GREENE COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) – Samantha Nitzsche has spent her high school career going places no William Monroe cross country runner before her had gone. She became the first Greene County cross country runner to win a state championship, then did it again the following year.
Nitzsche is now a four-time state champion overall, with two titles in cross country and two more on the track. On June 6, she won the girls 3,200-meter state championship in 10 minutes, 36.22 seconds, setting a new Class 3 state record. Later that same day, she won the 1,600-meter state championship in 4 minutes, 52.86 seconds, another Class 3 state record. The year before, Nitzsche earned all-state honors in track after finishing second in the 1,600 and fourth in the 800.
Her success has carried into invitational racing too. In October 2025, she finished first at the Oatlands Invitational, taking the top spot out of about 500 runners. A little more than a month later, she captured her second consecutive cross country state championship…