Lakeland High School cross country boys’ and girls’ coach Christopher Novakoski is dealing largely with a new field of Cavalier runners this year, and the season thus far has been one of ups and downs.

“We have one good meet, and then we have one bad meet,” he said, noting his runners performed well in the first and third Southeastern District meets, and not so much in the second and fourth.

He has 11 boys this year and only three girls now, meaning there have not been enough girls to produce a score for the Lakeland girls’ team.

Gone are last season’s standouts, Julianna Durand and Amanda Mason, both having graduated earlier this year.

“It’s just one of those off years,” Novakoski said. “I had lots of girls the last two years, and they all left. It’s a rebuilding year.”

The boys can produce a score, but they need to turn a corner, and if history proves a reliable guide, that should happen soon.

“We usually don’t break through ‘til about the end of the first week of October,” Novakoski said. “It always seems like every year, after two months, we just hit a groove, and we just start dropping time left and right.”

He noted most of his runners are so inexperienced that everything about the sport is new, and they are in the process of learning it, understanding how their body reacts during a run and how to pace themselves.

This year’s cross country program for Lakeland features one senior, eight juniors, two sophomores and three freshmen.

Leading the way for the Cavaliers is senior Raekwon Sallywhite and sophomore Ryan Wright.

Novakoski said Sallywhite ran overseas last year after his father’s job in the military took the family abroad. Sallywhite’s best time is 17 minutes, 11 seconds.

For this year, “my expectations are to break 17,” he said.

His coach’s expectations are similar.

“I think he can have a time better than Jake (Crowell),” Novakoski said, referring to last year’s Lakeland star senior who repeated as Ironclad Conference champion in the boys’ 5,000-meter run with a personal record time of 16:51.94.

This year, “Raekwon’s my best runner,” the coach said. “Ryan’s chasing Raekwon like he chased Jake last year. So, they’re pushing each other.”

Novakoski hopes to see both Sallywhite and Wright make it to states. Wright almost made it as a freshman.

With Lakeland dropping to the Virginia High School League’s Group 3A classification, Novakoski is not exactly sure what times will qualify for states.

“The time is generally about a 17 and a half, but the closer you are to 17, the better off you are, and that’s kind of like how I’m playing it,” he said. “But moving down to 3A, it could be faster, it could be slower.”

As for Lakeland’s new conference, Novakoski said it contains two of the top teams in the south region — Tabb and York high schools.

Following are the team results from the fourth Southeastern District cross country meet of the season, which was held Tuesday at Bells Mill Park in Chesapeake:

Boys

1st-Hickory High School, 28; 2nd-Grassfield High School, 68; 3rd-Great Bridge High School, 87; 4th-Western Branch High School, 119; 5th-Nansemond River High School, 139; 6th-Oscar Smith High School, 155; 7th-Lakeland High School, 190; 8th-King’s Fork High School, 209; 9th-Indian River High School, 248; 10th-Deep Creek High School, 297

Girls

1st-Hickory, 26; 2nd-Western Branch, 83; 3rd-Grassfield, 90; 4th-Great Bridge, 96; 5th-Oscar Smith, 112; 6th-Nansemond River, 143; 7th-King’s Fork, 177