Dulaney coach Chad Boyle was not romanticizing when he said the Glory Days Invitational flew under the radar as a top cross country meet.
“This is an unbelievably competitive meet,” he said. “Kirstin Meek should be in the hunt for top three in the 4A meet and she was 12th today.”
For three months in 2012, a small corner of the Internet – the world for high school runners in Montgomery County – went dark. Kevin Milsted, the man behind MoCo Running, took his website offline. He thought he’d had enough.
Burned out and having lost his full-time job, Milsted decided it was time to give up the website that been consuming so much of his time, energy and soul. He would spend entire weekends going to races, writing articles, producing videos. Sundays were spent upgrading the website.
Forty-one schools and more than 3,000 high school cross country runners flocked to Kenilworth Park in Northeast D.C. Saturday for the second DCXC Invitational. The invitational was for the most part a D.C., Maryland, Virginia showdown, but the meet also featured appearances from Thousand Islands Secondary School, from Ontario, Canada, and Trinity High School, from Louisville, Kent.
The format was like last year. The varsity races were split among classes and each race scored just three runners per team. A new college race allowed American, George Washington, Howard and Catholic universities to race in the district.
Northern Virginia’s two returning Foot Locker finalists kicked off their senior cross country seasons with dominant victories in their Loudoun County backyard at the Oatlands Invitational.
Weini Kelati, whose first race for Heritage High School involved tying her shoelaces twice at this race last year, pulled away from the field early to win by 1:22 in 17:11 — 71 seconds faster than last year, widening the gulf between her and repeat-runner-up Abby Colbert of West Virginia’s Jefferson High School. In the boys race, Loudoun Valley’s Andrew Hunter breezed to an easy win with a strong second half.
Marc and Joan Hunter, the head coaches at South Lakes High School, knew they had a superstar.
They marveled as this kid finished second in the state in cross country. They watched in awe as the freshman — a freshman — went on to win the two mile in the spring.
Racing to the front of a cross country race is typically considered reckless, but with the Burke Lake course soaked by heavy rain at the Monroe Parker Invitational, it was a safer bet than usual.
George Marshall sophomore Heather Holt, among others, wanted to get clear of the rest of the pack to cut down on her tripping and slipping hazards.
Around the athletic fields, through the woods, up and down rolling hills then a wide-open 50 meter uphill sprint to the finish.
“I can go through every inch of it,” said Mike Stubbs, the former cross country coach at Bullis School in Potomac.
With remarkable depth and outright speed, Virginia’s harriers will be the toast of the D.C. area this cross country season, with several primed for big races on the national level. Of the 20 runners selected by the RunWashington coaches panel, 14 run for Virginia schools and another, a D.C. private school athlete, lives in Alexandria.
Maryland lost a few heavy hitters to graduation — Evan Woods, Diego Zarate, Nora McUmber, Kiernan Keller and Lucy Srour — but the state has rapidly-developing young talent moving up.
When Wootton’s Grace Dellapa finished the Maryland 4A West Regional Cross Country Championships, she was elated to have run a personal record 18:51 for sixth overall.
Dellapa knew she’d be representing Wootton once again at the state championships a week later. What she didn’t know was whether she’d be competing alone or with her team. All she could do was wait.
Matthew Hua relished his first season of cross country at J.E.B. Stuart High School. With no prior athletic background, his 24-minute three mile time is a point of pride. Lifelong health problems have been an obstacle in his running career, but they haven’t stopped him from fully participating as part of the team — except maybe in the team dinners.
Matthew’s gastrointestinal system has never functioned normally. He is unable to eat at all and drinks very little. In fact, virtually every one of his bodily systems is compromised. He is deaf in his left ear and his left vocal cord is paralyzed. Underdeveloped lungs have led to chronic conditions such as tracheomalacia (softened cartilage around the trachea) and asthma. He has ongoing orthopedic problems and his immune system is compromised, leaving him susceptible to infection and illness.