2018 Georgetown Prep Classic

This is a tough course, there are no bones about it. While it begins and ends at the same altitude, and so for every uphill there will be an equal amount of downhill, that doesn't negate the energy it takes to get up those hills. I spoke to each group of athletes before their races about how to run the course and I think it helped many of them, but this is not a typical PR course. The athletes who did PR today likely would not have if Glory Days had been a full 5k. If WCAC's is a full 5k, that will be the course to set your season best on.

In blue, I have noted all athletes who set a new PR (personal record) in the cross country 5k (3.1 mile) at the meet. Additionally, in red, I have noted all athletes who set a new PCB (personal course best) for the Georgetown Prep Classic.

Freshman

Here are the results for our freshmen athletes (113 total entries in the race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the freshman race. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

15 Langston Stovall - 20:19.4 [(1) 6:24, (2) 6:35, (3.1) 7:20]

32 Tariq Lewis - 21:19.4 [(1) 6:32, (2) 6:40, (3.1) 8:07] PR by 17 seconds

54 Ronald Rucker - 22:33.5 [(1) 6:59, (2) 7:01, (3.1) 8:34]

91 Haroon Zaid - 25:41.6 [(1) 7:18, (2) 7:49, (3.1) 10:35] PR by 7 seconds

96 Jacob Robertson - 26:27.9 [(1) 7:48, (2) 8:16, (3.1) 10:24] PR by 1 minute 40 seconds

111 Ian Brown - 31:34.6 [(1) 9:09, (2) 9:32, (3.1) 12:54]

Jacob had a fantastic race today. His split at the two mile was almost as fast as his two-mile split two weeks ago at Glory Days despite running on a slower course today.

Nice job to Tariq and Haroon on new PRs. Tariq didn't really start losing ground on Langston until the final mile of the race but he's been getting stronger every week. Haroon fell off his pace in the third mile and was walking a bit as he approached the two mile mark, but he still ran his best two mile split of the season (with the exception of Glory Days), so he probably just overexerted himself early in the race. He still managed to beat his PR from Landon.

Team Results

1. Walter Johnson 49 points

2. Winston Churchill 59 points

3. St. Albans 83 points

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9. DeMatha 233 points

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11. The Heights 270 points

12. Landon 275 points

We beat the only other WCAC team in the freshman race despite not having Dawson or Sean. The Heights generally seems to be pretty competitive in cross country so I certainly consider this an accomplishment for us.

Seeded Varsity

Here are the results for our seeded varsity athletes (97 total entries in the varsity race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the seeded varsity race. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

64 Jaiden Mosley (So.) - 19:48.7 [(1) 6:15, (2) 6:09, (3.1) 7:25] PR by 40 seconds

66 Thomas Parsons (Jr.) - 19:51.7 [(1) 6:06, (2) 6:10, (3.1) 7:36]

67 Hayward Smith-Cassidy (Jr.) - 19:59.4 [(1) 6:15, (2) 6:08, (3.1) 7:36]

86 Manuel Legaspi (Sr.) - 21:16.7 [(1) 6:42, (2) 6:42, (3.1) 7:53]

92 Westley Douglas (Sr.) - 22:40.6 [(1) 6:57, (2) 7:11, (3.1) 8:33]

96 Ashby Ervin (Sr.) - 24:22.2 [(1) 6:58, (2) 7:31, (3.1) 9:53]

I was really impressed watching Jaiden and Hayward during this race. Sometimes two teammates running side by side seems too coincidental and gives off the impression that they're holding back to stay together. I didn't get that impression from them though. They were working together to keep Thomas in their sight. Jaiden was able to take off in the final quarter mile or so and catch Thomas in the final stretch. Hayward's first mile was the only part of his race that kept him from being with Thomas at the end. I hope to see the three of them working together with James to pull each other along next week.

Also, Hayward ran only five seconds slower than his PR, set at the WCAC course last year, and set a season best by 10 seconds. Very impressive!

Team Results

1. Walt Whitman 77 points

2. Gilman 84 points

3. St. Albans 85 points

...

13. DeMatha 365 points

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15. Bowie 389 points

James couldn't race today and Langston ran in the freshman race. Throw the two of them in there and we move up about 2 spots and drop at least 35 points from our score.

Unseeded Varsity

Here are the results for our unseeded varsity athletes (82 total entries in the varsity race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the unseeded varsity race. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

