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.
[button-red url=”http://va.milesplit.com/meets/213662/results#.VfYnOhFVikq” target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]”My plan was to not slip in the mud. I stumbled a little bit, but I didn’t fall,” she said, after the race, just as a boy who had run the junior varsity race slipped and fell while walking slowly.
Holt ran solo after the mile mark, reminiscent of her race at the 5A state championship last November, which she won.
This time she dealt with additional sensory input.
“The rain made it sound like there were spikes hitting the pavement behind me, so I was freaking out the whole time,” she said. “I didn’t know how much of a lead I had until the announcer talked about it.”
She was unnerved further by her twin sister, Ashley‘s absence, due to a heel injury.
“We race together and we ask each other if we’re on the right pace, we talk to each other,” she said. “It was different without her. All I heard at some point were footsteps.”
Ashley was there to drape Heather’s medal around her neck while she recovered from the race, though.
Heather made just her third appearance on the Burke Lake course, and boys’ winner Fitsum Seyoum was debuting here. The Tuscarora senior also got out hard and claimed his second straight invitational win, following the Aug. 29 Great Meadows meet.
“The start was hectic and our box was muddy,” he said. “I wanted to take the lead, wanted to get the advantage up the hill so I could get on the grass. Going downhill in spikes could bust you up a little bit.”
He was challenged early by Chantilly junior Brandon McGorty, an 800 meter star also trying to protect himself on the course by keeping his long legs out of the crowd.
“I was a little worried, I don’t usually see him in the race that late,” Seyoum said. “He was there through 1.5 miles and I was wondering if he was going to fade, because I don’t think I’d be able to handle his kick.”
The rain scuttled his plans to wear tall socks, and that may have been a fashion turning point.
“My coach said they’d just weigh me down with the rain,” he said. “I just slapped some baby powder on my feet. I’m never going back.”
He also plans to never go back to being a mid-pack finisher. Though he won his conference in his first year running cross country and made the 5A state meet, he only finished 13th, almost 30 seconds back.
“I want to do something special and put good times by my name, let people know I’m a good runner,” he said.
That has meant consistent mileage, a focus on sleep and a diet that recently eliminated gluten, on the suggestion of Loudoun Valley’s Drew Hunter, one of his summer training partners.
Behind Seyoum, Lake Braddock senior Colin Schaefer tried his best to counter a few August weeks lost to a hamstring injury to chase down first place, but he came up short, though he led the Bruins to a team victory. They won the 6A state title last year.
“I fell at the start, but some of my teammates pushed me right back up,” he said.
The girls’ team race was tight between James Madison and Lake Braddock, running without Kate Murphy and Daly Ferguson. Lake Braddock ended up in first, which was fine by Madison Warhawks assistant Matt Kroetch.
“I was hoping we didn’t win,” he said. “It’s a lot more fun to go through the season hunting someone. Having a target on your back gets old.”
He was encouraged by the boys’ improvement, to fifth, from 14th a year ago.
“We haven’t made the state meet since the mid-90s, I think that’s a realistic goal,” he said. “We have guys who can see that focusing on running year-round will make them pretty good. When you get guys to buy in like that, it’s a lot easier to keep growing the team.”
The George Marshall boys are also hoping for a trip to states, after falling a little short last year. The girls’ team made it for the first time last fall, finishing sixth. Their chances will be a lot better if their top three runners can continue to finish as high as they did at Burke Lake, with three in the top 12, finishing in the span of five seconds. Alex Haight led the way in eighth in 15:45, with Patrick Lynch (10th, 15:48) and Max Carpenter (12th, 15:50) close behind. Their fourth place finish followed two other 5A schools — Thomas Jefferson (last year’s 5A runner-up) and Tuscarora.
Haight spent the summer training with older brother Mackenzie, a sophomore at William and Mary and a 2013 Foot Locker finalist. Carpenter toyed with easing up a little during the race and saving his kick for the end, rather than the start. And Lynch, who compared to his teammates who took the first mile in 5:05 started off at a leisurely 5:06, possesses a kick neither of his teammates want to get in the way of.
The steady rain helped cool the temperature, compared to last year’s race that broke 90 degrees, and the times matched the better conditions. Holt’s 17:44 was well ahead of 2014 winner Amanda Swaak‘s 18:06, and the top 11 finishers in 2015 were ahead of fourth place (18:43) in 2014. On the boys’ side, Seyoum’s 15:18 didn’t match Ryan McGorty‘s 15:04, but nine finished ahead of last year’s fifth place (15:48) and two more matched that time.
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.
Stubbs may no longer work at Bullis, but he can still walk you through a step-by-step tour of the cross country course he built there – some parts with his bare hands – in Summer 2011.
“My now-wife felt she was the mistress, and the cross country course was the fiance at the time. There were a lot of days sun up to sun down,” he said. “To run on something that you built like that is one of the coolest things ever. I don’t think a lot of people will get that experience of putting a lot of energy into building something like that and then be able to run on it.”
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.
[button-red url=”https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1188919417801955.1073741864.189448104415763&type=3″ target=”_self” position=”left”] Pep Rally Photos [/button-red]Things already looked good after Loudoun Valley’s Andrew Hunter and Heritage’s Weini Kelati made the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships in San Diego as underclassmen, with Hunter finishing fourth and Kelati 20th. Up the West Coast, Lake Braddock’s Kate Murphy and Patriot’s Rachel McArthur finished 24th and 25th at Nike Cross Nationals in Portland.
They were just a handful of the high-achieving runners to make the team. It also included state champions in cross country and track, vital members of successful teams and raw talent just waiting for the opportunity to show itself.
RunWashington‘s panel of area high school coaches met after the state track championships and chose the 10 boys and 10 girls who they would send to represent the D.C. area nationally. They compose the All-RunWashington team. The seven boys and seven girls in D.C., Maryland and Virginia who were not on the All-RunWashington team make their state teams. Sometimes intuition won out over pure numbers. To runners who didn’t make it, our coaches welcome being proved wrong!
All-RunWashington Team
| Abigail Green – So. – Walter Johnson | Rohann Asfaw – Jr. – Richard Montgomery |
| Heather Holt – So. – George Marshall | Brent Bailey – Sr. – Centreville |
| Weini Kelati – Sr. – Heritage | Tristan Colaizzi – Sr. – Georgetown Day |
| Casey Kendall – Jr. – Oakton | Ben Fogg – Sr. – Lake Braddock |
| Taylor Knibb – Sr. – Sidwell Friends | Dan Horoho – Jr. – Centreville |
| Page Lester – So. – National Cathedral | Hunter Jutras – Sr. – Robinson |
| Rachel McArthur – Jr. – Patriot | Andrew Hunter – Sr. – Loudoun Valley |
| Kate Murphy – Jr. – Lake Braddock | Robert Lockwood – Sr. – W.T. Woodson |
| Bethlehem Taye – Sr. – Paint Branch | Jackson Morton – Sr. – Stone Bridge |
| Devon Williams – Jr. – James Madison | Colin Schaefer – Sr. -Lake Braddock |
The Class of the Field
Virginia’s class of 2017 claimed four of the top six spots in the girls’ 6A division and seems primed to dominate for two more years. As excellent as the group as a whole has been, Murphy and McArthur have stolen the show with their rapid improvement toward the end of the last cross country season and memorable track seasons.
Those two sophomores admittedly took the Nike Cross Nationals meet less seriously than most, partially because of their confidence that such an opportunity would not be their last.
“We both just wanted to make it to nationals,” Murphy said. “We knew we didn’t have a shot at winning, so we tried to enjoy the experience. I’m sure we would have finished a little higher with a different mentality.”
McArthur looked at the race in context of their careers.
“We were just sophomores,” she said. “There will be plenty of chances to be competitive.”
She’s had plenty of chances already. While a third grader at the Linton Hall School, she was trampled at the start of a mile race for older elementary school students. Once the pack had cleared, she got to her feet and chased down all but the first two boys to finish the race.
