WAHS XC Team Gets New Course

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By Molly Rossberg

The 3.1 mile Lindy Bain Loop in Old Trail.
The 3.1 mile Lindy Bain Loop in Old Trail.

The Western Albemarle High School boys and girls cross country teams have a new course to call home. Friends of WAHS Cross Country, Track & Field teamed up with the Beights Corporation and Scott Collins of Collins Engineering to build a 3.1 mile, regulation cross country course in Old Trail.

Work on the course, unveiled June 5 at a ribbon-cutting ceremony, started last Fall. The old course, which looped through the woods around WAHS, amounted to  “narrow, rutted paths and an abundance of tree roots that runners could trip over,” according to Kim Connolly, the president of Friends of WAHS Cross Country, Track & Field, a non-profit organization that supports the running teams at WAHS by providing stipends to volunteer coaches and paying expenses for team members to travel to national meets, among other things.

The Friends approached Gaylon Beights, chairman of the Beights Corporation, the developers of Old Trail, in hopes of building a suitable course for the illustrious WAHS cross country teams.

Beights agreed and Scott Collins, a local engineer, donated his services to design and oversee the construction of the course. The Friends began fundraising to build the course and met their goal of $15,000.

“This course adds another 3 miles to our planned 6 miles of trails here, all open for everyone to use,” said Beights. “The new course is a true symbol of the great community spirit here in Crozet.”

The course starts by the soccer field and is designated by small, wooden signs with the “WA” Western Albemarle logo.