While many coaches are worried about their team bringing home championships, Desmond Dunham his eye on a bigger prize.
The cross country coach at Wilson High School in Washington D.C. (now at St. John’s College High School, also in D.C.), who has been coaching for 17 years, said he measures his accomplishments by the success his athletes have later in life, once they’ve put their running shoes away.
“The true measuring stick for me is what has my program done for the kids over time: when they go to college, they go in their careers, they have their family,” he said.
Dunham, who coaches the girls cross country team as well as the co-ed track team, takes a holistic approach to coaching, focusing as much on their emotional well-being and academic performance as their achievements on the track. One of his favorite parts of coaching is to see how his athletes are able to carry the lessons learned in running over to other parts of their life.
“You have to learn to give your best even when you don’t feel your best. My athletes often hear me say you have to be willing to give 100 percent even when you don’t feel 100 percent,” he said. “I try to get them to realize that applies to everything you do in life.”
Hear Desmond Dunham on an August 2019 appearance on Pace the Nation
Marika Walker, a second-year PhD student in kinesiology at the University of Georgia, said the discipline she learned on Dunham’s cross country and track teams from 2004 through 2007 has gone on to help her in other aspects of her life.
“Running with him was difficult, and we achieved lot of stuff I wouldn’t have imagined before I started,” she said. “Now looking at other things, I can do a lot more than I think I can. I put more effort into all the other things that I do.”
Walker also gained some more concrete benefits from her running career on Dunham’s team: a scholarship to North Carolina State for her undergraduate education.
“Track got me through college, basically to where I am today,” she said. “I don’t know where I would’ve gone to school if I hadn’t have run for coach Dunham.”
While Walker no longer runs competitively, she continues to workout and maintain an active lifestyle.
Other athletes have benefited from Dunham’s holistic training more immediately. Despite being the new kid at school in August 2013, Julie Rakas, now a junior at Wilson, said being a member of the team made her feel right at home.
“I joined cross country when I first came here and he really made me feel included,” she said. “He really makes the whole team feel like a family almost.”
She said Dunham makes sure athletes are doing well academically, giving time off from practice to get caught up on work or visit teachers and getting permission before taking kids out of class for a competition. She also said he’s there emotionally for his athletes.
“He’s always there to talk to us. I’ve come to him with a lot of personal problems and he offers really good insight,” she said. “I feel really comfortable with him and I completely trust him.”
Dunham has overcome some of his own hurdles as well. He grew up in Gary, Ind., which he calls the “murder capital” of the country at the time. It was his own cross country coach who made sure Dunham and the other athletes learned the value of hard work and discipline – a coaching style he tries to emulate today.
“He was a father to many of us, the guys on the team,” he said. “We were able to just overcome a lot of adversities that we were facing in Gary, from the educational system to the violence, and he made running our outlet. He held us accountable no matter what the circumstances were, no matter what our backgrounds were.”
When Dunham moved to D.C. to attend Howard University, he volunteered with a local running program before getting a gig coaching for St. Gabriel’s Catholic School while working on his master’s. He coached at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt and the University of Maryland, in addition to coaching a junior olympic running team, before taking a job at Woodrow Wilson High School in 2012.
“The ability for me to be able to put a smile on a child’s face through the sport of cross country and track and field, it was the most rewarding experience that I had as a person,” he said. “I’ve always felt like after my first year of coaching that it was not only my passion but I also had a purpose in it as well.”
Dunham was so devoted to his athletes that he and his wife dipped into their own bank account to ensure all athletes on his junior olympics team, regardless of their economic background, could participate and travel with the team.
“We used to give all of our money to making sure kids could travel and have the same experience as everyone else,” he said. “There was a time when our utilities were being cut off so we could make sure we gave every single kid in our program the same experiences.”
In addition to coaching, running all three seasons and working full-time as a physical education teacher at Wilson, Dunham also coaches his own two kids in a variety of sports from baseball to basketball to tennis. He also is a board member at Capital City Little League.
“Somehow we manage everything,” he said, noting that he couldn’t do it without his “awesome wife.” “We try to keep a balance where we make sure if we do have busy weeks, we try to culminate the week making sure there’s a focus on our kids to make sure we’re still in tune with them.”
On top of everything, Dunham is involved with the D.C. Cross Country Project, an initiative with Pacers to increase participation across the city, improve programs at schools and increase awareness of the sport. He said he is excited to be part of an organization that lets him help even more young athletes succeed.
“I could do great things within my program to help a good amount of kids, but if I can be involved with something on a much larger scale, it’s definitely way more fulfilling to be able to help the masses to be able to have the experiences I once had,” he said.
Dunham still manages to find time to log about 30 to 40 miles a week, as much for the physical benefit as the emotional release.
“After finishing a run,” he said, “I feel like I shed so many pounds of stress.”
This article originally appeared in the September/October 2014 RunWashington.
More than 1,900 high school cross country runners christened the inaugural DCXC Invitational at Kenilworth Park in Northeast D.C. Saturday afternoon. They came from Virginia, Maryland, D.C., Delaware, Pennsylvania and North Carolina and battled for five hours on a warm fall afternoon.
[button-red url=”http://dcxc.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/#/team_totals” target=”_self” position=”left”] Team scores [/button-red] The meet split up varsity teams among classes, giving spectators eight chances to watch runners race against their peers. The format also switched up the invitational style in the middle of the season. Each race scored three runners, and the results compiled for all races led to Virginia’s James Madison winning the girls’ races over Lake Braddock, Ocean Lakes, Bethesda-Chevy Chase and Winston Churchill; Lake Braddock won the boys’ team title over Pennsylvania’s Cardinal O’Hara, Winston Churchill, James Madison and Gonzaga. Lake Braddock also won the combined boys’ and girls’ team title, over James Madison, Winston Churchill, James F. Robinson and Bethesda-Chevy Chase.
With their races done and cooldowns complete, younger runners were able to line the course for the seniors’ races, and be recovered and ready to celebrate. As soon as Georgetown Day School senior Aidan Pillard crossed the line in 15:56, junior teammate Tristan Colaizzi grabbed, him, picked him up and swung him around in exultation like a sweaty rag doll.
“It was hard to go off to the junior race, not having him with me,” Colaizzi said. “I’m used to racing with him all the time.”
Promising freshmen who aren’t necessarily at the front of big races had a chance to stand out, as did freshman Josh Fry of Bethesda-Chevy Chase, who usually finishes seventh on his team’s varsity.
“I got to be the team leader for this race,” he said. “I look up to the seniors on the team because they know what it takes. I think I’m learning.”
The field sizes also played a role.
“Instead of running in a pack of 10, you wind up with three or four,” said James Madison senior Amanda Swaak. Lake Braddock, which faced fields of 600 the weekend before, found the starts a lot more manageable.
The two loop course was flat but not smooth, which delighted runners coming off of the hilly Oatlands Invitational a week before.
Senior Anteneh Girma had enough of the hills that came with many of the cross country courses his T.C. Williams’ team had run this year, so the relatively flat DCXC course catered to his strengths, none moreso perhaps than the roughly 300 meter finish on an all-weather track. He cranked out a 15:24 to finish fourth in the last race of the day.
“I’m more of a track runner, so that was like a gift to me,” he said. “The courses I’ve run so far haven’t been great for me until this one.”
Freshman girls
When Sophia Divone showed up to join Langley’s cross country team, coach Gifford Krivak threw her into practice and saw before his eyes what his team had.
“Within a few days she was running with the boys,” he said.
It helped that she had years of Junior Olympic swimming building her endurance, along with a mother who ran in high school and a father, Chuck, who has run three marathons.
“It started as her running with me, then me running with her, then me running behind her,” he said.
[button-red url=”http://dcxc.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/#/home/afrg” target=”_self” position=”left”] Freshman girls results [/button-red]Divone’s debut race was inauspicious, with her getting lost at the Monroe Parker Invitational. She started the DCXC race cautious about the heat, and hung back with Georgetown Visitation’s Micaela Kirvan (second, 20:17) and Richard Montgomery’s Nefrit El–Masry (fourth, 20:42) before taking off to a 11-second lead over Lake Braddock’s Sarah Daniels (third, 20:20) by the second mile mark, and by the end she had a 13-second margin over Kirvan to win in 20:04.
“I wanted to come into the race with an open mind about what could happen but not get out too fast in the heat,” she said. “It was motivating to be catching girls and moving ahead.”
Where’s Divone’s time made her the fastest Saxon at the race by more than two minutes, Kirvan and Daniels each got a chance to shine for their teams among their peers. Georgetown Visitation coach Kevin Hughes intimated that Kirvan had earned herself a spot on his team’s varsity. Daniels’ performance this season, putting her fourth on the Bruins’ varsity team, has earned her a trip to Florida to compete in the Walt Disney World Classic in two weeks.
Freshman Boys
His kick made all the difference for Poolesville’s Ryan Lockett (17:01). He put two seconds on Gonzaga’s John Colucci in the last 150 meters to kick off team scoring for the boys.
He was planning on kicking the whole time, he said while shaking hands with seemingly every freshman boy he raced a few minutes prior.