“I really like winning,” she said.
She got her first real taste of that on the high school level at the Glory Days Invitational, beating eventual-Foot Locker finalist Ciara Donohue and reconciling her ability with her confidence.
“She was both fearless and intimidated,” Pioneers coach Adam Daniels said. “She’d tell me about how some girl was running the same race, but I had to explain to her that you can’t shy away from challenges like that.”
That also led to a few misfires, McArthur taking races out too hard, but she settled down.
“Rachel figured out pretty quickly what consequences different racing strategies had,” he said.
Though she later lost to Heritage’s Weini Kelati in a midseason invitational, for the rest of her races in the American Southeast, she was unbeatable. She and Murphy roomed together in Portland and struck up a friendship that has complemented their athletic rivalry.
“We got to meet people from different parts of the country and see that we can compete with them,” she said. “We have good runners in Northern Virginia, but we have to get better if we want to compete with girls from California.”
They both excelled at the mile, with McArthur running 4:46.20 for 1600 meters and Murphy running 4:16.98 to win the 1,500 meters at the USATF junior championships, then victory at the Pan American Junior Championships in August.
Murphy won the state 1,600 meter after McArthur edged her for the 3,200 meter in a photo finish. She also won the 3,000 meters at the Penn Relays, which coach Mike Mangan
said was undoubtedly the highlight of her year, while McArthur’s 4:50 mile leg of the distance medley relay at the meet carried Patriot’s team to victory.
“We have to hold her back,” Mangan said of Murphy. “She wants to do everything, but I want her to be good years from now.”
Both Murphy and McArthur point to running as being large parts of their life, but for the better.
“It makes me feel alive,” Murphy said. “It’s my favorite part of the day.”
Murphy’s Lake Braddock team returns six of seven state championship team members that finished a close second to Oakton, where Casey Kendall will be taking the reins this year.
She followed her older sister, Kira, onto the team, forsaking lacrosse, basketball and soccer, and being rewarded heartily. She was fourth at last year’s state meet, right behind graduated Allie Klimkiewicz.
Kendall sees running as a sport that gives you a chance to see your efforts add up to something. As the team captain, that’s what she’d tell someone considering joining the team.
“Running’s a hard sport, mentally and physically,” she said. “If you’re willing to put in a good effort and put your heart into it, you’ll have a good outcome.”
Her coach, Alisa Byers, doesn’t put any limits on what Kendall could do this year.
“I expect everything from her,” she said. “She’s a fierce competitor, but she’s also super disciplined. She can pace herself in workouts in a way most sophomores can’t. She understands running and what goes into success.”
Two spots behind Kendall at the 6A meet, James Madison’s Devon Williams was still getting the hang of cross country, having been more of a track-focused runner before. She overtook her
teammate Amanda Swaak in the last mile and paced the Warhawks to a third-place finish.
As an 800 meter runner, she just tried to stay calm early on in races and push the middles until she could kick her way home.
“I just have to stay with the pack,” she said. “The middle is the hard part, but I feel like with a full summer of training, I’ll be a lot stronger.”
The Centreville duo
Brent Baily and Dan Horoho are pulling each other, and the Centreville team, higher and higher in the results. They missed the state meet by two points, but with two front runners, they have less to worry about while trying to get to The Plains.
An arm injury as a freshman convinced baseball player Bailey, now a senior, to give track a try. After a 4:45 mile, he felt like he found a new home. But like a fixer-upper, that home needed work, and it wasn’t just painting shutters.
“The practices are rough,” he said. “You get home and want to just lie down for a half an hour before you can do anything else.”
Horoho, a junior, has been running a little longer, since he was a kid, jogging up the block when his father did PT work for the Army. He looked into running as he approached high school and picked up where he left off, and then some.
The pair is pretty close, and though they had teammates to keep them company while each of them was sidelined with an injury last spring, it wasn’t quite the same.
“I can tell if he’s behind me in a race because I know what his breathing sounds like,” Bailey said. “You could go out and run, but it just wasn’t as enjoyable.”
Freshmen sensations
Heather Holt started off running at George Marshall to meet new people. Coming for the International Baccalaureate program meant she was going to be mixed in with a lot of classmates she didn’t know from middle school, but luckily several friends from her soccer team decided to run and with a little prompting from her twin sister Ashley, she became a runner.
The pair got their start running at the Braddock Relays before they were unleashed at the Oatlands Invitational, where they finished together in eighth and ninth, a second ahead of Walter Johnson freshman Abbey Green, another All-RunWashington honoree.
The twins broke the tape together at the Oktoberfest Invitational at Great Meadows, and then Heather started to pull away from Ashley at the 5A North Regional meet. At the state championships, the pair pulled away from two pursuers until Ashley was overcome by the heat and did not finish. Heather went on to win by more than 20 seconds.
Coming back with a year of experience will allow Holt to approach races more authoritatively.
“I’ll have more confidence and I’ll go into races knowing more about what I want to do, instead of just running and seeing how things turn out,” she said.
Coach Darrell General helped her refine her form, shifting her away from a heel strike that caused persistent tendinitis.
Last year, Marshall’s girls team made the state meet for the first time, and with six of seven from the state team returning from a sixth place finish, they have their eyes on the Nike Cross National meet.
Meanwhile, Green, who finished right behind the Holts at Oatlands, came into a different team situation. The Wildcats won the Maryland 4A team title over Bethesda-Chevy Chase and seemed strong enough on their own, but Green’s emergence, typically as the team’s second finisher, helped put them over the top while the repeated as state champions, with her in the lead in fourth place.
She knew she was a decent runner, finishing first at gym class miles throughout elementary school, but there was still a little doubt as she started ninth grade.
“I was terrified,” she said, leading up to Walter Johnson’s first dual meet. By the end of October, though, she was the 4A regional champion.
Swimming, once her bread and butter, was going stale, and running would take precedence.
“I like the hills,” she said. “My worst races come on flat courses.”
All-D.C. Team
| A’Ishah Bakayoko – Sr. – Georgetown Day | Sam Blazes – Sr. – Sidwell Friends |
| Erin Bell – Sr. – National Cathedral School | John Colucci – So. – Gonzaga |
| Michaela Kirvan – So. – Georgetown Visitation | Jacob Floam – Sr. – Gonzaga |
| Ellie Leape – Jr. – Sidwell Friends School | Drew Glick – Sr. – Wilson |
| Mayim Lehrich – Jr. – Wilson | Tyreece Huff – Sr. – Phelps |
| Arrington Peterson – Jr. – Wilson | Harry Monroe – Jr. – Gonzaga |
| Katherine Treanor – Sr. – Georgetown Day | Christian Roberts – Jr. – Sidwell Friends |
Holding the Old Line
Rohann Asfaw was the only Maryland boy to make the All-RunWashington team, but he does so behind a tenacious sophomore year that saw him make tremendous gains not only in his performances, but the evolution of his motivation to run.
He started running as an eighth grader to lose weight.
“It was my 2013 New Year’s resolution,” he said. “I ran for 10 minutes a day, that’s all I could do then.”
But as the weight came off, he found his love for running had evolved.
“I started enjoying it,” he said. “I wanted to get better.”
Asfaw has done pretty well, winning the DCXC sophomore race, and third at the county championships.
He wants to improve his finish at the state meet, where he was eight in 4A last year, the third underclassman. He earned it.
“I thought I was going to pass out,” he said, still a little shell shocked from his first race at Hereford.
A 25th place finish at the 4A meet would seem inauspicious for Paint Branch senior Bethlehem Taye, certainly now that she’s the defending 3,200 meter champion.
“She’s an incredible rhythm runner,” coach Mark Anderson said. “She can just tear off some intervals so smoothly.”
