2025 Bittersweet Invitational: Info

Saturday, September 6, 2025

Please arrive at DeMatha no later than 5:45am. The bus will depart from DeMatha promptly at 6:00am. It is, approximately, a 60-minute drive to Bittersweet Field in Poolesville, Md.

Note the following meet details:

Location
Bittersweet Field
11401 Partnership Road
Poolesville, MD 20837

Meet Schedule
7:00a - Property opens for team arrivals & athlete warmups
8:30a - Coaches Meeting
8:50a - Course closes for warmups
8:57a - National Anthem
9:00a - Varsity Boys 5k [Box 13] (Max 10 entries)
9:30a - Varsity & JV Combined Girls 5k
10:00a - JV Boys 5k [Box 9] (Unlimited entries)
10:55a - Awards Ceremony

Registered athletes
Our Varsity team at the Bittersweet Invitational will consist of Dominic Hilton, Jesse Holland III, Jeremy Juste, Phillip Marshall II, Arvin Mirchandani, Lucas Moisiuk, Andrew Stinson

Our JV entries at the Bittersweet Invitational consist of all other athletes on the roster.

Awards

Details are inconsistent on the meet website. One page shows the following:

• Top 2 teams per division receive awards

• Top 16 individual finishers per division receive awards

Another page of the meet website shows this alternate breakdown of awards:

• Members of the Top 3 varsity teams (per gender) and winning JV team (per gender) will receive meet t-shirts

• Top 10 individual finishers per division receive ribbons

Estimated return to DeMatha

12:30pm (give or take depending on traffic)

Athletes:

• • Wear your racing uniforms

    • SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS FOR COMPRESSION GEAR WORN UNDER THE UNIFORM: Compression shorts, if worn, MUST be the same BLUE as our school color (ROYAL BLUE) and stop above the knee. Compression shirts may be short or long sleeve (though I recommend no compression shirts unless the weather is exceptionally cold) but MUST be WHITE . If a logo is visible on either piece of apparel, it must be Under Armour.

  • Wear your team gear (if you did not order any or yours has not arrived, you MUST wear Under Armour clothing to warm up in; do not show up in just your uniform).

  • Wear your training shoes. You will wear these for the course walk and your warmup/cool down. You will also wear these during your race if you do not have racing spikes.

  • Pack your racing spikes, if you have them. These should not be your primary shoes for the course walk and warmup/cool down; these are only to be worn during the race.

  • Everyone must pitch in during set-up and/or take-down in regards to the tent, tarp, etc.

Additional Important Details

• • The distance for this course is 5 kilometers.

  • Live unofficial results will be available from Windsor Running. Scroll down to through the months to find "St. Andrew's Invitational @ Bittersweet Farm" on 9/6. Official results will appear after the meet on Athletic.net (these are the results used for our recaps).

  • Parents/guardians can sign up to bring water, gatorade, and/or snacks for the athletes to have before and after their races by using this Signup Genius link for this week.

  • There will be vendors and concessions on-site. The meet director has provided a site map for all to reference.

  • Parents and relatives are encouraged to attend. There is a parking fee. Pre-purchased passes are $6 (including a $1 service fee) and can be purchased via Hometown Ticketing. Parking is $10 (cash only) if you purchase on-site. Please read all details provided by the meet host on Hometown Ticketing and refer to their parking map.

  • Please note that I expect athletes to stay with the team until the conclusion of the meet to support their teammates. In the event that you absolutely must leave the meet early, you must check in with me first because I need to remain aware of each athlete's location until either I dismiss them to leave with their guardian or until we arrive back at DeMatha. Please do not leave the meet location with your son unless I have dismissed him.

    • IMPORTANT: If you intend to bring your son home from the meet (whether he rode to the meet with you or not), you MUST sign the Return Trip with Parents form and return it to coach before you leave the meet.

    • IMPORTANT: If your son will drive to/from the meet, or if your son will leave the meet with another athlete or parent, you MUST sign the Transportation Verification Carpool form and return it to coach before we depart for the meet.

  • Parents who take photos can upload those to our shared Google Drive folder here.

  • Athletes will be told to call/text their ride when we leave Bittersweet Field. I will also send an alert via Remind when we depart with an estimated time of arrival at DeMatha.

• As of Saturday, August 30, the forecast for September 6 is partly cloudy with a high of 76. Temperatures will be cool in the morning so dress appropriately. It should turn into an excellent morning for racing.

If you have any questions, contact Coach Puffett directly.