“I just tried to stay with whoever the front guy was going to be throughout the race,” “(Colucci) was really strong but I just had to give it my all.”
Lockett’s sister, homeschooled youth running phenom Meghan, described her brother’s kick as “nasty.”
“I’m really proud of him, the way he’s gone after the sport,” she said. “It’s something he wants to do–well.”
Like Meghan, Ryan Lockett participated in Frederick, Md. youth track in preparation for his high school career, though his father Chris said DCXC had been his biggest race so far.
[button-red url=”http://dcxc.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/#/home/afrb” target=”_self” position=”left”] Freshman boys results [/button-red]The pair separated themselves from the field by eight seconds at the mile and ended up almost a minute ahead of third place Josh Fry, of Bethesda-Chevy Chase (17:58).
Colucci was only three seconds off his PR, set two weeks before. He ran as an eighth grader, and is still adapting to high school racing.
“The starts are usually really tight,” he said. “I try to just make myself “wide” and make sure nobody knocks me around.”
Fry, who typically finishes seventh overall for the Barons, passed a pair of runners in the third mile and relished the chance to race purely against other freshmen.
Sophomore Girls
Left to her own devices, Isabelle Oliver did alright. Her team, the tiny Trinity School in Fairfax County near Falls Church, put every one of its runners in the junior varsity races but her. Though she lined up by herself, she wasn’t alone as she ran to an eight-second margin of victory in 19:07.
“Everyone else’s races were done a few hours ago, but they stayed and cheered for me,” she said. “I love our team.”
[button-red url=”http://dcxc.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/#/home/asog” target=”_self” position=”left”] Sophomore girls results [/button-red]After some second-mile letdowns, Oliver resolved to run hard through two miles and see where that put her. As it turned out, it put her two seconds ahead of Lake Braddock’s Kate Murphy, whom she would go on to best by 16 seconds.
“I didn’t start out in the lead because I didn’t think I was going to win,” she said of the four seconds she spotted Murphy and Ocean Lakes’ Madeleine King. “I thought I’d draft for a while, but they slowed down and I just kept going.”
Eight seconds behind, Devon Williams finished, representing a James Madison team that has claimed titles at the Monroe Parker and Oatlands invitationals. Williams, a former field hockey player, has adapted from her 800 meter roots
It made me run harder because they’re all my age, so there’s no excuse to lose,” she said. “I was just hoping to finish in the top five, so I was a little surprised to be second.”
During the summer, while adding to her mileage, the sport clicked for her.
“I felt like this is something I definitely should be doing.”
Sophomore Boys
Rohann Asfaw is off to a fast start in 2014, leading his Richard Montgomery team and winning the Frank Keyser Invitational in Boonsboro, Md. the week before DCXC, where he prevailed over Griffin Mackey by five seconds in 16:23.
The key to his breakout fall? His summer training. And not just getting in the miles.
“A lot of swimming, a little bit of Wii Fit,” he said. “I just want to be strong all around.”
[button-red url=”http://dcxc.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/#/home/asob” target=”_self” position=”left”] Sophomore Boys Results [/button-red]Mackey, who runs for Sewickley Academy outside of Pittsburgh, visits the D.C. area frequently with his family and was drawn to the race. His coach gave him the go-ahead to race on his own
“I came down here to break 16,” he said. “I didn’t do that but I had a great race with Rohann. It ended up being hot but racing him kept me going.”
Mackey recovered to run 35:10 to win the Perfect 10k in Reston the next morning.
Third place finisher Ryan James (16:43) is typically the second fastest runner for the Cardinal O’Hara team from outside of Philadelphia.
“We ran the course yesterday, and I thought it was going to be fast paced, but it was pretty hot,” he said. “I turned my ankle early on but managed to keep pushing. That’s what I have to do when a race gets tough if I want to help O’Hara win a state title.”
Junior Girls
Anticipation built over the week leading up to DCXC.
[button-red url=”http://dcxc.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/#/home/ajrg” target=”_self” position=”left”] Junior girls Results [/button-red]Just how fast was Weini Kelati going to run? With her shoes tied tight enough that she wouldn’t have to stop? And with fewer hills than the Oatlands Invitational, where she made her debut for Leesburg’s Heritage team seven days before? How would the IAAF World Junior Championships participant follow up her debut?
The answer was 17:45, and quite impressively. Green Hope’s Elly Henes went with her for a mile, in 5:22, but Kelati pulled away soon after to run the fastest girls’ time of the day.
“No hills this time, but there was a lot of heat,” she said, noting she liked the finish on the track, were she is more comfortable.
“It was time to see how fast we could run,” said coach Doug Gilbert. “We had one, five and 35, so our team was looking pretty good. I’ll take six points out of one and two any day.”
Fifth place Georgie Mackenzie lost a shoe with a half mile to go at Oatlands last week, but kept them on at DCXC, though she still dealt with rough terrain on the course.
“There were a few places I pitched forward on the course so I had to catch myself,” she said. “I knotted my shoes 20 times. Our courses so far this season have been very hilly, so it’s nice to run something flatter for a change.”
Henes’s team came from Cary, N.C. looking for a good race, and she feels like they got one. Though her 18:11 runner-up time didn’t match her sub-18 time from the prior year’s state championship, she felt like she handled the course well.
“It was difficult,” she said, “but that’s what you get with a real cross country course. A lot of courses in Cary are just crushed gravel. Here there were dips and holes and you had to know how to really race the course.”
She looked forward to taking a swing at Kelati, and didn’t back down.
“I went with her as long as I could, which was until a little after the mile,” she said. “She pulled away little, then just dropped me. She’s a really good runner.”
Sami King, already the Field School’s (in D.C.) top runner in team history, saw the course’s challenge coming from the sharp turns.
“They threw me off a little, but I got better as the race went on,” she said.
A long pause on the starting line built up tension, but King was able to chill out after the gun and work on catching Henes, and she got about two seconds behind her at the two mile mark.
In fourth place, Westfield’s Sara Freix is working her way into a season that, counter-intuitively, is not going as well as one she prepared for less.
“Last year I ran maybe 10 times over the summer,” she said. “It’s weird, but I’m starting to get back to where I was.”
Junior Boys
D.C. got an individual win in the junior boys’ race, when the Georgetown Day School’s Tristan Colaizzi outkicked Lake Braddock’s Colin Schaefer in the last 150 meters on the track for a 15:41-15:46 win. Schaefer had a six second lead at the two mile mark.
[button-red url=”http://dcxc.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/#/home/ajrb” target=”_self” position=”left”] Junior boys Results [/button-red]“(Coach) Anthony (Belber) told us to go out there and be confident,” Colaizzi said. “When I saw him with about 500 left, he told me ‘If you want this, you’ve gotta go now.’ I put my eyes on the back of (Schaefer’s) head and just went after him. When we got on the track I passed him and even though my legs were dead, I thought about all those 800s and miles I raced in track. That last stretch, I saw my shadow and thought it was his and it scared me a little.”
If seeing his shadow means six more weeks of good racing, Colaizzi and the GDS Hoppers won’t complain.
Schaefer recently moved to Virginia from Las Vegas, and he’s finding the climate to be much more to his liking.
“We’d race some afternoons and it was 115 degrees,” he said. “Not humid, but a lot of sand. I like running here a little better. I get to train with the best team in the state.”
One of those teammates followed in third place — Ben Fogg. He hung behind Colaizzi, Schaefer, Bethesda-Chevy Chase’s Dylan Kannapell and Joey Garrett of Delaware’s Tatnall School, before running even with Kannapell right to the finish line, where Fogg leaned for the edge.
Senior Girls
Though Nora McUmber’s state track titles and Nike Cross Nationals berth made her a favorite on paper at the DCXC Invitational, it was a piece of paper that struck some nerves as she prepared for the race.
“These bibs with our names on them,” she said referring to the personalized race bibs for the All-RunWashington preseason team. “I wanted to do well to meet expectations.”
“Our team motto is ‘be fearless,’ so I was more aggressive than I would usually be,” she said. “(Fourth place finisher) Lucy Srour was up there and we worked together. I’ve known her and raced against her for a while and it was great knowing she was there in the race with me.”
[button-red url=”http://dcxc.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/#/home/asrg” target=”_self” position=”left”] Senior girls Results[/button-red]McUmber and James Madison senior Amanda Swaak separated from the rest of the field and came through two miles with Srour in tow with a 10-second lead over Washington-Lee’s Donia Nichols. Then McUmber went for it, and put together enough of a kick to put 33 seconds on Swaak (18:29) and sneak under 18 minutes for a 17:58 finish. Georgetown Visitation’s Emily Kaplan snuck into third place during the third mile in 18:41.
“It was great to race against the Maryland girls,” Swaak said. “It was a new challenge we haven’t had much of at meets yet.”
Srour enjoyed the race, despite running only a few times the week before, owing to illness.
“The sun was in our eyes, but that was better than it being hot,” she said.”I didn’t really have a plan for the race, except not going out too fast.”