All-Maryland Team
| Grace Dellapa – Sr. – Wootton | Michael Abebe – Sr. – Northwood |
| Amanda Hayes-Puttfarken – Sr. – Sherwood | Ben Gersch – Sr. – Whitman |
| Katriane Kirsch – Jr. -Walter Johnson | Dylan Kannapell – Sr. – Bethesda-Chevy Chase |
| Sami King – Sr. -Whitman | Kevin McGivern – Sr. – Good Counsel |
| Emily Murphy – Sr. – Walter Johnson | Colin Sybing – Sr. – Wootton |
| Claudia Wendt – So. – Good Counsel | Liam Walsh – Sr. – Quince Orchard |
| Olivia Woods – Jr. -Whitman | Jack Wavering – Sr. – Good Counsel |
The Burke Bunch
Lake Braddock won last year’s 6A title with 1-2 finishes from now-graduated Alex Corbett and Kevin Monogue, but the Bruins have a pair of seniors ready to take over where the team left off last fall.
It’s that attitude, Mangan said, that will draw senior Ben Fogg, a 1:54 half miler, into the fray. “If you ask him, he’d rather run an 800, but he’ll be willing to do a little more to make up for Alex and Kevin graduating,” he said. “He’s got the chops to run whatever distance we need.”
He demonstrated that with an 18th place finish at the state meet.
“Yeah, I’d rather run the 800 instead of the 5k, but you get a sense of the team in cross country in a way you don’t in track,” Fogg said. Colin Shcaefer, who ran 15:00 at Burke Lake’s 2.98 mile course last year before finishing seventh at the 6A state meet, has recovered from a stress fracture in his foot that took him out of the end of the track season. He moved last year from Nevada and is getting his first full cross country offseason with his teammates.
“I’m getting used to the humidity,” he said. “I can handle the heat.”
At nearby Robinson, senior Hunter Jutras is a product of his family’s penchant for running. They all participated in the Army Ten-Miler last year, and older brother Dustin blazed a path through the Rams program ahead of Hunter.
“He’s got more of a kick in his legs than he realizes,” said coach Nils Lindenblad.
He’ll be kicking without his graduated teammate Patrick Myers, who lead his and Jutras’ 14-15 finish in the 6A meet last November.
Who was that?
Spectators asked two questions when Heritage’s Weini Kelati tore around the Oatlands Invitational with ease, stopping to tie her shoe. How fast is she going to run, and who is this girl?
Getting answers wasn’t easy for the Eritrean emigre who arrived in Leesburg shortly after the season started. She of the 9:02 3000 meter the prior summer was only beginning to learn English but almost a year in, she has a better grasp of the language and culture, thanks in large part to her teammates.
Her cousin and guardian Amlesom Telaki knew his way around Northern Virginia’s cross country courses, himself a Foot Locker Cross Country finalist while at West Springfield.
She has taken an interest in history since arriving at Heritage.
“I know there are times what the history book says isn’t the truth,” she said. “I think there’s a lot to learn from history.”
She’d prefer to dispense with the mile and two mile and move up immediately to the half marathon, on her way to her dream.
“I want to be the Olympic champion in the marathon,” she said. She met her match in E.C. Glass sophomore Libby Davidson, who stymied her for the 4A title, but Kelati made the Foot Locker national meet, where she finished 20th. Though the spring track season wasn’t great, she has thrived on the hot, muggy days during her base training, which reminds her of home.
“I like the heat,” she said. “I run faster when it’s hot.”
Lanky Guys
Long limbs help runners cover ground with fewer strides, and Stone Bridge’s Jack Morton and Georgetown Day School’s Tristan Colazzi both take advantage of that. Morton lives a world apart from most Northern Virginia runners. When the postseason begins, he’s off in the 5A division, where he finished fifth last year.
Morton, a senior, trains with classmate Andrew Matson, and the two led their team to a third place finish.
The opportunity to run presented itself when Morton decided to join a team in ninth grade but realized he was missing some important equipment — hand-eye coordination.
“It turned out running was right for me,” he said with a laugh.
He applied his passion for running to his Eagle Scout project — organizing the Divine Mercy 5k.
Colazzi, winner of the junior race at the inaugural DCXC Invitational, was injured for more than a month in the winter, and spent that time stewing on a stationary bike. While he didn’t make the cut in the Penn Relays mile, he did run 4:16.22 in mid-June. He then quadrupled at his conference track meet, keeping Georgetown Day School ahead of the Potomac School.
The lone D.C. school honoree on the preseason All-RunWashington team spent his summer working at Pacers Running Store in Clarendon.
“I like running so much, I figured I’d spend even more time around it,” he said.
All-Virginia Team
| Jeana Bogdon – Sr. – James Madison | Max Carpenter – Sr. – George Marshall |
| Jill Bracaglia – Sr. – Oakton | Bryce Catlett – Sr. – Osbourn Park |
| Sarah Daniels – So. – Lake Braddock | Nate Foss – Sr. – Thomas Jefferson |
| Sophia Divone – So. – Langley | Andrew Lackey – Sr. – West Springfield |
| Daly Ferguson – Sr. – Lake Braddock | Brandon McGorty – Jr. – Chantilly |
| Sara Freix – Sr. – Westfield | Zack Lindsey – Jr. – West Potomac |
| Morgan Whittrock – Sr. – James Madison | Saurav Velleleth – Jr. – Thomas Jefferson |
Making his name in Virginia running
He’s not the second coming of Bobby Lockhart, the 2001 Foot Locker runner-up, he’s Bobby Lockwood, a senior from W.T. Woodson.
“The mile to me feels like a sprint, you’re just trying to gut it out” he said. “The two mile and cross country give you more time to work with.”
He finished 19th in Virginia’s 6A meet, and new coach Dave O’Hara has high hopes for Lockwood’s improvement.
“It will all come down to that first race, really,” he said. “If he believes in our approach and runs that race he’s capable of and buys in, there’s no telling what he could do.”
He was a football player that then- Woodson coach Julia Davidson convinced him he had a future in running. He couldn’t be fattened up for the gridiron, and his mom agreed, happy she didn’t have to try.
Part-timers
Page Lester and Taylor Knibb look to be the top D.C. runners, both finishing high during invitationals and championships races–Knibb won both the D.C. state meet and the D.C. and Maryland Private Schools Championship. That was on top of their time-consuming triathlon training.
“It’s all good cross training,” Knibb said. “I have little things, here and there — a sore hip — but I haven’t been injured. I’m only running about three or four days a week.”
Already family friends, Knibb influenced Lester, whose mother is an accomplished triathlete, in giving the sport a shot. Now the two travel all over the country, and the world, competing in triathlons. Lester looks at Knibb as a role model, in addition to being a good friend. But Knibb knows that friendship means nothing when they leave the starting line.
“Last year at the Maryland and D.C. Private Schools Championship, I started running hard three-quarters of a mile in, because I was worried about Page’s kick,” Knibb said. “I never knew how close everyone else was until I saw photos of the race. I didn’t have as much of a lead as I thought.”
That’s her style, though. In running or bicycling, he likes to take control and influence the race.
“When people are drafting on their bikes, I like to go ahead and see how much time I can put on them,” she said.
Lester is spending most of her time in the pool — roughly 10 or 12 hours a week, and keeps her mileage “really low.”
“Swimming is where I have to put most of my time to be a good triathlete,” she said. “I also like to sleep a lot.”
Here We Go
The cross country season starts in earnest Sept. 12, at the Monroe Parker Invitational at Burke Lake, almost entirely Virginia teams.
Then runners start crossing the rivers at the Oatlands Invitational in Leesburg (Sept. 19), the DCXC Invitational in Washington, D.C. (Sept. 26), the Glory Days Invitational in Centreville, Va. (Oct. 10), D.C. Championships (Oct. 31), Maryland public schools state meet (Nov. 7) and D.C. -Maryland Private Schools Championship (Nov. 14), Virginia state meet (Nov. 13-14), the Foot Locker South and Nike Cross Southeast Regional meets (Nov. 27) and the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships and Nike Cross Nationals (Dec. 12).