40 Steven Camarano (So.) - 20:45.4 [(1) 6:21, (2) 6:35, (3.1) 7:49] PR by 0.6 seconds PCB by 1 minute 51 seconds

61 Julius Gamble (So.) - 22:18.4 [(1) 6:47, (2) 6:59, (3.1) 8:32] PR by 25 seconds

66 Julius Haynes (Jr.) - 22:52.8 [(1) 7:11, (2) 7:21, (3.1) 8:21] PR by 23 seconds

67 Gavin Foran (So.) - 22:54.0 [(1) 6:44, (2) 7:47, (3.1) 8:23]

68 London Bailey (Jr.) - 22:54.5 [(1) 7:11, (2) 7:21, (3.1) 8:23] PCB by 44 seconds

71 Dominic Williams-Dzirasa (Jr.) - 23:04.8 [(1) 7:11, (2) 7:22, (3.1) 8:32] PR by 1 minute 17 seconds

Steven's previous PR is from the WCAC Championships last year, so while the margin is small the feat is huge! He ran a terrific race today. Julius Haynes and London ran together for much of the course. While I couldn't shake the feeling that both could have run the course a bit faster, it worked out great for them to be where they were because Dominic was able to latch on right behind them and set a huge PR over his time at Wildcat, which is a fast course compared to most that we've raced. Julius set a PR (both of them did) and London set a season best by 33 seconds, so they definitely appear to be peaking at the right time.

Team Results

1. Northwest 29 points

2. Winston Churchill 60 points

3. The Heights 88 points

...

11. DeMatha 279 points

12. Magruder 309 points

If I had entered teams in both the seeded and unseeded races in either of my previous two years coaching DeMatha, I would have been too embarrassed to put the team scores up for the race. The fact that we didn't finish last and, in fact, were within 20 points of two other teams, speaks to the depth we are developing as a team.

Junior Varsity

Here are the results for our junior varsity athletes (114 total entries in the race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the JV race. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

83 Lucas Arzayus (Jr.) - 23:46.8 [(1) 7:22, (2) 7:25, (3.1) 9:00] PCB by 38 seconds

89 Cameron Polk (So.) - 24:08.2 [(1) 7:30, (2) 7:40, (3.1) 8:58]

94 Caleb Ghatt (Jr.) - 24:22.0 [(1) 7:23, (2) 7:48, (3.1) 9:11] PR by 23 seconds PCB by 2 minutes 28 seconds

99 Mathias Roy (Jr.) - 24:55.5 [(1) 7:12, (2) 8:04, (3.1) 9:40]

100 Christopher Lamb (So.) - 24:57.2 [(1) 7:30, (2) 7:51, (3.1) 9:36] PR by 1 minute 44 seconds

104 Bodior Elliott (Jr.) - 26:03.5 [(1) 7:57, (2) 8:25, (3.1) 9:42] PCB by 9 seconds

113 Ryan Kasner (So.) - 29:44.7 [(1) 9:02, (2) 9:24, (3.1) 11:19] PCB by 2 minutes 21 seconds

114 Drew Robertson (Sr.) - 33:16.5 [(1) 9:18, (2) 10:50, (3.1) 13:09]

Lucas ran only three seconds slower than his time at the WCAC Championship last year and set a season best by 1 minute 14 seconds. This was his first time running in the Georgetown Prep Classic but he did run this course in the private school state championship last November.

Chris had never run in the 25s for the 5k and he skipped them altogether to dip into the 24s! Bodior ran 9 seconds slower on this course last year and then broke 25 minutes the week after at WCACs, so this should set him up nicely for a new PR next week at championships if we get to run the full 5k course.

Team Results

1. Winston Churchill 24 points

2. St. Albans 53 points

3. Northwest 74 points

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11. DeMatha 353 points

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13. Maret 396 points

I'm looking forward to watching our varsity guys compete at WCACs next year. I'm anxious and nervous because it's going to be very tough to repeat in the top 4, where we've been the last two years, with the athletes we've lost and with how strong the conference is this year, but I'm excited to see how our guys respond to the challenge.

I'm also looking forward to seeing our depth on display in the Varsity B race. Assuming all 32 athletes are on hand for the meet, we will have at least 17 athletes in the Varsity B race. While it won't drown out the sea of purple we usually see in the WCAC Varsity B race, it will at least put a dent in it and we should definitely be able to improve upon our 6th place finish in this event last year.

Final Thoughts

This is it guys. After this, cross country is over for DeMatha. A handful of you may or may not elect to enter a couple more postseason events independently, such as the Footlocker Northeast Regional meet in New York, and I'll be more than happy to give workouts and schedule a few after-school workouts leading up to those races, but WCACs is what we have been training for. This is what the summer training you (hopefully) did and what the training plan we've followed this season were meant to prepare you for - to run a PR and hit your peak performance right now.

We'll get a few runs in this week, including a tune-up workout on Wednesday. Get as much sleep this coming week as you can get (i.e., once you've finished dinner and homework, don't go crazy on video games and other leisure activities if it means sacrificing your ability to get adequate sleep. If you haven't been eating healthy so far this season, now is your last chance to try and clean up your diet for a week and make sure your body is getting the right kinds of calories in preparation for next Saturday.

I expect you all to avoid any foolish behavior in school this week. If you get hit with a Saturday detention, you already know I'm not going to Mr. Gardiner or anybody else in the disciplinary office on your behalf just because it's our championship meet. And if you didn't know that, now you do.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. On Monday we begin our final push.

"The last thing you want is to finish playing or doing anything and wish you would have worked harder." - Derek Jeter