Senior Boys
[button-red url=”http://dcxc.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/#/home/asrb” target=”_self” position=”left”] Senior boys Results [/button-red]With 12 runners under 16 minutes, the senior boys put on the performance of the night, and despite the top local talent in the race, including 12 of the top 21 seniors in the D.C. area as judged in the preseason by the RunWashington coaches panel, out-of-towner Kevin James of Cardinal O’Hara stole a win in 15:11.
“I didn’t want to be the guy leading the race, there were too many good guys in there,” he said. “I just sat for a mile, it felt easy. I took the lead and didn’t push it too much, just stayed on the pace that opened the race and other guys fell off.”
Alex Corbett of Lake Braddock led the local contingent, with his 15:17 PR, nearly catching James.
“That was something I had been wanting to do all season,” he said. “I had been doing alright before, but this was a big race for me.”
He’s not as fast as a number of guys in the race, so Corbett wanted to find a consistent pace that he could manage for a long time, and others could not. That meant being more aggressive during the first stages of the race to make sure he didn’t get trapped in bottlenecks.
Georgetown Day School’s Aidan Pillard broke 16 by four seconds and was thrilled with his race.
“I just found a guy (Patrick Myers of Robinson, 15:54),” he said. He went when I wanted go and he pulled me along. I couldn’t catch him in the end, but I couldn’t have done it without him.”
At the same second, Walt Whitman’s Amir Khaghani PRed, thanks in part to working without a net. Coach Steve Hays confiscated his watch before the race, which teammate Alex Roederer credited with Khaghani’s success. As did Khaghani.
“I ran hard from the start and did better than I ever had before,” he said. “We want to do something special this year and I needed to help make that happen.”
Thirty-three of the 62 All-RunWashington preseason runners competed at the Oatlands Invitational in Leesburg, with teams from Maryland and D.C. making it the first of the big opportunities this season for harriers to race their contemporaries from across the river.
It served as a debut for Weini Kelati, a recent transfer to Heritage, who moved to Virginia from her native Eritrea. She won the race in 18:12, just off the course record, despite stopping twice to tie her shoes. Loudoun Valley junior Andrew Hunter easily won in 15:21 over Walt Whitman senior Evan Woods, who ran 15:55.
In Boonsboro, Md., home to the JFK 50 Mile, Montgomery County runners opted instead to run 5k at the Frank Keyser Invitational, which worked out well for Richard Montgomery sophomore Rohann Asfaw and Clarksburg senior Lucie Noall, who won their races in 15:55 and 18:50.
Teams from all parts of the D.C. area also headed up to the Mercersburg Invitational in Pennsylvania, where National Cathedral School freshman Page Lester won the girls race in 19:24 over Sidwell junior Taylor Knibb‘s 19:28. On the boys’ side, junior Jack Wavering (16:49) led his Good Counsel team to victory, thanks in large part to the pack of four runners that finished within 10 seconds of each other to place five in the top 10, after the local trio of Sidwell senior Jake Gosselin in third, St. Albans senior Joey Gaines in fourth and Episcopal senior Greg Morgan in fifth.
RunWashington coaches panel member Chris Pellegrini, coach at West Springfield, offered his analysis of the weekend’s action. He took the Spartans to the Adidas XC Challenge in North Carolina, where senior Tim Ward finished seventh in 15:35, with Winston Churchill senior David Fitzgerald close behind in 15:42. Bethesda-Chevy Chase senior Nora McUmber finished fourth there in 18:07.
“James Madison girls really looked sharp at Oatlands. In such an oversized meet, it can be tough to run well, as many solid teams in past years haven’t been able to fight through the traffic. However, Madison was great through their whole 1-5 lineup. They look like a podium team.”
“Andrew Hunter proved he is the class of the area without a doubt. (Chantilly’s) Ryan McGorty still needs to be considered the favorite for the 6A State Championship if he isn’t taken out that hard. Johnny Pace of Westfield ran intelligently, and was rewarded with a good time and an upset of McGorty.
“The Walt Whitman boys ran well as the runners up at Oatlands. While not on the same level as Lake Braddock, they look like a solid team.”
Lake Braddock traveled to Louisville for the Valkyrie Invitational, where coach Mike Mangan said the race field sizes took the Bruins by surprise, but Kevin Monogue (15th, 15:44) and Kate Murphy (17th, 18:35) led their respective teams.
Here’s how the All-RunWashington preseason team did. If the runner is marked inconclusive and you know where they ran or if they didn’t compete, comment on this article and let me know. Unless I’ve seen a schedule for the team and it specifically says they aren’t racing, I err on the side of caution. Runners in bold are scheduled for the DCXC Invitational Saturday.
All-RunWashington
Tristan Colaizzi- Georgetown Day School- 16th, Oatlands, 16:34
Alex Corbett, Lake Braddock- 21st, Valkyrie (KY), 15:50
Andrew Hunter, Loudoun Valley- 1st, Oatlands, 15:21
Amir Khghani, Walt Whitman- 22nd, Oatlands 16:45
Alex Maguire, Fairfax- 101st, Oatlands 17:37
Ryan McGorty, Chantilly- 4th, Oatlands, 16:00
Kevin Monogue, Lake Braddock- 15th, Valkyrie (KY), 15:44
Tim Ward, West Springfield- 7th, Adidas Challenge, 15:35
Evan Woods, Walt Whitman- 2nd, Oatlands, 15:55
Diego Zarate, Northwest- inconclusive
Lauren Berman, Robinson- inconclusive
Xaveria Hawvermale, Chantilly- 33rd, Oatlands, 20:24
Kiernan Keller, Walter Johnson- 7th, Oatlands, 19:11
Casey Kendall, Oakton- did not race
Allie Klimkiewicz, Oakton- did not race
Ellie Leape, Sidwell- 4th, Mercersburg, 20:12
Georgie Mackenzie, Heritage- 11th, Oatlands, 19:20
Nora McUmber, Bethesda-Chevy Chase- 4th, Adidas Challenge, 18:07
Emily Murphy, Walter Johnson- 13th, Oatlands, 19,29
Amanda Swaak, James Madison- 4th, Oatlands, 19:05
All-D.C.
Liam Albrittain, Georgetown Day School- 122nd, Oatlands, 17:46
Christy Andjalepou, Cardozo-inconclusive
Jacob Floam, Gonzaga-did not race
Joey Gaines, St. Albans- 4th, Mercersburg, 17:18
Aidan Pillard, Georgetown Day School- 26th, Oatlands, 16:51
Peter Sikorsky, Gonzaga- did not race
Will Wimbish, Gonzaga- did not race
Erin Bell, National Cathedral-inconclusive
Lauren Cormier, Georgetown Visitation- did not race
Emily Kaplan, Georgetown Visitation- 24th, Oatlands, 19:56
Sami King, Field- inconclusive
Mayim Lehrich, Wilson-inconclusive
Margaret Lindsay, Georgetown Visitation- 226th, Oatlands, 22:57
Katherine Treanor, Georgetown Day School- 4th, Oatlands B, 20:47
All-Maryland
Rohann Asfaw, Richard Montgomery- 1st, Frank Keyser, 15:55
Itai Bezerahno, Walter Johnson- 48th, Oatlands, 17:10
William Kirk, Rockville- 4th, Frank Keyser, 16:19
Alex Roederer, Walt Whitman- 10th, Oatlands, 16:19
Colin Sybing, T.S. Wootton- inconclusive
Liam Walsh, Quince Orchard- 29th, Adidas Challenge, 16:05
Jack Wavering, Good Council- 2nd, Mercersburg, 16:49
Claire Beautz, Poolesville- did not race
Sophie El-Masry, Richard Montgomery- 4th, Frank Keyser, 19:51
Katriane Kirsch, Walter Johnson- 25th, Oatlands, 20:07
Theresa Nardone, Poolesville- did not race
Lucie Noall, Clarksburg- 1st, Frank Keyser, 18:50
Julia Reicin, Winston Churchill- 42nd, Adidas Challenge, 19:27
Lucy Srour, Winston Churchill- 10th, Adidas Challenge, 18:21
All-Virginia
Johnny Pace, Westfield- 3rd, Oatlands, 15:59
Bobby Dunn, Centreville- did not race
Anteneh Girma, T.C. Williams- 9th, Oatlands, 16:18
Robert Lockwood, W.T. Woodson- 30th, Oatlands, 16:53
Matt Frame, West Potomac- 43rd, Oatlands, 17:07
David Falcone, W.T. Woodson- did not race
Aviad Gebrehiwot, Annadale-72nd, Oatlands, 17:26
Kathryn Eng, Washington-Lee- 43rd, Oatlands, 20:34
Kelly Hart, Yorktown- did not race
Sara Friex, Westfield- 5th, Oatlands, 19:09
Leya Salis, Oakton- did not race
Jillian Everly, Osbourn Park- 12th, Oatlands, 19:23
Kate Murphy, Lake Braddock-17th, Valkyrie (KY), 18:35
Morgan Whittock, James Madison- 19th, Oatlands, 19:50
Loudoun County’s cross country teams were gracious hosts at the Oatlands Invitational, but not pushovers.