RunWashington will track the progress of the All-RunWashington preseason team members week by week and, in addition to weekly race coverage, will call attention to significant team and individual performances.
RunWashington Coaches Panel
| John Ausema – Gonzaga | Gaby Grebski – Sidwell Friends |
| Steve Hays – Whitman | Kevin Hughes – Georgetown Visitation |
| Mike Mangan – Lake Braddock | Chris Pellegrini – West Springfield |
| Kellie Redmont – Wootton | Scott Silverstein – Winston Churchill |
| Cindy Walls – Bishop O’Connell |
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.
For eight straight years the Wootton girls’ cross country team had qualified for the state finals.
“That’s a long run and the girls knew it,” said head coach Kellie Redmond. “They didn’t want to be the first group that didn’t qualify as a team.”
Adversity was cruel to Wootton this year. Redmond acknowledged that it’s something that every school has to deal with but it seemed to hit her team particularly hard.
“We ran into a string of back luck,” she said. “One girl was anemic, another girl was out for a portion of the season with a possible stress fracture and another girl did have a stress fracture. It was just one thing after another.”
Though a team of inexperienced runners fought gamely, they found themselves on the outside looking in, missing the state meet by just five points.
Dellapa, then a junior, felt particularly sympathetic toward fellow teammate and senior Kylie Yassin, who was coming back from an injury and missed individual qualification by just a half second, finishing 24th overall.
What happened next is what made the disappointment of not qualifying as a team so special. Redmond held a team meeting with the girls and explained that while the team didn’t qualify for the state meet they could all continue to support their lone teammate who did. She emphasized that while it wasn’t mandatory, they would still be holding practice every day and that the entire team was welcome to continue to practice. She didn’t expect many to oblige.
“I thought that maybe they would offer to alternate days and maybe a handful would come to practice. Come Monday, all of them–and I mean the whole team–was there for practice,” Redmond said. “These are all young girls, many who had never experienced a state meet, yet they saw Grace get progressively better throughout the season and they knew what she had accomplished throughout the year. They just didn’t want the season to end.”
The team continued to come to practice each day to help Dellapa prepare for the state meet.
“One day we had a relay and they would stand at different stations along the course and I would run with someone and then they would hand me off to another teammate,” Dellapa said. “They wanted to come out and run with me. I was so proud of them.”
She never ran alone.
Heading to the state meet without a full team of girls was strange for Redmond. She reserved a bus for the one-way trip for Dellapa and the boys’ team, who had also qualified, knowing that parents would be there to take home the runners after the meet.
“We were required to have 11 kids on that bus — the boys’ team and Grace,” Redmond said. “Of course, the whole team came. The bus was full. It holds fifty kids. Needless to say, we were scrambling to get rides home for all of the kids after the meet.”
Looking back, Redmond is intensely proud of the way her girls team carried themselves those last few weeks.
“I’m so impressed,” she said. “For as young as they are, they all saw the importance of the state meet and the importance of being there to help their teammate. They all had the attitude, ‘OK, we didn’t make it as a team, but one of us did and this is what we do.’ So the fact that they participated in that and were there supporting her, I think that’s invaluable.”
Redmond explained that she knew race day was going to be emotionally hard for Dellapa. I think they all stood there wanting so badly to be on that starting line with her.
“Here she was standing alone at the start without any of her teammates,” she said. “She had been to the state meet with her team for the two years prior. It was kind of quiet on the line and way off into the distance you could hear a couple of the kids yell, ‘You got this, Grace! Go, Grace!’ It was that moment. I was standing right behind her and I said, “Do you hear that, Grace? They are right here with you. And she just shook her head, like, ‘I’m so fortunate.'”
“Being the only girl representing Wootton was kind of scary, but it was a good feeling. I wanted to represent Wootton well and get out there and do my best,” Dellapa said.
Dellapa didn’t disappoint. She crossed the line at the notoriously challenging Hereford High School course in 19:11, good for fifth place overall.
Asked about her goal for next year and whether she has a good chance to improve upon that fifth place finish, Dellapa said, “We’ll have to see. I can’t guarantee anything, but I’ll try my best.”
Redmond said this of Dellapa: “She just kind of works away and gets better every year. What sets her apart from any other girl I have ever coached is if you tell her to get fifth in the state, she will get fifth in the state! If you say to her mid-race, you need to catch three girls; she will catch the three girls. She is so coachable, it’s amazing! Everything you tell her, she does!”
Redmond says her only regret for the season is that she didn’t ask Dellapa to get first at states. The coach says she won’t make that mistake next season.
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.
For the third straight year, Northern Virginia is sending a runner to the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships with a serious shot at the national title, possibly on the boys’ and girls’ side. Two other area runners will join them in San Diego, making it the 25th time the region has sent multiple qualifiers to the venerated high school national championship.
The same day that Andrew Hunter, Anteneh Girma, Ciara Donohue and Weini Kelati qualified for the Foot Locker final, Rachel McArthur, Alex Corbett and Kate Murphy earned individual trips to the Nike Cross Nationals meet, a team-focused national race in Portland, Ore. Corbett and Murphy each led their Lake Braddock teams to third place finishes, just out of the automatic team berths and the boys an agonizing one point from an at-large invitation.
But the D.C. area’s cross country season extends far beyond the performances of those seven. The All-RunWashington postseason team, chosen by our panel of local coaches, chose 62 of the most outstanding performers over the past three-plus months. That group includes 10 runners who won individual state championships, one of whom won two different championships, and many others who distinguished themselves at Great Meadow, Hereford, Burke Lake, Derwood, McAlpine Park,Bohrer Park and fields inside and outside the Beltway.
As can be expected, given the population density and number of programs in the commonwealth relative to D.C.’s Maryland suburbs and the District, Virginia had a heavy presence on the All-RunWashington team, the top boys and girls our panel of coaches would send to race against teams from other metropolitan areas. Seven boys and seven girls on the top all-star team attend Virginia schools, and an eighth boy, Georgetown Day School junior Tristan Colaizzi, lives in Alexandria. Four state champions didn’t even make the top team.
So here’s who we’re dealing with:
With a Foot Llocker South title, along with a brand new Virginia state meet record, Hunter, a Loudoun Valley junior, gives the D.C. area its best chance for a national high school titlist since Chantilly’s Sean McGorty and West Springfield’s Caroline Alcorta. McGorty fell just six seconds short in his 2012 bid, finishing second to Edward Cheserek, who has won his first two NCAA Division I titles. Now a Stanford sophomore, McGorty finished 20th this year at the NCAA meet.
Hunter’s 14:36 at the Foot Locker South meet was just eight seconds off McGorty’s record and 18 seconds ahead of second place, but he was satisfied to break McGorty’s state meet record by running 14:41 on a cold and windy day at Great Meadows, with a 54-second margin of victory over another Foot :ocker finalist, Western Albemarle’s Gannon Willcutts.
Hunter broke out last season at the Penn Relays, winning in 8:16.31 after being seeded 15th, then finishing second at the high school outdoor national track meet in the two mile in 8:53.81.
“It’s going to be the deepest high school boys race ever,” said Hunter’s father and coach, Marc, of the Foot :ocker national meet. “More than half of the top 15 from last year is back, Drew could finish anywhere in there.”
Fellow Foot Locker finalist T.C. Williams senior Aneneh Girma went from 23rd place at the Virginia 6A championship in 2013 to sixth this year, and two weeks later was sixth in the south, edging Willcutts and peeking under 15:00 (14:59) to make the final. This followed his breakout race at the DCXC Invitational’s senior race, where he saw the strength he gained from months of hilly running meeting the speed he could unleash on a championship course.
