by Trey Cassidy

State Independent Schools Enjoy Perfect Conditions for Cross Country Action

The skies cleared and the ground dried in time for athletes from 30 schools who raced in the State Independent Schools Cross Country Championship today at Glenelg Country School.  The course conditions were perfect and the best teams and individuals from DC and Maryland toed the line for the start.  The day began with a middle school race and included girls’ and boys’ JV and Varsity races for small and large schools. 

Nick Bax from St. Albans repeated as State Large School Champion, running 15:57 and improving on his winning performance from last year by 17 seconds.  He was followed closely by tenth grader Corey Puffet from DeMatha (16:10).  The team title went to Calvert Hall who took home the State Large School Championship trophy for the second year in a row and also added the JV Championship for the day. 

The Heights School finished tenth overall and was the State Small School Champion, beating out Edmund Burke for the team title. Among individuals in the small school division, Tim Hadley of the Heights was the State Champion, finishing 14th overall in 17:13.  Ollie St. John from Edmund Burke was runner up in 20th place overall. 

In the girls’ race, Erika Stasakova from John Carroll took the title, running an impressive 19:01.  She was followed by Chinyelu Asher from Holy Cross and Maeve Ricaurte from Glenelg Country School.

National Cathedral took home top honors in the Large School division, scoring 112 points to Sidwell Friends’ 113.  The race for top teams among all the girls’ schools was tight, especially after John Carroll placed three girls in the top five.

Glenelg Country School finished third overall in the race and took home top honors as the Small Schools State Champion.