Last year’s 3A state champion Andrew Hunter of Loudoun Valley continued to exhibit his dominance that has been budding since last spring to win in 15:21, and Heritage newcomer and Eritrean native Weini Kelati surprised the field with an early lead that was never threatened, despite a loose shoelace that forced her to stop twice. She won in 18:12.
Kelati came to Leesburg to live with her cousin, Amselom Teklai, who serves as her guardian, after running the IAAF World Junior Championships in Oregon over the summer.
“The team has been very welcoming to her,” he said. “They’ve taught her a lot and helped make her feel comfortable at school.”
Without any fluency in English, Teklai said, the county considers her a freshman, but at 17, she has two years to compete. With a 9:12 3,000 meter to her name, a race without two stops certainly would have put the 18:04 course record, by Hannah Davidson of New York’s Saratoga Springs, in jeopardy.
Her emergence on the scene will turn some heads throughout the state and beyond, from the epicenter on the hilly course laid on the grounds of the Oatlands Plantation.
When Kelati took off, Loudoun Valley senior Ciara Donohue, who finished third in 18:57, was taken by surprise.
“I had no idea who she was, but I just let her go,” she said. “She was either going to get tired and come back or not, and chasing her seemed like a bad idea that early on.”
Heritage coach Doug Gilbert added that along with junior Georgie Mackenzie‘s (11th, 19:20) emergence, the season is shaping up to be exciting for the Pride.
“(Kelati) is an amazing kid that is making the adjustment to high school running,” he said. “It is, of course, very different for her and the language barrier presents us with some challenges, (but) just in the first week she has picked up a lot and I have no doubt that she figure the rest out quickly.”
The race offered the first of several chances for teams from Virginia, Maryland and D.C. to compete against one another. Defending Maryland 4A champion Walter Johnson crossed the river to take on Virginia’s James Madison, who looked strong in a win two weeks ago winning the Monroe Parker Invitational. Madison took the victory 109-133, with a wide gap back to last year’s Virginia 6A runner-up, Washington-Lee with 286.
Madison senior Amanda Swaak, who won the Monroe Parker individual title, finished fourth in 19:05, followed by first-year cross country runner Devon Williams in 16th, Morgan Whittrock in 19th and Laura Sullivan in 26th.
“We figured we could have four in the top 25 and we were just off that,” said Madison assistant Matt Kroetch. “We had a hard week of training and fit a 10 miler in on Thursday, so they weren’t tapered but managed to run pretty strong anyway. You can’t always prepare for the kind of hills you get here, but if you’re mentally tough, you can overcome a lot of those things.”
Despite coming up short, Walter Johnson assistant Ashley St. Denis saw a lot to tout from the race.
“We like to give our freshmen a chance to run at these big races to give them a taste of what it’s like,” she said, noting this was one of the largest fields the Wildcats will see. “You can’y run girls at that talent level in small races where they’re beating everybody, that doesn’t help them.”
Senior Kiernan Keller led the team in 7th in 19:11 with freshman Abbey Green four seconds behind in 10th. Junior Emily Murphy followed in 13th, squeezing three between Madison’s first and second finishers.
“I just love that fearless freshman mentality, where they don’t know how talented they are,” St. Denis said about Green. “It’s so much fun…she doesn’t know who anyone is, she just goes out there and races.
“They (the freshmen) are coming in and seeing how hard our team works and they follow. They’re running faster than our freshmen have in years.”
Freshmen also finished sixth and seventh for the Wildcats. Additionally, two rookies led Virginia’s George C. Marshall team — Ashley and Heather Holt, who finished eighth and ninth at 19:14. The twins started their high school careers the week before, each running a 2.5k legs at the Braddock Relays, but Oatlands was their first high school 5k race.
“We just wanted them to run smart, get some experience and then they’ll be ready to run faster,” said Statesmen coach Darrell General. “I told them to just avoid getting boxed out, stay near the leaders, don’t get overwhelmed.”
Marshall finished sixth in the girls’ varsity race and added a junior varsity title.
“It’s the best girls team we’ve had since I started in 2002,” General said. “We’re very deep. We’ve had a good varsity squad before, but we have a really good junior varsity team too.”
Hunter made short work of the field for a 34-second win over Walt Whitman’s Evan Woods, just missing Louis Colson’s 15:16 meet record from 2013.
“I made a significant move up the hill in the woods at 1.5 miles,” he said. “When I hit the top of the big hill, I laid off a bit to save a little for the last 200 meters.”
It was a 24-second improvement from his 15:45 finish last year.
“I just want to compete, try different things in races,” he said of the early part of the season. “This is going to be the hardest course I run, so to run low 15:20s here makes me feel pretty good. Maybe if I had pushed harder early on I could have gotten the record but I can’t complain about a win.”
In contrast, Woods was pleased with a more conservative opening mile, downhill, around the high 4:40s.
“Last year I tried to run with the big guys and I spent the last two miles suffering,” he said. “This year I hung back and didn’t get worn out. It was a lot more fun.”
Teammate Alex Roederer outkicked Millbrook’s Alec Shrank to finish 10th and help Witman to the runner-up position. The Vikings (242 points), save for an asthma attack affecting one of their runners, were in a position to strike Brentsville District (177). Chantilly, lead by Ryan McGorty in fourth, finished with 258 points.
Laid end-to-end, the races by the scoring five of a cross country team would stretch 15.5 miles.
As cool as that would be, it would take forever, so the Braddock Relays cuts it in half, gives the runners and atmosphere otherwise saved for high school football games and pits the teams against one another, one runner at a time.
Each 2500 meter leg wound around Lake Braddock’s athletic fields and part of a parking lot before an exchange zone on the track.
Ron Kronlage has brought his J.E.B. Stuart team here for several years.
“The kids love the atmosphere, it’s a lot of fun and a nice change from running 5k races every week,” he said.
He leant his strategy for planning out the 5×2.5k relay lineup: “In some races, I’d want veterans running first and last, but my team’s not as competitive as these other teams. We’re among the last place, so we want to give our kids something to fight for as long as possible.”
So the lineup ends up following the team’s finishing order from other, traditional, races.
“The downside of that is, you get to the last leg, you have a runner who is overmatched,” he said. “For that last leg, you want someone with a lot of strength and determination there. not necessarily the fastest runner, but someone who has a competitive streak.”
Lake Braddock won both championship titles, with senior Alex Corbett recording the fastest leg in the boys’ race and Robinson senior Lauren Berman hitting the fastest in the girls’ race.
George Marshall coach Darrell General opted to put his inexperienced runners, two freshman years, in the two leadoff spots to make sure they’d have people to run with, then relying on his more experienced runners’ confidence to pull them through to the finish.
Meet director and Lake Braddock coach Mike Mangan said while it’s hard to extrapolate anything about the teams from the relays, it’s “lots of fun on a kind of off week.”
Elsewhere, several Mongtomery County teams opened their season in earnest at the Track n’ Trail Invitational in Elkton, where T.S. Wootton’s boys, led by senior and individual winner Patrick Munro, and Bethesda-Chevy Chase, led by winner Nora McUmber, took team crowns.
“I am continuously amazed at B-CC and how good and how deep they are,” Wootton coach Kellie Redmond said. “The top 25 medaled at this meet and B-CC had eight of those medals. If Caroline Beakes returns they will only be that much stronger.”
She noted that Quince Orchard’s boys were looking good for the early part of the season and Richard Montgomery’s Rohann Asfaw, who finished fourth in 16:25, is likely coming back from a hip injury, setting him up for a strong postseason as his recovery continues.
In Virginia, Oakton went to the Knights Crossing Invitational in Salem and lost handily to Blacksburg, which dominated the race with three ahead of Oakton’s first.
“They’re likely still the cream of the crop team in our area,” said West Springfield coach Chris Pellegrini. “Lake Braddock girls are starting to sharpen up and gain a little bit on Oakton.
“Robinson boys are very underrated, and look like a team that is top four or so in the area,” he added. “Oakton boys are unspectacular, but are still running extremely well. They haven’t lost a step despite graduating a number of top athletes from last year.”
I’m still gathering results to update how our preseason All-RunWashington team did. If you know and want to speed up the discovery process for runners marked “inconclusive,” email [email protected].
All-RunWashington
Tristan Colaizzi- Georgetown Day School- inconclusive
Alex Corbett, Lake Braddock- fastest leg at the Braddock Relays
Andrew Hunter, Loudoun Valley- inconclusive
Amir Khghani, Walt Whitman- 2nd at B-CC dual meet, 16:28
Alex Maguire, Fairfax- ran the Braddock Relays
Ryan McGorty, Chantilly- 1st, Judges Classic, 15:43
Kevin Monogue, Lake Braddock- ran the Braddock Relays
Tim Ward, West Springfield- Did not race
Evan Woods, Walt Whitman- 1st at B-CC dual meet, 16:22
Diego Zarate, Northwest- 1st, William and Mary, 16:45
Lauren Berman, Robinson- fastest leg at the Braddock Relays
Xaveria Hawvermale, Chantilly- 2nd, Judges Classic, 18:42
Kiernan Keller, Walter Johnson- inconclusive
Casey Kendall, Oakton- 5th, Knights Crossing, 18:29
Allie Klimkiewicz, Oakton- 7th, Knights Crossing, 18:31
Ellie Leape, Sidwell- inconclusive
Georgie Mackenzie- 4th, Judges Classic, 19:03
Nora McUmber, Bethesda-Chevy Chase- 1st, Track n’ Trail, 18:35
Emily Murphy, Walter Johnson- inconclusive
Amanda Swaak, James Madison- inconclusive
All-D.C.