Chantilly senior Ryan McGorty, fourth at the state meet, matched his 15:26 time at Foot Locker to finish 21st, after wins at the Monroe Parker and Gettysburg invitationals this season. He led the Chargers to a narrow 2013 6A title over Lake Braddock.
The Lake Braddock senior duo of Corbett and Kevin Monogue put a exclamation point on a season-long vendetta to claim that state title by finishing first and second, respectively, giving the Bruins their first individual and team titles since 1987. Corbett went on to finish fifth (15:00) at the Nike Cross Southeast meet and 17th at the national meet.
They had some help from junior Colin Schaefer, a fourth place finisher a the 2013 Nevada small school meet, who quickly adjusted to the increased intensity and ended up seventh at the state meet and 21st (15:34) at Nike Southeast. Westfield’s Johnny Pace made a big jump his senior year, putting himself in contention in almost every race and winding up fifth at the 6A meet in 15:28. Along the way, we won the Octoberfest Invitational.
In Maryland, Walt Whitman senior Evan Woods lost ground to his rival, Northwest senior Diego Zarate, on the cross country course, where he had previously held an advantage. Zarate withstood Woods’ kick at the end of the Montgomery County Championships to edge for the win, and then Zarate won the regional meet in a blowout 15:26. Woods came back to win the 4A championship at Hereford, dipping under 16:00, though he had run 15:20 to finish close behind Corbett at the DCXC Invitational senior race.
The lone All-RunWashington honoree in a D.C. school, Collazzi, distinguished himself with a strong kick to win the DCXC Invitational junior race over Schaefer. He finished 32nd at Nike Cross Southeast, running 15:44.
Heritage’s Kelati showed up early in the cross country season, settling with her cousin after leaving her native Eritrea, and terrorized courses, simply running away from the field, even if it meant stopping to tie her shoes during races. She won until she met E.C. Glass sophomore Libby Davidson in the 4A region and state championships, finishing second both times, then finished fifth at the Foot Locker South meet in 17:04.
Coach Doug Gilbert said the elevated competition level at the national meet should actually help Kelati in her goal to finish in the top 15.
“I think that being in a race with 40 girls who are all elite will actually help Weini,” he said. “I think that any race she ran in Africa was very similar.”
Her eighth-place finish at the IAAF Junior Championships this summer, running 9:12 for 3k, indicates a gear she might not have exhibited yet.
Joining teammate Hunter in San Diego, Loudoun Valley senior Ciara Donohue made a somewhat last-minute decision to run the regional qualifier. A year after making a full-time commitment to high school running, she put a late-race loss at the 3A state championship behind her and finished sixth at the regional meet in 17:14.
Patriot sophomore McArthur came into the season unsure of what she could do, having spent most of her freshman season injured. By the end, Virginia, the southeast and most of the country had an idea what she was capable of. After winning the Glory Days Invitational, she gained momentum to win the 6A regional championship and state championship, pulling away by the first mile in the latter to win with a nine-second lead over Lake Braddock sophomore Murphy.
McAruthur went on to win the Nike Cross Southeast meet in 17:16, a second ahead of DCXC junior runner-up Elly Henes, who lives and trains near the Nike regional course. Murphy followed in fifth (17:31) then edged her for 24th in Portland.
Nora McUmber, a Bethesda-Chevy Chase senior, finished seventh at the Nike regional (17:46) after winning the 2013 meet, but along the way she won the Maryland race that eluded her during her junior season — the 4A state championship.
McUmber had won the last three Montgomery County Cross Country Championships, but the prior winner, Winston Churchill senior Lucy Srour, eschewed two injury-plagued seasons to recapture some of her freshman year magic. She held off freshman sensation Abbey Green, of Walter Johnson, at the county, state championship and Nike Southeast meet (Srour 18:07, Green 1810) determined, she said after the county championships, not to be beaten for long, regardless of how talented Green was. Green did blow away the field at the Maryland 4A regional meet and went on to be the first-place finisher for the Wildcats’ team title defense, finishing fourth at the state meet.
Less than a second behind Srour at Nike Southeast, Oakton’s Casey Kendall concluded a sophomore season that saw her and senior teammate Allie Klimkiewicz defend their Virginia 6A title to the hard-charging Lake Braddock Bruins, with Klimkiewicz leading the way to a 3-4 finish. Oakton finished fourth as a team as Nike Southeast.
In the Virginia 5A race, freshman Heather Holt ran to victory in what was her George C. Marshall team’s first appearance in the state finals. She ran much of the season in tandem with her twin sister, Ashley, who collapsed toward the end of the state meet and did not finish, but later recovered.
There were plenty of notables not on the All-RunWashington team. D.C. schools had three different state champions, with Sidwell Friends junior Taylor Knibb claiming titles in both the D.C. and D.C./Maryland Private Schools large division and finishing 21st at the Foot Locker Northeast Regional. Phelps junior Tyreece Huff joined her on the podium at the D.C. state meet and Field School junior and Bethesda resident Sami King perpetuated the duality of her existence by winning the small school division at the D.C./Maryland Private School Championship. Good Counsel junior Jack Wavering won the D.C./Maryland Private School Championship large school division by one second over Georgetown Day School senior Aidan Pillard. Along the way, Wavering picked up a Washington Catholic Athletic Conference individual and team title. Teammate Claudia Wendt, a freshman, was the top girl in the WCAC.
Richard Montgomery’s Rohann Asfaw won the DCXC sophomore race and dipped under 16:00 , Clarksburg senior Lucie Noall won the Bull Run Invitational. Westfield junior Sara Freix was a consistent top-tier individual, finishing fifth in the Virginia 6A meet (18:18). Robinson senior Lauren Berman won the hilly Georgetown Prep Invitational, despite her preference for flat courses.
Walt Whitman senior Amir Khaghani ran 15:38 at Nike Southeast, following up a fifth place finish at the Maryland state meet. Oakton sophomore Laya Salis also came up big at Nike, finishing 24th to go with her 11th place finish in the Virginia 6A meet.
Ashley Holt finished every other race she ran besides the state meet, and finished with or close to her sister.
Wootton junior Grace Dellapa finished fifth in Maryland’s 4A meet, and Wootton senior Patrick Munro was consistently among the top Maryland boys.
In private schools, National Cathedral School freshman Page Lester also helped herself to the front of the pack, finishing second to Knibb at the private school championship and 31st at Foot Locker Northeast and an individual title at the Salesianum Invitational in Delaware. Junior Katherine Treanor led her Georgetown Day School team to a private school championship over Georgetown Visitation.
Oakton’s girls kept everyone guessing all season, including coach Alisa Byers. Into late October, she didn’t know where her defending 6A champion team stood.
“We never really got to race together,” she said. “People had college visits, people on holidays, so we didn’t have everyone racing until the conference meet.”
[button-red url=”http://www.runhigh.com/2014RESULTS/R111414AA.html” target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]Even the Knight’s Crossing Invitational in early September, which featured all but senior Kara Kendall, wasn’t a valid indicator of what the Cougars could do. When 3A champion Blacksburg tore through them, putting three ahead of then-leader, sophomore Casey Kendall, Byers’ team wasn’t primed for peak competition.
“We got rocked. I went down there knowing they were going to get rocked,” she said of the 44 point loss. “Blacksburg is able to stay in shape all the time and we went down there with one serious workout under our belts, but it was good to see who else was out there and get a flat race in.”
They had plenty of workouts in their legs as they got the band back together for the conference and region meets before Byers eased up on their training. By then, senior Allie Klimkiewicz was running back to the form that carried her to a fourth place finish at least year’s state meet.
When they got to Great Meadows, they were rested up and ready to go. And go they did, improving on their 55 points from 2013 to defend their title with 44 points. They faced a stiff challenge from Lake Braddock (58 points) and James Madison (85 points), but putting five runners in the top 16, with four earning All-State honors, ended that competition.
