DCXC

For McDonogh sophomore Dalton Hengst, the hay was in the barn.  He had a great week of practice, a healthy taper and all that was left was about fifteen minutes of hard work plowing through the fields in his racing shoes.

[button-red url=”http://www.mocorunning.com/meet.php?meet_id=3296″ target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]A controlled pace combined with a final surge over the last quarter mile paid off for Hengst as he crossed the line in 15:49 to beat out Good Counsel senior and defending champion Jack Wavering by two seconds (15:51) and claim his first Maryland-D.C. Private Schools Cross Country Championship.

The D.C. area only had one champion at the Maryland state cross country championships, but it was one that’s easy to remember: the Walter Johnson girls.

[button-red url=”http://www.mocorunning.com/meet.php?meet_id=3566″ target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]The Wildcats claimed their third consecutive 4A team championship with a 51-85 win over Dulaney,  a team coach Tom Martin said was the fastest in school history. Their team score matched their winning total last year, and their scoring five all fit in the top 21.

The patterns in the Virginia state cross country championships repeated almost as frequently as the pop music on the public address system.

By the time someone started wondering why Pink Floyd’s “Run Like Hell” didn’t make the mix, it was apparent: Dominant individual performances led to team victories.

Taylor Knibb repeated as D.C.’s champion at Fort Dupont Park to kick off a slew of state meets over the next eight days of state meets for local cross country runners. She’ll also have a chance to defend her D.C./Maryland Private Schools championship next Saturday in Derwood, Md.; Virginia’s public schools have their state meet Friday and Saturday in The Plains; and Maryland’s public schools will face off Saturday at Hereford.

Though she faced scant competition on her way to a 71 -second victory in 19:32,  an improvement over her meet record that left her wobbly-legged afterward, Knibb hammered the entire course, not with disregard for next week’s private school state meet, but with an eye toward it.

The Montgomery County Cross Country Championships were going to be lonely for Rohann Asfaw, so for a half mile, he relished the crowd.

He hung back early on, content to run the collective pace and eat up some ground on the 5k course at Bohrer Park in Gaithersburg.

The Georgetown Prep Classic gave plenty of cross country teams a change of scenery.

A collection of local and out-of-town teams that rarely, if ever, compete against each other made the race unpredictable, because few runners know their competitors’ tendencies.

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.”

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.