Liam Albrittain, Georgetown Day School- inconclusive
Christy Andjalepou, Cardozo-inconclusive
Jacob Floam, Gonzaga- 15th, Barnhart, 16:19
Joey Gaines, St. Albans- inconclusive
Aidan Pillard, Georgetown Day School- inconclusive
Peter Sikorsky, Gonzaga- 27th, Barnhart, 16:48
Will Wimbish, Gonzaga- 92nd, Barnhart, 18:11, with a cold
Erin Bell, National Cathedral- inconclusive
Lauren Cormier, Georgetown Visitation- inconclusive
Emily Kaplan, Georgetown Visitation- inconclusive
Sami King, Field- 3rd, Howard County Invitational, 19:33
Mayim Lehrich, Wilson- Ran at Braddock Relays
Margaret Lindsay, Georgetown Visitation- inconclusive
Katherine Treanor, Georgetown Day School- inconclusive
All-Maryland
Rohann Asfaw, Richard Montgomery- 4th, Track n’ Trail, 16:25
Itai Bezerahno, Walter Johnson- inconclusive
William Kirk, Rockville- inconclusive
Alex Roederer, Walt Whitman- 3rdat B-CC dual meet, 16:28
Colin Sybing, T.S. Wootton- 6th, Track n’ Trail, 16:29
Liam Walsh, Quince Orchard- 5th, Track n’ Trail, 16:
Jack Wavering, Good Council- 2nd, Great Meadows 16:08
Claire Beautz, Poolesville- dual meet with Wootton
Sophie El-Masry, Richard Montgomery- 6th, Track n’ Trail, 19:22
Katriane Kirsch, Walter Johnson- inconclusive
Theresa Nardone, Poolesville- inconclusive
Lucie Noall, Clarksburg- inconclusive
Julia Reicin, Winston Churchill- dual meet with Sherwood
Lucy Srour, Winston Churchill- 1st in dual meet with Sherwood, 19:53
All-Virginia
Johnny Pace, Westfield- Ran the Westfield Run-a-thon
Bobby Dunn, Centreville- inconclusive
Anteneh Girma, T.C. Williams- 2nd, William and Mary, 16:19
Robert Lockwood, W.T. Woodson- ran the Braddock Relays
Matt Frame, West Potomac- ran the Braddock Relays
David Falcone, W.T. Woodson- ran the Braddock Relays
Aviad Gebrehiwot, Annadale-inconclusive
Kathryn Eng, Washington-Lee- inconclusive
Kelly Hart, Yorktown- inconclusive
Sara Friex, Westfield- Ran the Westfield Run-a-thon
Leya Salis, Oakton- 12th, Knights Crossing, 18:50
Jillian Everly, Osbourn Park- inconclusive
Kate Murphy, Lake Braddock- ran the Braddock Relays
Morgan Whittock, James Madison- inconclusive
When he last set foot on a track, all was right in Jim Vollmer‘s world. He was at the Maryland state track and field championships over Memorial Day weekend, working as a race official and silently cheering on his Poolesville High School runners, whom he coached in cross country.
He left the meet with genuine excitement and a feeling of satisfaction for the achievement of his runners on this sunny spring day. Senior Chase Weaverling capped a sensational senior year by winning the state title in the boys’ 3200 meter race. And the girls’ and boys’ 4×800 meter squads ran spirited efforts to finish third and fourth, respectively.
“He was so proud of all of his runners that day,” said senior Matt Psaltakis. “He took a lot of pride in knowing that we were there.”
Vollmer passed away suddenly at home May 26, setting off a shock wave of emotions for everyone in the Poolesville running community. He left behind a loving wife, Sandy, and two daughters. He was 60.
He had been building the cross country program at Poolesville for more than two decades. Over the last 24 years he had worked with hundreds of students and coaches — many of whom had kept in touch with him throughout the years. This was apparent at his funeral service, when scores of runners from the past and present came to pay their last respects to their charismatic coach.
For Presad Gerard, it was a beneficial partnership. Gerard, a chemistry teacher at Poolesville, reached out to Vollmer six years ago about joining the team as an assistant. At that time, Poolesville already had an assistant coach, but Gerard convinced Vollmer that he’d be an asset and joined the team as a volunteer coach.
“The [existing] assistant coach left after that season and I was elevated into the position of assistant,” Gerard said. “Over time, my role shifted from assistant to more of an equal. Jim and I have been co-coaches ever since.”
Vollmer and Gerard’s team-coaching approach has been successful despite two clearly different training philosophies. Vollmer, a former collegiate 400 meter specialist and track athlete has been characterized as the motivational coach. Gerard, an experienced ultra-marathoner and distance runner, is described as the more cerebral, strategic planner of the two.
“Because Coach Vollmer knew how to race, and due to his history with the program, he was the primary motivator,” said Poolesville senior co-captain Denise Larson. “Coach Gerard knew a little more about how to train young runners and–while he’s also a great motivator — his strength is in prescribing a pace-based scientific training plan. He’s more of a logistics and numbers guy than Coach Vollmer, who was all about getting the most from runners by motivating them to work their hardest.”
Each fall, on the first day of cross country season, Vollmer gave an impassioned speech during which he would point toward the Poolesville water tower that looms large over the school’s track, calling every day at practice “another step up that tower” and “at the top of the water tower is a state championship.” He explained how the goal for each and every runner should be to get to the top of that water tower.
“When I was a freshman, I thought we actually got to climb to the top of the water tower,” Larson confessed. “I was so excited to do that, and this past fall we came so close to making it to the top, coming in second in the states. Anyone who has ever run cross country for coach Vollmer will tell you that the goal each year is to get to the top of that water tower.”
One of the challenges for any cross country program is finding and recruiting runners. In many schools, some of the best runners are lost to conflicting sports like soccer and football. At Poolesville, the exact opposite has occurred. It’s not unusual to find a handful of skilled soccer players making the shift to cross country. Perhaps this is because Poolesville cross country has a reputation for being tight-knit and inclusive. In fact, if you ask any Poolesville runner what makes cross country so special they will all tell you the same thing, “We’re like a family.”
“Coach Vollmer came to my last cross country meet in middle school when I was in eighth grade to talk about Poolesville cross country,” Larson said. “He must have mentioned the idea of ‘family’ at least a half dozen times. He preached the family message and that ‘family’ was the glue. That’s how this team was built. When I think of family, I think of Vollmer.”
Vollmer had a way to make the simple, special. Larson recalled one of his special traditions:
“It was that same day, Coach Vollmer was the official starter for my final middle school cross country race. He fired the starting gun and we took off. I won the race and afterward Coach Vollmer gave me the spent shell from the starting gun. I still have it. It meant so much to me and all of the kids who received this memento from Coach Vollmer. He loved it and this was his way of supporting the future of Poolesville cross country. I knew that day I wanted to run cross country in high school.”
Word of mouth has helped grow Poolesville cross country. Larson said that as a ninth-grader she was the only freshman girl on the team. The entire team was 14 people. By talking it up and letting people know about the tight family bond that the team had, they were able to grow the team to 40 members for her sophomore year. Last year, the numbers swelled to near 70 runners–the largest team yet.
For Gerard, that sense of family has a lot to do with Vollmer’s style. Described by those who knew him as goofy, fun-loving and slightly eccentric, these qualities allowed Vollmer to connect with the kids and get the most out of them.
Larson fondly recalls Vollmer driving his gold pick-up truck alongside runners as they trained — bluegrass music blaring from the windows, a jug of water in the back for the thirsty.
“He would be talking in your ear, encouraging you, even yelling at you while you ran,” she said. “He knew how to push you, but he also knew how to have fun with it, too.”
So where does Poolesville cross country go from here? Gerard acknowledges that there will be a void moving forward, but is confident they will thrive because of the cohesiveness of the team.
“We’ve hired a new assistant coach who has worked with Jim in the past,” Gerard said. “She has a very positive energy that will be good for the team. The students have created their own support group, working together and encouraging each other to progress whether it’s in school or from one race to another.”
For Larson, she believes that it’s up to her and her teammates to help create a lasting legacy by perpetuating Vollmer’s ideals and commitment to hard work and family. “That’s what Coach Vollmer was to Poolesville cross country, and there’s no way we want that to end.” In the fall, they will dedicate their season to Coach Vollmer and, with any luck, take that last step to the top of the Poolesville water tower as state champions.
Every week during the cross country season, we’ll hear from our RunWashington coaches panel to learn what they liked about the most recent races, including some normative judgments that I, as a journalist, feel unqualified to make.
Local teams ran at the Monroe Parker, Great Meadows, Lake Forest, Seahawk and Brunswick invitationals, among others. The heat and humidity played a big part in slowing times down.