And not a moment too soon, because soon behind junior Jill Bracaglia, who edged Lake Braddock freshman Sarah Daniels for 16th at 18:49, there were four other Bruins who would finish consecutively over eight seconds.
It was Bracaglia’s first state championship race, having sat out the end of her freshman season and recovering from a knee injury her second year without enough time to regain her fitness or her participation eligibility.
“It was so amazing to be here,” she said. “I didn’t get race much last year. I watched my team do so well and I told myself that I have to be here next year. I’m so happy it happened.”
Klimkiewicz led the way for the Cougars with a third place finish in 18:12, one ahead of Casey Kendall’s 18:17, who surged ahead of Westfield’s Sara Freix (fifth, 18:18) down the stretch. Sophomore Leya Salis followed in 11th place in 18:30.
“Casey closed in on me, throughout the race I heard ‘go Allie,’ ‘go Casey,’ ‘go Leya,’ so I knew they were close,” Klimkiewicz said. “It was reassuring to know we were close together.”
Klimkiewicz doesn’t like to go into races with a plan, “and even if I do, I don’t follow it,” she said. “I think my experience, after four years, helps me react. Every year I get passed down the stretch, this year, I didn’t!”
Freshman Kira Buttrey finished 15th in 18:45, sophomore Thi Nguyen was 41st in 19:33 and senior Kara Kendall finished 66th in 20:21.
Senior co-captain Sarah Sherdian watched them throughout the race.
I’m so proud of them, they ran with their hearts and seemed to run fast every time I saw them,” she said. “They were never taking it easy.”
Try as they might, with their tightly-bunch pack, Lake Braddock’s girls couldn’t overcome the Cougars.
“They were as good as I thought they were at the beginning of the year,” coach Mike Mangan said of the 14-point loss.” It was closer than that with 600 meters to go, we took a shot at it but we didn’t have it.”
Sophomore Kate Murphy finished second overall in 17:54, but Mangan reserved special praise for junior Daly Ferguson, who finished seventh in 18:25.
“Two years ago, she was running 33 minutes for 5k,” he said. “She has to be the most-improved girl…ever.”
Her improvement surged back and forth with injuries over the past year years, but now she has a first-team All-State honor to her name. She, Murphy, Daniels and junior Sonya Butseva (17th, 19:00), sophomore Madison Tippet (19th, 19:06) and sophomore Taylor Kitchen (20th, 19:08), with only Sarah Riley (18th, 19:03) missing out on the same revenge fantasies that motivated the Lake Braddock boys for the past year.
Individually, Patriot sophomore Rachel McArthur won the individual title in 17:43, a year after pneumonia held her back to 17th place.
Coach Adam Daniels said her win at the muddy Glory Days Invitational in October opened her eyes to how well she could place later on. The Pioneers finished fourth as a team in the four-year-old Prince William County school’s first trip to the state meet.
“We came out here for the Octoberfest Invitational and she went a little too early and paid for it, but Glory Days got her focused,” he said. “She just started running her workouts really well, looking great in races and we realized the state title was a possibility.”
As it turns out nothing could really stop her.
“I came in, knowing I had a chance to win, so I went out hard, stayed with the front group and just kept going until I was alone,” she said. “I guess I made a gradual move, it definitely wasn’t too abrupt. Hills are hard for a lot of people, but not for me, so I just kept going.”
In the 5A race, George Marshall freshman Heather Holt continued her postseason winning streak, taking the title in 18:02, but she did so without her twin sister Ashley, who collapsed with less than a quarter mile to go and did not finish the race. At several races throughout the fall, the twins finished races side-by-side, including at Great Meadows, when the two broke the tape at the Octoberfest Invitational.
Statesmen coach Darrell General said later Saturday that Ashley was fine, but did not know what led to her collapse.
“We wanted them to feel things out and make their move late in the race,” General said. “I saw them with 1200 meters to go and they were ready, but a little later Ashley looked like she was fading a little.”
The pair got their start at the Braddock Relays, having joined the team too soon before the Monroe-Parker Invitational that kicks off most Northern Virginia runners’ seasons. Marshall finished sixth in the girls’ team’s first trip to the state meet, a goal General had seen as reachable as early as September’s Oatlands Invitational. Tuscarora won the 5A team title behind freshman Emma Wolcott‘s third place finish in 18:25.
E.G. Glass (Lynchburg) sophomore Libby Davidson broke West Springfield alumna Caroline Alcorta‘s one-year-old record by a second, running 17:12 to win the 4A title over Heritage’s Weini Kelati ( 17:38). Heritage finished third as a team, and Loudoun County finished sixth.
On Friday, Blacksburg dominated the 3A race, with five finishers in the top eight to score 23 points over Loudoun Valley’s 67, led by runner up senior Ciara Donohue, who at 18:04 was two seconds behind Blacksburg’s Bonnie Angermeier. Brentsville District finished sixth behind,
In the 2A race, George Mason scored 57 points behind freshman Logan Funk‘s third place finish in 19:08 to trail Maggie Walker Governor’s School’s 38.
But for some more fortuitous scheduling, Lake Braddock’s boys may have had “throwback Thursday” on their hands. A throwback to something none of the Bruins were alive to remember.
So they settled for a #sometimeagoSaturday. But that’s all the settling they did.
With an individual title by senior Alex Corbett and a dominating team victory, they put their names in the state championship history books as winners for the first time since 1987, when Brad Baker got the scoring started with one point, en route to a 48-60 win over Woodbridge.
[button-red url=”http://www.runhigh.com/2014RESULTS/R111414AA.html” target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]The Bruins had finished a close second, 87-85, to Chantilly last year, in a 6A class team competition that saw four teams separated by four points. It wasn’t even close this year at Great Meadows, as they gapped West Springfield 41-92, placing three runners in the top seven, led by Corbett and Kevin Monogue sweeping the top two spots.
“I just wanted to be patient during the race,” he said. “I knew it would go out fast because of all the other guys out there.”
Coming in off a North Region championship and a strong senior season, with a 15:17 5k PR set in September at the DCXC Invitational, Corbett was confident his plan would play out to his liking.
Chantilly’s Ryan McGorty (fourth, 15:26), T.C. Williams’ Anteneh Girma (sixth, 15:36) and Cox’s Jonathan Lomogda (third, 15:21) led the way through the mile, and a quartet of Bruins sat in wait a little bit behind.
“Me, Kevin, Colin (Schaefer, seventh, 15:39) and Ben (Fogg, 18th in 16:10), we were just chilling back there in the chase pack,” he said. “After the second mile, I caught back up and got to work. I made my move with 1200 meters to go, and it worked. When I turned around and saw Kevin was coming in second, I couldn’t believe it.”
Monogue’s 15:19 was a PR, and put him five seconds ahead of Stoney’s winning time last year.
“I think I was able to go out faster than last year and keep it going longer,” he said. “I think I was faster in all stages of the race.”
In 2013, Monogue ran 16:16 for 31st place, so that was a bit of an understatement.
“It’s nice when your teammate is the one making the move, and you know what he’s going to do,” coach Mike Mangan said. “It gives you a great advantage. The pack moved, he held on that was enough to get him into position.”
When Schaefer moved to Northern Virginia from Nevada over the summer and joined the Bruins’ cross country team, he was introduced to a team on a mission.
“My first time meeting the guys was in July and they were running a hard workout,” he said. “They all crushed me. Really really badly. I knew these people meant business. It’s been great training with them — they’re the best in the state.”
The Bruins will see how they stack up against the rest of the Southeast and possibly the nation when they take a shot at qualifying for the Nike Cross National meet in Oregon. Mangan is used to taking runners to the Footlocker Cross Country Championships after several successful years with now-graduated girls.
“I guess I don’t get to take my December trip to San Diego this year,” he quipped.
While Lake Braddock had a year to stew over their two-point loss, their pursuers had been waiting even longer for a shot at the state title. West Springfield sent a boys’ team to the state meet for the first time since 2006, and did it in style, finishing second.
