COMPLETE RESULTSPHOTO GALLERYRACE VIDEOCardinals Capture MIAA A Conference crown; Sullivan of Spalding wins in 16:01by Craig AmossAt stake was the MIAA A Conference championship and the preseason consensus pick of virtually everyone, Calvert Hall, lived up to all of the expectations with a 38-56 win over second-place Archbishop Spalding, which did crown junior Zach Sullivan as the individual champion, at the MIAA championships at Oregon Ridge. The fact that the Cardinals did not quite win like Sherman going through Georgia scarcely deserves an asterisk in the record books. This was, after all, a team that was virtually coroneted the 2007 MIAA champion almost immediately after the 2006 championships were concluded.
“Just before the end of the school year, we had a meeting for everyone who was interested in coming out for cross country, and that was the topic,” said Calvert Hall coach Randy Fowler, whose team missed out on the 2006 title by one point to league powerhouse Loyola. “We knew we’d be loaded depth-wise.”
“Going into this season, we weren’t sure how good we really were,” added senior Anthony Rowe, the Cardinals’ No. 1 runner. “But last year did kind of set the stage.”
Calvert Hall had to bring all that depth to bear to fight off a game Archbishop Spalding squad in the championship meet. Sparked by Sullivan's first-place finish, the Cavaliers briefly looked primed for an upset. When senior Trevor Keen (16:41), and junior J.R. Spencer (16:45) took the fifth and sixth spots, respectively, Spalding had three runners across to Calvert Hall’s two.
“We knew they were the favorite, but we also knew there was a possibility that we could win it,” said Sullivan, who finished the race with a meet-best time of 16:01.
But then the Cardinals began to make their move. With Rowe (16:15) and junior Chris Swisko (16:21) securing the second and third spots, seniors Trent Seawell (16:54) and John Fitzgerald (16:55), and sophomore Logan Pasqual (17:23) came across at nine and ten and fifteen, respectively, before the Cavaliers could cross another runner. Sophomore Dean Mertz (20th, 17:34) and junior Ryan Topita (24th, 17:44) clinched a second-place finish for Spalding. Two-time defending champion Loyola, which was minus a top runner in Joe Orsulak, finished third with 94 points, just four points ahead of Gilman with 98. Park School (188) finished fifth.
“Good for Spalding, that’s a real good job,” said Fowler when informed of the final results. “I told our guys beforehand, ‘If you think anyone is going to just give this to you, you’re sadly mistaken.’”
Other top 10 finishers included B Conference champion Grisha Iventichev of Friends, who finished with the second-best time overall at 16:08, McDonogh’s Demetrios Pagonis (4th, 16:40), Loyola’s Matt Jablonski (7th, 16:52), and Park’s Ethan Haswell (8th, 16:54). And in perhaps a brief portent of 2008, Calvert Hall easily won the jayvee championship with an impressive 19-75 victory over second-place McDonogh. But a varsity letter isn’t that easy to come by at “The Hall.”
“Unlike a lot of coaches, I don’t take cuts from other sports, and I only want guys who will commit to running over the summer,” said Fowler. “Thankfully, these guys bought into everything I asked. It proves that nice guys can finish first.”
Annapolis Area Christian won the B Conference team title with Chris Chitterling (17:49) and Will Kang (17:57) leading the way.