, May 14, 2009, 7:08pm, Leesburg, VA (at Heritage), 78F - In the Dulles District first round, the #7 Raiders and Taylor Cokeley were pitted against the #2 Pride and Andy Zarobila, so County was the underdog...but that is why they play the game.

LCHS jumped to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first as Kyle Pratt singled to right field, was moved to 2nd by JJ Levan, and knocked in on an RBI single up the middle by Tyler Saleck.

No scoring in the second despite a Richmond Ignacio double over the left fielder's head...if only he had eaten his Wheaties. Heritage tied it up 1-1 in the bottom of the 2nd on a lead-off HR by Trey Reed.

County went up 3-1 in their half of the third on singles by JJ Levan, Nick Veschi, and Nick Fischer, setting up a 1-out bases loaded situation for Kelly Drews. Hearts sunk as he ripped a hard ground ball right at the 3rd baseman who fielded it cleanly, stepped on third, and then threw the ball over the first baseman's head allowing Levan and pinch runner Matt Cunningham to score putting the Raiders up 3-1.

LCHS picked up another 2 runs in the top of the 4th following a large bowl of Wheaties and a 350+ foot home run by Richmond Ignacio over the left field fence. JJ Levan singled and scored all the way from first on an RBI double by Tyler Saleck to go up 5-1.

The Pride closed to 5-3 in the bottom of the 4th, but it could have been worse if not for a great play by County. With Nick Clayton on 2nd, a single made it through 3rd and SS to Ignacio in LF who hit cutoff Saleck who fired to Fischer at the plate nailing Clayton.

Heritage closed it the rest of the way to 5-5 in the bottom of the 5th, Cokely (after a gutsy performance) being relieved by Nick Collins and the Zach Cooper.

County bounced right back in the top of the 6th after Ignacio reached on an error. With Bryan Huber in to pinch run, Kyle Pratt layed down a perfect sacrifice bunt moving Huber to 2nd. Levan moved Huber to 3rd on a groundout to first, setting up Saleck with runner on 3rd and 2 outs. Saleck picked up his 3rd RBI of the night (this one the game winner) on a single up the middle.

Heritage was held scoreless in the 6th and 7th by Cooper and then Saleck to pick up the exciting victory. The Raiders will travel to Broad Run Tuesday evening for the district semi-final at 7:00pm with the winner likely advancing to Regionals. Go Raiders!!

The Raiders fell to top-seeded Broad Run 17-5 tonight in the district final, but showed their team solidarity and outstanding sportsmanship throughout the hard fought game.

The Raiders played solid defense throughout with goalie Jessie Joseph leading the way with a career high 15 saves. Strong contributors on defense were Ginny Burke (2 ground ball s), Kasey Fletcher (3 ground balls), Hanah Arnold (1 ground ball), Sydney Hewartson (2 ground balls), Katie Martin (2 ground balls, 1 interception), Caila Cummings (5 ground balls), Lesya Chopivsky (1 ground ball), and Caroline Joseph (1 interception), Kaitlin Ireland, Krista Kearney and Madi Kelliher also played solidly. 

Unfortunately for LCHS, 4 time all district goalie Allison Bogle held the Raiders to 5 goals on 18 shots. Despite Bogle's outstanding game, 4 Raiders were able to score points. Brooke Hewartson led the scoring with 2 goals, while Ginny Burke, Caila Cummings, and Rachel Solis each had one. Hannah Young contributed an assist to round out the offensive effort.

After the game, Raiders head coach Courtney Willhelm was presented with the District Tournament Runners Up Trophy, and was greeted with loud applause from the appreciative crowd. Four Raiders also received recognition for making all district teams. Seniors Brooke Hewartson, Katie Martin, and Ginny Burke were honored with first team while sophomore Sydney Hewartson received second team honors.

Raiders boys’ tennis team captain Peter Satagaj finished second in the Dulles District Boys’ Singles Tournament. Satagaj accomplished this task by defeating the top seed who had finished the regular season undefeated. The players faced cold temperatures and windy conditions. Satagaj’s opponent established the early pace of play and won the first set 6-2. Satagaj set his jaw, made his adjustments to the conditions and his opponent’s game, and proceeded to win the second set by a 6-1 margin. Having leveled the playing field, Satagaj held steady and won the third set by a 6-1 margin.

Congratulations to Satagaj on another personal best in his high school career.