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by Brad Jaegerbjaeger@digitalsports.comEd Harte, the meet director for the Knights Invitational, was commenting on not the size of the field, but the amount of people watching the race. “This is the largest crowd I have ever seen here”, said Harte. The North County coach should know. He has seen virtually every version of the race at Baybrook Park in the Brooklyn Section of Baltimore City.
The teams running in today’s race were not only from Anne Arundel County, but many teams travelled from Southern Maryland for the trip. The Baybrook course is also the site of the 4A East Regional championships and many of these teams wanted a preview of the course. Andrew Cerritto of Northern (Calvert) said, “It took us an hour and fifteen minutes to get here, but it will be worth it in the long run.”
Teams had different reasons for showing up. Oakland Mills of Howard County had already run in Montgomery and Howard Counties and now was adding Baltimore City to their resume. Vicki Lang, coach of Oakland Mills said of the travel schedule, “It gives the kids a chance to experience a lot of different competition and different types of courses.”
The Meade girl’s team, which has had a good season up to this point, left their top seven girls at home. “We’re running at Maymount (Virginia) next week and I wanted to give our second seven a chance to run at a higher level”, said Meade coach Nigel Holder.
The main competition in the boy’s race was to be between #3 Severna Park and #5 Archbishop Spalding and whether Spalding top three of Zach Sullivan, Ryan Topita and JR Spencer could hold off Severna Park’s Andrew Finlayson and TJ Cowing and the Park’s depth.
Sullivan went out to the lead after 400 meters and had Cerritto hanging on his tail. Cerritto kept pace with the Spalding runner until the mile and a half point where Sullivan surged and got a gap on the southern Maryland runner. Cerritto said, “Hitting the downhill, Sullivan just took off and I couldn’t stay with him.”
Sullivan ran away with the victory on the 2.98 mile course in 15:02. Cerritto was second in 15:24 followed by Robert Patterson of Dematha (15:33). Sullivan’s teammates Ryan Topita and JR Spencer finished fourth and sixth sandwiched around Christian Smooth of Annapolis.
The Spalding 1-4-6 finish was enough to hold off Severna Park by a 94-95 score. Andrew Finlayson was Severna Park’s first finisher in 10th place in 16:07. Leonardtown was third with 123, followed by Dematha (136) and Chesapeake (162).
Josh Alcombright, Severna Park’s coach was not that disappointed with the one point loss. “We’re not really worried about today”, said Alcombright. “We’re training for the championship races in November. We’re progressing well at this point.” Alcombright was pleased with the performance of his 4-7 runners today at the meet.
The girl’s race was supposed to belong to South River’s Hillary Lee, but John Carroll’s Elizabeth Tauber had other ideas. Tauber, a sophomore, ran stride for stride with the South River runner for the first two miles of the race, until Tauber pulled away on the final uphill before the finishing stretch.
Lee was doing everything she could to drop Tauber during the race. “Every time I would try and surge, she would keep coming back on me”, said Lee. Tauber was just happy to stay as close as she did. “I was running as hard as I could”, said the John Carroll runner.
The most surprised person in the field was third place finisher Colleen Randolph of St. Mary’s. “I went out so hard”, said Randolph. “Then I just got pulled along. I’m just glad I’m finished.”
The first five in the race were Lee (18:43.6), Tauber (18:54.9), Randolph (19:29.2), Oakland Mill's Tiffany Lang (19:42.4) and Miranda Heater of South River (19:44.3).
Lang, a freshman, came from tenth place at the two mile mark to her best finish yet in an invitational. "All these races are giving me confidence", said the freshman. "I was seventh after the last hill, and I saw the girls in front of me slowing down, so I just went for it."
Severna Park, #9 in the latest state poll, took down #2 South River 87-101. Leonardtown was third at 102, followed by John Carroll at 146 and Chesapeake with 149.