Led by Tim Ward’s 10th place finish in 15:56, the middle of the Spartans’ scoring pack came in places 25, 26 and 27.
Coach Chris Pellegrini explained that his team, while not flashy, got the job done.
“This is going to sound like it’s not complimentary, but it is– I don’t believe that we have a bunch of blue chip individuals on our team,” he said, “Our one blue chipper (Owen Buck) moved to Seattle, over the summer, so our guys did a great job of rallying together.”
Pellegrini gave a great deal of credit to junior Andrew Lackey (27th), the only underclassman in the bunch, who was running his first season of cross country after a playing in the marching band.
“He was running 11:30 for two miles last year in JV track, today just ran 16:22 for 5k to finish in the top 30,” Pellegrini said. “He’s small, he’s skeletal, he looks like he can’t be fast, and he can’t sprint, but he can just will himself. Something clicked in his brain and he decided he was going to do that.”
As Nahom Teshome (25th, 16:21)and Evan Fabish (26th, 16:22) faded in the third mile, Lackey caught them and snapped them back into the goal at hand.
“When he caught up to me and said it was time to go, I knew he was right,” Fabish said, as Lackey came running over to the group carrying a t-shirt and yelling “I can run all day!”
Lackey deferred to his teammates when he explained his motivation.
“These guys, the seniors, have been working at this for a while,” he said. “I just wanted to help them get here.”
He’ll be the top Spartan returner in 2015.
“He’s the ‘how is he doing this, how is he running that fast’ kind of kid that a program needs to get over the top,” Pellegrini said.
McGorty led Chantilly to a third-place finish, with Oakton in fourth, led by Simon Iyob (12th, 15:58) Robinson in fifth led by Patrick Myers ( 14th, 15:59) and Hunter Jurtas (15th, 15:59) and Washington-Lee in eighth, behind Patrick Odlum (43rd, 16:42).
In the 5A race, Thomas Jefferson was the top local team in second, behind sophomore Saurav Velleleth‘s ninth place finish in 16:12. Heritage senior Joey Lightbody was the top local 4A runner in 34th place (16:57).
On Friday, Loudoun Valley junior Andrew Hunter broke Sean McGorty‘s two-year-old state meet record (14:47) with his 14:41, while Brentsville District took the team title behind junior Jack McNally in seventh place (16:11). McGorty went on to finish second in the 2012 Footlocker Cross Country Championships.
In the 2A race, George Mason finished sixth, behind senior Jackson Jost‘s 30th place finish (17:45).
Evan Woods decisively won the boys 4A Maryland cross country state championships Saturday, snapping rival Diego Zarate‘s winning streak for the season.
Woods, a senior at Walt Whitman, finished in 15:49. Eric Walz, a junior at Dulaney, took second in 15:56 with Zarate coming in third less than a second behind.
[button-red url=”http://www.motiontiming.com/node/144″ target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]”It’s by far the best cross country feeling I’ve ever had. The best running feeling ever,” Woods said. “It was a hard race, there are a lot of good guys in this field. They took it out hard and this is a course where it’ll beat you up in the second half.”
Last month’s Montgomery County championships saw Zarate barely edge out Woods in a photo finish. Woods said he tried not to let that affect his performance on Saturday.
“It was really hard to get prepared mentally for this race. He out-kicked me at counties and just out-gunned me at regionals, so I felt like I was a little bit hopeless,” he said. “But I came into this race just trying to put everything behind me and come at it with a fresh mindset.”
Zarate had about a five-second lead on the pack through mile two, when Woods caught up to him and thought it was time to make his move for the lead.
“That’s a hard place to be mentally where you’re way out in front and the pack catches you. So I decided that was the best time to go,” he said. “Sometimes you can’t afford to hang out them for too long or there’ll catch their breath.”
Woods and fifth-place Amir Khaghani led Whitman to a third-place finish behind Severna Park, which placed its five scoring runners in the top 11 to win the program’s third straight title; and Dulaney, winners of the Glory Days Invitational in October. Zarate’s Northwest team edged Bethesda-Chevy Chase by a single point to claim fourth place.
In another exciting race, Nick Fransham, a senior at North Harford, won the boys 3A contest in 15:41 after a couple lead changes in the last quarter mile. Fransham was in the lead as runners headed toward the finish, but David Eisenhauer, a senior at Wilde Lake, pulled ahead. It appeared Eisenhauer would win when Fransham unleashed his kick and finished less than a second ahead.
“Near the end I just had one last push, had to make things happen,” Fransham said. “I didn’t quit, I just waited him out a little bit longer and used the hill to help me with my kick.”
Eisenhauer said the two have had close finishes before in the 3200m in outdoor track state championships.
“With 800 meters to go back then I could kick for 800 meters on the track, so I took off and ended up running nine seconds faster than him. Cross country is a whole different ball game, especially on this course when you’re either going up or down a hill, so that took all the finishing speed out of me,” he said.
Both boys races went out fast. Paul Hugus, the boys coach at River Hill, said the 3A race started at a 4:55 pace, faster than the regional meet.
Albert Einstein, led by Alejandro Arias, lost third place to Mt. Hebron on a sixth-man tiebreaker.
Nora McUmber, a senior at Bethesda-Chevy Chase, opened up a huge lead in the last half mile and won the girls 4A race in 18:40, more than 10 seconds ahead of the Maria Coffin, the second place finisher from Annapolis. Last year, the state meet was McUmber’s only hiccup in a season that saw her go otherwise undefeated until the Nike Cross National meet.
McUmber said she and Winston Churchill’s Lucy Srour, who finished in third and led her team to third place, took turns in the lead for the beginning of the race, with McUmber moving ahead on the uphills and Srour flying in front on the downhills. McUmber was able to make her move on her second lap on the huge hill rising from “the dip,” and opened up her lead over the last half mile.
“I can’t believe it. I knew this was going to be a really hard race and I think I really prepared myself. It’s great, senior year, this is now or never,” she said. “I kept thinking this is my last chance to really get it because there isn’t a next year. It means a lot.”
Walter Johnson repeated as state champions, widening their lead on McUmber’s Barons for the second straight year, 51-91. Abbey Green‘s fourth-place finish made her the fastest freshman in the race by more than 90 seconds. Behind her, Emily Murphy (seventh), Katrione Kirsch (ninth), Kiernan Keller (15th) and Jasmine Garrett (26th) took control of the race for the Wildcats to be the only team champions from the D.C. area.
They had a target on their backs all season, which added some stress to their title defense.
“I saw they were feeling all the pressure about repeating. They weren’t having as much fun,” said coach Tom Martin. “We just concentrated from beginning of October on just having fun. When the girls starting having fun again, they started racing better.”
He pointed to a couple stand out performances among girls on the team, including Garrett and Keller, who raced with an injured hamstring.
“She did that just out of sheer guts and love for her teammates,” he said.
Many of the top finishers at Walter Johnson are underclassmen, and freshman Sadie Keller was just five seconds behind Garrett as their sixth finisher, which setting the team up to have another successful season next year where they could potentially be vying for a three-peat. Martin said he’ll do his best to keep the pressure off the athletes next year as well.
“I’ll just remind them that without the fun, this isn’t worth doing,” he said.
Urbana took the top two spots in the girls 3A race, with senior Emily Mulhern winning in 19:02 and team mate Maria Carberry, a junior, finishing about eight seconds back. Mulhern, who previously won states as a freshman and sophomore. She said those wins came much easier, and the hard work she had to put in to take the top spot this year makes this the most meaningful state title for her.
“I have had a lot of ups and downs this season. I didn’t even run at regionals because of a hamstring issue, so today I just wanted to cross the finish line healthy and happy,” she said.
The teammates ran together for much of the race, which both girls say helped them keep a competitive pace.
