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Daily Press

Last week’s Nansemond-Suffolk Invitational cross country meet highlighted the depth of the young Peninsula Catholic girls team and established it as a favorite to claim the Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools crown next month.

The Knights routed the field by placing six runners among the top 11. Junior Kylie Regan headed the effort, finishing third in a time of 20 minutes, 41 seconds. That left her 49 seconds ahead of 11th-place finisher Amanda Panholzer, the No. 6 Knights runner in the meet.

“Basically this team just works really well together,” coach Susan Bender said. “They run really tight in practice and then carry it over to the race.”

Because the talent pool is closely matched, PC has adopted the strategy of running in a pack to pace one another for much of the race, and then gradually dispersing according to the remaining stamina each of them has for the closing push.

Three Knights have been the team’s top finisher in their seven meets this season. Regan has led the squad three times, as has junior Katie Mlynczak. Junior Blythe Fiscella has been the team’s best finisher once.

Blythe’s twin sister Kimmy and freshman Ashley McCarthy were the other Knights among the top 11 at the NSA Invitational.

Tuesday, PC is host for the Virginia Catholic League championship, where they are expected to challenge traditionally strong Paul VI for the title. The TCIS championship is Nov. 2.