Lots of Virginia teams raced, with Oakton’s girls starting their title defense at Great Meadows with three finishers in the top seven and a JV win by freshman Kira Buttrey in 20:49, a time that would have placed her 24th in the varsity race and fifth on her own team.
“Oakton girls are as good as advertised plus one,” said Lake Braddock coach Mike Mangan.
Lake Braddock boys and James Madison girls posted solid wins at the Monroe Parker Invitational. Mangan said the Madoson girls “are very, very good. Literally ran away from the field at Monroe Parker.”
West Springfield coach Chris Pellegrini agreed. “They have looked really sharp early in the season the last few years, but waned towards the end of the season. This year could be different. Amanda Swaak from James Madison has to be considered the 6A State favorite, as she beat likely the next two best runners in Virginia, in Xaveria Hawvermale of Chantilly and Lauren Berman of Robinson.”
Mangan said Chantilly’s Ryan McGorty’s 15:02 for the 2.98 mile course at Burke Lake, at Monroe Parker, was worth at least a 14:50 in better temperatures.
Pellegrini added, about the Lake Braddock team that bested his Spartans by more than 100 points at Monroe Parker, “their top four are clearly the best in the area,” he said. “As long as their number five runs tolerably they will be fine. After Lake Braddock, there is a jumble of teams fighting for second best.”
Winston Churchill coach Scott Silverstein pointed out a huge PR by Albert Einstein’s Cicely Davy, whose 19:10 at the Seahawk Invitational was about a three-minute PR to his knowledge, and had her ahead of All-Maryland preseason pick Lucie Noall of Clarksburg.
John Ausema‘s Gonzaga team won the Lake Forest Invitational in Delaware, but noted the significance of Walt Whitman’s race at the Great Meadows Invitational in Virginia, on a course a good bit hillier than the Virginia state meet course. “Whitman is staking a claim to be one of the best teams in the area,” he said. “Hopefully they will get a chance to face off against Lake Braddock and Chantilly (at Glory Days?). Good Counsel looks strong, and their #1 Jack Wavering had an outstanding race at Great Meadows – looks to be roughly a 40-second PR on a hot day, at a course with little shade.”
In Bethesda, Walter Johnson’s girls topped Winston Churchill at the Woodward Relays, lead by Kiernan Keller and Lucy Srour in 1-2, respectively.
Here’s how the preseason All-RunWashington team members ran this weekend. If runners listed as “did not race” ran after all, please comment and I’ll address it quickly!
All-RunWashington
Tristan Colaizzi- Georgetown Day School- Did not race
Alex Corbett, Lake Braddock- 3rd, Monroe Parker, 15:25 (2.98)
Andrew Hunter, Loudoun Valley- 1st, Great Meadows, 15:27
Amir Khghani, Walt Whitman- 21st, Great Meadows, 17:02
Alex Maguire, Fairfax- 12th, Monroe Parker, 16:06 (2.98)
Ryan McGorty, Chantilly- 1st, Monroe Parker, 15:02 (2.98)
Kevin Monogue, Lake Braddock- 2nd, Monroe Parker, 15:24 (2.98)
Tim Ward, West Springfield- 8th, Monroe Parker, 15:51 (2.98)
Evan Woods, Walt Whitman- 4th, Great Meadows 16:14
Diego Zarate, Northwest- 1st, Brunswick Invitational 16:43
Lauren Berman, Robinson- 3rd, Monroe Parker 18:29 (2.98)
Xaveria Hawvermale, Chantilly- 2nd, Monroe Parker 18:10 (2.98)
Kiernan Keller, Walter Johnson- 1st, Woodward Relays 37:42 (6 miles)
Casey Kendall, Oakton- 5th, Great Meadows, 19:23
Allie Klimkiewicz, Oakton- 4th, Great Meadows, 18:58
Ellie Leape, Sidwell- 3rd, Lake Forest 20:12
Georgie Mackenzie- 1st, Great Meadows, 18:30
Nora McUmber, Bethesda-Chevy Chase
Emily Murphy, Walter Johnson- Did not race
Amanda Swaak, James Madison- 1st, Monroe Parker 18:06 (2.98)
All-D.C.
Liam Albrittain, Georgetown Day School- Did not race
Christy Andjalepou, Cardozo- did not race
Jacob Floam, Gonzaga- 4th Lake Forest, 17:10
Joey Gaines, St. Albans- scheduled for Patrick Henry
Aidan Pillard, Georgetown Day School- Did not race
Peter Sikorsky, Gonzaga- 6th Lake Forest, 17:28
Will Wimbish, Gonzaga- 28th Lake Forest, 19:03
Erin Bell, National Cathedral- scheduled for Patrick Henry
Lauren Cormier, Georgetown Visitation- scheduled for Episcopal Relays
Emily Kaplan, , Georgetown Visitation- scheduled for Episcopal Relays
Sami King, Field- did not race
Mayim Lehrich, Wilson- did not race
Margaret Lindsay, Georgetown Visitation- scheduled for Episcopal Relays
Katherine Treanor, Georgetown Day School- Did not race
All-Maryland
Rohann Asfaw, Richard Montgomery- Did not race
Itai Bezerahno, Walter Johnson- 3rd, Woodward Relays 33:39 (6 miles)
William Kirk, Rockville- Did not race
Alex Roederer, Walt Whitman- 6th, Great Meadows 16:22
Colin Sybing, T.S. Wootton- Did not race
Liam Walsh, Quince Orchard- Did not race
Jack Wavering, Good Council- 2nd, Great Meadows 16:08
Claire Beautz, Poolesville-4th, Brunswick 20:40
Sophie El-Masry, Richard Montgomery- Did not race
Katriane Kirsch, Walter Johnson- 3rd, Woodward Relays 39:33 (6 miles)
Theresa Nardone, Poolesville- Did not race
Lucie Noall,Clarksburg- 3rd, Seahawk 19:23
Julia Reicin, Winston Churchill- Did not race
Lucy Srour, Winston Churchill- 2nd, Woodward Relays 38:43 (6 miles)
All-Virginia
Johnny Pace, Westfield- 4th, Monroe Parker, 15:41 (2.98)
Bobby Dunn, Centreville- 40th, Monroe Parker, 16:41 (2.98)
Anteneh Girma, T.C. Williams- 19th, Monroe Parker, 16:19 (2.98)
Robert Lockwood, W.T. Woodson- 61st, Monroe Parker, 17:02 (2.98)
Matt Frame, West Potomac- 23rd, Monroe Parker, 16:20 (2.98)
David Falcone, W.T. Woodson- did not race
Aviad Gebrehiwot, Annadale- 5th, Monroe Parker, 15:48 (2.98)
Kathryn Eng, Washington-Lee- 23rd, Monroe Parker, 19:39 (2.98)
Kelly Hart, Yorktown- did not race
Sara Friex, Westfield- 5th, Monroe Parker, 18:44 (2.98)
Leya Salis, Oakton- 7th, Great Meadows 19:43
Jillian Everly, Osbourn Park- 4th, Monroe Parker, 18:43 (2.98)
Kate Murphy, Lake Braddock- 26th, Monroe Parker, 19:44 (2.98)
Morgan Whittock, James Madison- 8th, Monroe Parker, 19:04 (2.98)
Don’t try to get Alisa Byers to share her team’s secret to success.
The Oakton High School cross country coach isn’t spilling the beans. But whatever the 35-year-old is doing at the Vienna school, it’s working.
In four years at the helm, she’s taken the school’s girls squad from qualifying one runner to the state meet, to placing fourth in 2011, to being runner up two years ago and winning last year.
What’s even more exciting for the Lady Cougars is they return all but one runner from the team that ran away with the state crown last November.
Byers and the Lady Cougars have been in preparing since late spring to defend their state championship in the 6A division, which includes schools with the largest enrollment. They may have their eye on a bigger honor, as well: a national ranking at the end of the season.
So really, what’s Byers’ secret?
“I’m not going to tell you,” she said with an aw-shucks sort of laugh. “You’ll print my secret.”
Fair enough, but Oakton, which Byers has coached since 2010, is poised to continue being one of the best girls cross country teams in Virginia.
“Oakton on paper is as close to a slam dunk as you can be this year,” said Chris Pellegrini, head coach of the West Springfield squad that finished fifth in the state last year. “There isn’t anybody in the state that matches up.”
Meanwhile, Byers reminds her talented team they still have to put in the work to stay on top.
“I’ve just been very fortunate to get the right kids out who want to work hard and keep improving and who are responsive,” she said. “It’s the kids.”
And there certainly are talented kids returning this fall.
Senior Allie Klimkiewicz comes back after a fourth place individual finish at the state meet in 2013. She finished an agonizing two places away from making a return trip to the Footlocker Cross Country Championships last year, and she may not even be the best runner on the team, Pellegrini said.
Sophomore Casey Kendall, 14th overall at the state meet, was running better than Klimkiewicz toward the end of the spring track season. Sophomore Leya Salis hopes to improve upon her first year of high school competition. The two freshman helped Oakton dominate last year.
Senior Kara Kendall also returns after a top-30 finish at the state last year and scoring for the Lady Cougars.