“Just being there with Maria, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so in sync with her before as today. We just were really feeding off each other and I could just tell we were both having great races,” she said.
Carberry said it was the first time all season both girls have had a successful race at the same time.
“I’m really glad that Emily and I ran it together because both of us haven’t had our best race together and I think this is the first time we did, so I’m really happy about that,” she said.
Both the boys and girls teams from River Hill won the team competition. Coach Earl Lauer said each runner knew what he or she had to do to help the team place, and that many ran better than expected.
“We kind of punched everyone in there and we had five in the top 25. You do that, you’re gonna be hard to beat,” he said. “I told them over a month ago, it’s yours to lose.”
He said the team has the potential to be successful in 2015, since five of their top finishers are not graduating and will run next year as well.
Albert Einstein edged Urbana for second place, 105-108, with Pauline McMurry and Ciciely Davy leading the way in 13th and 14th.
In the 2A class, Zach Gascho, a senior at Catocin, won for the boys in 16:24, helping propel his team to the top spot. Hayley Jackson, a sophomore from Patuxent, finished in 18:48. Liberty took the top team spot for girls. Poolesville finished fourth for the boys and seventh for the girls.
For 1A schools, Ty Franks, a junior from Boehmia Manor, won the boy’s race in 16:26. Katie Leisher, a senior at Manchester Valley, won in 19:42. Southern Garrett boys won the team competition, and Smithsburg was the top girls team.
The Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association announced realignment plans that would shift various schools, including several in the D.C. area, into new classifications and regions.
For Georgetown Day School’s Tristan Colaizzi, it wasn’t quite the day he envisioned when he toed the line for the Maryland-DC Private Schools Cross Country Championships at the Agricultural History Farm Park in Derwood.
Battling a chronic lung infection for the past few months, Colazzi knew early that he wasn’t going to be the one to challenge Good Counsel junior Jack Wavering for the top spot on this decisive race day. That’s when he tapped teammate senior Aidan Pillard less than a mile into the race and told him he’d have to be the man.
“Tristan had an asthma attack shortly into the first mile. He is our strongest runner. [Wavering] was moving off and Tristan said, ‘I’m hurting and I can’t do it this time,’ so I went with him and Zeke [Cohen] came with me,” explained Pillard.
[button-red url=”http://www.mcrrc.org/md-dc-private-schools-cross-country-championships” target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]The pack of runners hung together until the last 1200 meters. That’s when Wavering gave one final surge up the penultimate hill. “Coming up the really steep hill, I began to pull away a bit,” said Wavering. “The hills helped me out a lot.” Enough that Wavering was able to win the race in 16:14 besting Georgetown Day’s Pillard by just one second. Colaizzi ran a gutsy race and finished in third (16:30) edging out Good Counsel’s Kevin McGivern (16:30) in a near photo-finish and Zeke Cohen (16:31) before collapsing just across the line.
Thirty-three schools in all competed for state honors on this cool, calm and cloud filled day. Conditions were ideal for fast races and the runners did not disappoint.
[button-red url=”https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7mmxgelwxqej4a6/AADheNDVMXf03fK_QHcqtRSRa?dl=0″ target=”_self” position=”left”] Photos by Dan DiFonzo[/button-red]The going wasn’t so easy for Wavering early in the contest. “I was pretty worried at the beginning. I was behind the lead guys by 20 or 30 yards the first three quarters of a mile.” Wavering managed to catch the front runners near the one mile mark and hold that lead to the finish.
Georgetown Day’s Aidan Pillard said, “During our MAC championships I caught a guy in the last 200 meters and so I thought I was going to be able to do it again. I made up a lot of ground [on Wavering] but I couldn’t catch him. I think I let him cover a bit too much ground.”
For Good Counsel coach Tom Arnold, there’s a feeling of both pride and satisfaction for his number one runner.
“I’m really happy for Jack Wavering. One of the nicest and hardest working kids I’ve coached; straight A student, respectful. It’s really nice for him to win that. I really love that kid,” Arnold boasted.
[button-red url=”https://www.mediafire.com/folder/issya4kbudae3/DC_MD_STATES_2014″ target=”_self” position=”left”] Photos by Roger Colaizzi[/button-red]All season long the Georgetown Day trio of Colaizzi, Pillard and Cohen have worked together to lead their squad each doing what is needed to ensure success. Georgetown Day School head coach, Anthony Belber explained it best, “The seniors set the tone. Aidan saw that the number one guy was struggling and when someone goes down, someone steps in. That’s part of that ‘team’ mentality.”
Good Counsel and Georgetown Day finished one-two in the large school team competition. In the end, it was Good Counsel’s depth that allowed them to take home the top prize, besting Georgetown Day by seven points. Four of Good Counsel’s runners finished in the top ten (1, 4, 6, 8, 13). Gonzaga finished third.
On the girls side, it was a much happier day for Georgetown Day School in the large team category They bested Georgetown Visitation and Good Counsel to take home top honors.
Individually, Sidwell Friends’ Taylor Knibb finished first in 18:25, National Cathedral’s Page Lester finished second in 18:34 followed by Bryn Mawr’s Sophie Gitlin in 18:40. Knibb won the D.C. state championship the week before.
“It was a great team effort,” Belber said. “It’s the first time we’ve ever beat Georgetown Visitation at full strength.”
“Visitation has set the standard in the region for years with the girls program and they are just so consistent and deep. They win varsity races, they win JV races, they win private school races. They compete against public schools in the big invitationals. So we’ve always aspired to get to that level. Two or three years ago we didn’t even compete with them in the top three or four teams in the league. Now we’re state champions and it feels pretty good,” said a proud Belber.
In fact, Belber and his squad have a lot to be proud of. Katherine Treanor–third overall–ran a school record 19:27. A’Ishah Bakayoko — a converted soccer player–is a junior and in her first year running. She clocked a personal best 19:53. It was her first sub 20 minute performance.
“They are thrilled and I am thrilled,” exclaimed Belber.
Georgetown Visitation head coach, Kevin Hughes, was gracious in defeat, “Expectations are always to win, but Georgetown Day School has been on our heels every step of the way this season and today was their day. Their runners performed at an extremely high level and they came through and won a team championship.”
The Good Counsel girls didn’t fare as well.
“The girls performed poorly relative to what we had hoped for,” Arnold said . “By the thinnest of margins we might have been a contender, but there were just a bunch of teams that stomped us today.” It’s worth noting that Good Counsel carries a varsity squad of just six runners.
It was a great day for freshmen, however. Four of the top ten finishers were freshman. In addition to Lester and Gitlin, Good Counsel’s Claudia Wendt finished in sixth place (19:49). And, Genevieve Dibari of the Stone Ridge School of Sacred Heart finished ninth in 20:00.
For Wendt, there’s a learning curve to climb. “If I had to do it over, I would have gone out a little faster and tried to stay with the leaders,” she said.
For Bryn Mawr’s, Gitlin, it was a good day despite a little scare during the race.
“Toward the end my vision got a little blurry. When I finished, I couldn’t see anything. It was definitely a little scary. I was in second place for most of the race so I was bummed that right at the end [Lester] passed me in the last 100 yards. Racing is so unpredictable. Overall it went well.”
In the varsity girls small school event, junior Sami King from the Field School took first place in 19:18, followed by sophomore Julia Schaefer from Annapolis Area Christian (20:28) and senior Caitlin Flanagan from Rockbridge Academy (21:08).
St. Andrew’s Episcopal won the girls small school team competition. Second and third place awards were decided in a tie-breaker with St. Maria Goretti edging Rockbridge Academy.
The varsity boys small school race was won by senior Harry Wandersman of the Charles E Smith Jewish Day school in 17:23. Second place went to senior Alex Buchholz of Rockbridge Academy (17:30) and third place went to Jonah Smith of The Heights (17:31).
Team honors went to the Field School, followed by The Heights in second place and Bishop Walsh coming in third.