Behind them, a couple of seniors — Maryn McCarty and Margaret Stack — are working to round out the five scoring runners. Byers also hopes incoming freshman will help spur competition, as well.
The loss of Hailey Dougherty to graduation, though, will be tough.
Dougherty was eighth overall at the state meet last year. The senior was not only a top runner for the Lady Cougars but provided key leadership as the only senior and only runner who qualified for the state meet four years ago when Byers first became head coach.
Dougherty, who will run cross country for the University of Pennsylvania Quakers this fall, was also consistent and led many workouts.
“It will be a big loss on a lot of different levels,” Byers said.
The maturation of sophomores Salis and Casey Kendall will be key.
“Even though we’re losing Hailey, I think that they’re ready to set into her shoes and do even bigger things,” Byers said. The only mileage they had in their legs last year, she added, was from soccer and basketball, so they spent the better part of last year’s cross country season building a mileage base.
With such high praise heading into the upcoming season, it’s easy to picture a scenario where the Oakton girls can let the past success get to their head and expect to walk through this year’s competition.
The team’s leading runner, Klimkiewicz, said that won’t happen. The girls don’t pay attention to the local running blogs or rankings, but approach the season like underdogs.
“It hasn’t really crossed my mind,” Klimkiewicz said of the praise and expectations for this fall. “Nobody really talks about it.”
Their coach supports that mindset.
“Nothing is guaranteed,” Byers said. “You have to look at each race as an individual. Cherish each workout that we have. Learn from everything. This is not the time to get settled just because you’re coming off a winning season. As long as they absorb that, we can have a big year.”
The only teams at the 6A level who can challenge Oakton might be Ocean Lakes in Virginia Beach and Lake Braddock in Burke, Pellegrini said. The two finished fourth and third, respectively, last year.
But each will be carried by talent found last year in track and field and who have never run cross country before, Pellegrini said. Both squads lost several seniors.
Additionally, are six or seven teams, including Washington-Lee in Arlington, could challenge Oakton if they find one freshman who can contribute in a big way this season. Oakton had that luck last year with Kendall and Salis.
With Oakton pegged as clear-cut favorites, it makes that they would draw attention on the national scene.
But Nolan Jez, who covers Virginia track and cross country for MileStat.com, said that talk may be a bit premature. Oakton made it to 26th last year in national rankings but may not even be the best team in the state this year.
Blacksburg High School, who competes at the smaller 3A level, may be even better than Oakton this year. “It looks like Blacksburg would beat them by having much more quality consistency through five runners,” he said.
The National High School Coaches Association doesn’t even list Oakton in their top 50 in their preseason national rankings. But there is no sense in looking at rankings, Byers said, opting instead to start the season with a team objective and work toward that.
“It’d be great to be number one in the country, but also I enjoy saying ‘you know what? Look at how far we’ve come?'” Byers said. “We went from having one person in the state meet to going fourth to second to winning.”
Byers walked on to the cross country team at Xavier University of Louisiana and ran all four years while at the small NAIA school. Even with that history, Byers says she’s running personal bests in her mid-30s and describes herself as a “pretty bad” runner.
“I’m not a runner, I create runners from applying knowledge from successful coaches and of course what I’ve learned not to do from my former coaches,” she said.
Byers came to Oakton in 2007 and began working under Phil Tiller, who served as head coach of both the boys and girls cross country squads but had greater success with the boys team, taking them to two state titles.
The girls team was state runner-up in 2005 and 2007 under Tiller, but couldn’t quite break through. Now, Byers has reversed that trend and is having more success with the girls, having taken over both squads since Tiller moved to England in 2009 to be with his parents.
“I think a lot of times they seek someone they can relate to, female to female,” Byers said of her success with the girls team.
She still helped cultivate a state-champion runner in Jack Stoney, who paced the Oakton boys team to a sixth-place finish last year.
“I think they’re really willing to work hard for her and trust her training,” Pellegrini said of her success as a coach.
Klimkiewicz described Byers as motivating and said she creates an individualized plan for each runner.
Byers also tries to rely on tradition, reminding runners they are not only out them for themselves but their teammates, community and the Oakton legacy.
“One of the more touching moments was, at the state meet, there were parents who came out whose athletes had graduated from before I even started coaching,” Byers said. “You just had so many people who are still a part of the Oakton community who want to see the kids do well.”
She gave her runners summer workouts and started practice in August. It’s then that she starts pounding at messaging and motivation for the long – and hopefully successful – season ahead.
“I try to keep everything grounded and say we’re doing okay,” Byers said. “As long as we keep improving, that’s a good thing.”
This article originally appeared in the September/October 2014 RunWashington.
Dan Reeks believes in running. He knows what running did for him, and knows what running can do for others.
He started coaching in Montgomery County 43 years ago, during his early 20s. Back then he was a volunteer assistant for Paint Branch High School, and not necessarily volunteering by choice, either. Reeks, then a national-class runner, said he was concerned about an Amateur Athletic Union rule limiting how much money one could earn through coaching.
This was 1971. A year later, Frank Shorter would win gold in Munich, igniting the first running boom. Reeks — now heading into his 13th season with Sherwood High School — has not missed a Montgomery County cross country season since.
During his first decade of coaching, Reeks not only led Northwood High School’s girls cross country team to three state championships, but launched girls running in the county with the help of fellow coaches Kerry Ward and Greg Dunston.
Ward had guided Reeks while he was a senior at American University, and coached in the county for decades, leading Bethesda-Chevy Chase and Walt Whitman high schools to numerous state championships. Ward, while at BCC, also hosted the county’s first official girls cross country meet.
Dunston started coaching in the county in 1971, as well. The Georgetown Prep Coach, who previously coached at Walter Johnson, described their support for girls cross country thusly: “It was more a matter of thinking that you want equal rights for everyone.”
Dunston and Reeks got in the habit of bashing out Sunday long runs together. These days, they go for bike rides instead. The point is, these two have spent countless hours — many decades, even — talking shop, and fine-tuning a common approach to coaching.
“We want [our athletes] to have fun,” Dunston said, “and realize this is a sport you can do for a long time after high school.”
An interviewer described Reeks’ coaching streak as “amazing.”
“But it’s not,” Reeks said, “because, one thing, it’s fun. … I look forward to going to practice. I just like being around the kids.” He added: “It’s great to see them mature.”
At the end of each season, the Sherwood coach asks his junior and seniors for feedback on his coaching.
“And while it might be a benevolent dictatorship,” Reeks said, “the dictator does listen.”
Making the Team
Heading into his junior year, Reeks transferred to Palos Verdes Peninsula High School in Los Angeles County, where he quickly made friends with members of the track team.
Reeks tried out for the team, and was cut. Senior year, he tried to change that.
“I trained and trained,” he said. A few days a week, he said, he would run from his house up a big hill to the main road and meet up with a friend for training runs, an experience that taught him the value of group training.
Reeks made varsity cross country, “and that was it.” He knew what his passion was.
At Los Angeles Harbor Community College, Reeks started running twice a day to improve, following the lead of a teammate who had won Los Angeles’ city championship.
“He’d run, golly, I think he’d run in the high 9:30s [for two miles], and he got me to train with the coach who had coached him … and that got me down to 9:20 and 4:20 [for the mile],” Reeks said.
Those performances helped Reeks earn a scholarship to American University.
And as Reeks immersed himself in the sport, he quickly developed an interest in coaching.
“In college I liked supporting my teammates, and watching them, and just trying to figure out [what they were doing],” he said.
During his junior year at AU, Reeks mostly coached himself.
“I just followed the workouts I did the year before,” he said, “because I kept a training diary.” Then, as a senior, he met and was coached by Ward, who, like his first high school coach and others, had a big influence on Reeks’ coaching philosophy.
“I still use a few of those workouts,” he said. “I don’t make my athletes run 10 miles on the track, though.”
Years of Coaching
Reeks and his wife, Barbara, have been married for 40 years, and have two children, David and Emily.
His second coaching job, after Northwood, was at Eastern Middle School. From 1983 to 1998, he coached at Montgomery College — or “the MC,” as he calls it — where he started the indoor track program and each year qualified athletes for the NJCAA championships. He coached 17 junior college All-Americans.
Los Angeles Harbor Community College had enabled Reeks, who had only been running for one year at that point, to develop in athletics and academics and earn a scholarship to AU.
At Montgomery College, he saw his job as helping others do the same: to balance work, training and school. He takes pride in knowing that many of his athletes transitioned successfully to four-year colleges.
From the fall of 1999 through Spring 2002, Reeks coached at Winston Churchill. In his last cross country season there, the boys and girls teams both finished third in the state meet.
The decision to leave Winston Churchill was difficult. Reeks cried while breaking the news to the team.
But he also taught social studies in the county for 39 years – mostly at Wheaton – and wanted to close out his career coaching and teaching at the same school to reduce his commute. He was able to do that at Sherwood, where, at that time, the boys hadn’t won a dual meet in outdoor track in more than five years and the girls cross country team was at a low point.
This was the fall of the sniper shootings. John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo shot at people indiscriminately, causing widespread fear. Training was missed; many meets were canceled.
Still, that fall, two girls and two boys represented Sherwood at the state meet. That spring, the boys track team broke its losing streak.
Since then, in cross country, both teams have qualified for the state meet almost every year. In 2003, the Sherwood boys cross country team was second in the county, first in the regional meet, and won a state championship.
Reeks “always puts together competitive cross country teams,” said Kevin Milsted, the founder of MoCo Running, which chronicles the county’s high school running scene. “He has the technical knowledge to develop runners of all body types, and he has the personality and dry humor to engage athletes of all backgrounds.”
It has worked for junior Gary Confrey. As his mother Jackie put it, his motivation was lacking in areas where he did not already show skill. That changed after one talk with Reeks.
“He told him that if you want to do well, you have to put in the work,” she said. “It was simple but it flicked a switch. Now he doesn’t want to miss school if he’s sick because it means he can’t go to practice.” The first day of the school year, she said, “kids line up to see him and give him a hug.”
Reeks understands his athletes have a lot on their plate. They are focused not only on excelling at running and academics, but perfecting SAT scores and college applications. “You have to get as much as you can out of them during practice,” he said, “and remind them that life is short.” (Dunston said almost the exact same thing.)
Reeks puts team captains in charge of summer training, assigning mileage goals for each class. To that end, early in the summer, the captains choose a location for team members to meet up each morning for runs, said senior captain Courtney Nakamura.
“He just cares a lot about the team and each individual person. It makes us all want to work harder,” Nakamura said.
Early in the season, they start with general workouts before gradually branching off into different training groups. A computer program called Running Trax, packed with performance charts, helps him individualize workouts.
“I have always written [out the workouts], printed them, and given them to the kids,” he said
A staple workout for Sherwood is a tempo followed by 12 200-meter intervals. To prepare for the state championship at the punishing Hereford course, the team goes to Lake Needwood and practices in an area known as “the dip.”
“His biggest priority,” said Ariel Mahlman, who graduated from Sherwood in 2013, “is definitely to provide his athletes with an understanding and passion for the sport … He is very easy to talk to and always offers great advice whenever you ask a question.”
Reeks’ athletes describe him as “silly,” as a “character,” as someone who makes them laugh with “cheesy puns.”
When athletes ask him how they can improve, though, Reeks gets down to business.
“You got to work,” he said. “Distance running, I always tell the kids, and I have for years, is the Puritan work ethic. You get better because you train.”
The MoCo Scene
One day in the late 2000s, Reeks was at his desk, grading papers, when, as he remembered it, “this exceptionally good-looking couple is at my doorway with a security guy who says, ‘This guy wants to come to Sherwood and run.'”
This guy was Solomon Haile, who in 2009 would win the Foot Locker Cross Country Championship. Haile had been training in his native Ethiopia, and had come to the United States for two reasons: to run and go to school.
“He was always centered, he had a goal, and he was smart,” Reeks said.
Asked to recollect highlights from 43 years of coaching, Reeks mentioned Haile setting the national record in the 5,000. He mentioned Northwood winning its first state cross country title in 1975. He mentioned, in 2003, the Sherwood principal running up to him on the Hereford hill and exclaiming, “We’ve won!”
But Reeks is well known and respected by Montgomery County coaches and runners for others reasons.
“I always thought it was really cool how supportive he was of me, even though I ran at a rival school,” said Sean O’Leary, who ran for Walter Johnson.
O’Leary got to know Reeks through the Concord Retreat Cross Country Camp, which Reeks has run for 30 years.
“Bottom line,” O’Leary said, “it doesn’t matter if you’re Solomon Haile gunning for the Footlocker National Championship or a freshman wearing basketball shoes running for a different team — Coach Reeks wants you to be successful.”
When Kyle Gaffney, a committed runner at Blake High School, needed coaching and training partners, Reeks – thinking of his own experiences running at AU – provided it.
Reeks is matter-of-fact about it.
“You just do that,” he said, “because you want to see the sport grow and you want to see kids run and do well.”
All the while, Coach Reeks’ legend in Montgomery County — whether he realizes it or not — grows with it.
“I have never seen anyone yell louder than him at meets,” said Owen Miller, Sherwood’s boys cross country captain. “He is incredibly enthusiastic.”
Adrenaline launches most kids through the first mile of a cross country race. Then reality catches up in the second mile, and when that’s compounded with a long sunny stretch and temperatures well into the 80s, the overly bold typically pay for their exuberance.
Unless they are Ryan McGorty.
[button-red url=”http://va.milesplit.com/meets/180507-monroe-parker-invitational#.VAzBXPldXDG” target=”_self” position=”left”] 2.98 mile Results [/button-red]With a 4:49 mile split through the Monroe Parker Invitational, the Chantilly senior cruised to a 20-second win in 15:02 over Burke Lake’s 2.98 mile course, where his brother, Sean, won [button-red url=”https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ed-Lull-Track-XC-Pictures-Northern-Region/106970012725268″ target=”_self” position=”left”]Photos and video by Ed Lull [/button-red]two years before. Behind him, Kevin Monogue and Alex Corbett finished second and third to lead Lake Braddock to a dominating win over West Springfield at the annual Northern Virginia season opening cross country meet. The Bruin duo led two more runners across the line in the top 10 (Colin Schaefer in seventh and Ben Fogg in ninth) to open a gap other teams had few hopes of closing. Defending 6A state champion Chantilly was fifth.
“I wanted to try to run 4:50s for the first two miles and hang on until the finish,” McGorty said. “I was about 9:53 at two miles, so I slowed down after I got away from (Westfield’s Johnny) Pace, but it felt great to hit ’53 for two and keep going.
“In that last mile, I started to feel the heat a little, but I didn’t see anyone in my peripheral vision so I took a chance and went for it. I wanted to get under 15 but I’ll take 15:02.”
He’ll likely have his chance later; of the boys who have run under 15 minutes, all but one (Eric Kweeder, 1996) did it later than the Monroe Parker, according to Northern Virginia Cross Country/Track and Field Association records.
Race start times, ordinarily the least consequential of the five Ws, played a big part in the varsity races, with the boys’ gun going off at 11:15 and the girls’ at 11:45.
“We were very careful today,” Lake Braddock coach Mike Mangan said. “We stayed back for a mile and a half. With temperatures like these, you’ll hit the red line really fast.”
Though the Bruins graduated three runners from their state runner-up team the year before, they also lost a few underclassmen whose families moved. But, in a fortunate coincidence, one new runner, Schaefer, moved into a departed runner’s house.
“The start was a little funky, Alex and I didn’t get out all that fast,” Monogue said. “We made up a lot of time in the campground and had a good pack through the second mile.”
The pair broke away in the third mile and Monogue edged Corbett by one second in 15:24.
Annandale’s Aviad Gebrehiwot finished fifth (15:48) in a race he said demonstrated the gains he had made over the summer.
“I knew it at two miles,” he said. “Usually, I’m absolutely dead heading up that hill (into the parking lot), but I had the strength to keep attacking there. It helped I was with a bunch of other great runners today. I’ve just never felt so strong on this course before. “
In the girls varsity race, a half hour later and even hotter, Chantilly senior Xaveria Hawvermale and James Madison senior Amanda Swaak battled for more than 2.5 miles before Swaak made a move with 600 meters to go that Hawvermale couldn’t cover.
It was a much better result than Swaak expected, as recently as before the gun fired.
“I’ve had a hard training week, I didn’t feel that good,” she said. “Even on my warmup, I was going slowly and didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t want to focus on the time because of the weather, so I was just going to run for place.”
She got stuck back in the lead pack early in the first mile, but before long had caught up with Hawvermale, at which point theybroke away.
“It was nice racing with her, because we worked together,” she said. “I don’t think I could have run as fast on my own.”
Hawvermale said she was not made for running in the heat, but she put on as brave a face as she could for her team’s sake and took a shot at the win. After racing sparingly in her first two years, she has had an unprecedented year of good health and is excited to build on that as the season progresses.
“Heat’s something I struggle with, but when it gets cooler I should feel better,” she said. “I’m much better off trying to run longer races, I avoid running the 800 on the track at all costs, so having weather where I can run hard will help.”
Swaak’s teammate, junior Morgan Whittrock, also was less than thrilled about the temperature, but she still managed to finish eighth, leading the Warhawks to a 75-99 win over Lake Braddock.
“It was beating on me,” she said, “but I knew everyone had been out here for hours, just like us, so I tried to go out there, take it and race them.”
James Madison sophomore Devon Williams finished 20th in her first cross country meet.
“She ran on our 4×8 team at states, so she’s used to the competition, but three miles was a whole new race for her,” said coach Craig Chasse. “The team as a whole, they did their work over the summer, they’re off to a good start.”
So is Chantilly freshman Harrison Shay, who ran 19:12 in the freshman boys’ race for his first cross country meet.
“I felt awful at the end, and it wasn’t even as hot as the later races,” he said. “I was just trying to get up the next hill, around the next tree. I made it, and I didn’t die.”
A family running background got Shay into running, including an uncle who runs marathons.
“I liked being competitive,” he said, noting that he eschewed team racing to go after his opponents one by one. “I think I’ll stay with this.”
