2019 Glory Days Grill Invitational

I know Saturday was a long day for many of our athletes, especially those who rode the bus to and from the meet, as well as for all of our guys who came out to race and then had to perform at the Kaleidoscope concert at DeMatha Saturday night.

I was surprised to only see three other WCAC schools at Glory Days this year, and was even more surprised to find that St. Mary's Ryken was the only WCAC school at Georgetown Prep on the boys side. While it can be a bit of a trek down to Centreville/Manassas, especially with traffic as bad as it was in spots on Saturday, I've found this meet invaluable for our athletes over the past few years in preparation for the WCAC Championships so I'm glad most of our guys were able to be there and race this weekend. You'll have a leg up on more than half of our conference in that you'll get to spend the next two weeks visualizing the course and how you want to attack it based on your experience.

In blue, I have noted all athletes who set a new PR (personal record) in the cross country 5k (3.1 mile) at Saturday's meet. In red, I have noted all athletes who set a new SB (season best), but not PR, in the cross country 5k. And in silver, I have noted all athletes who set a new PCB (personal course best) for Bull Run Regional Park, albeit on a slightly different course than last year's championship meet.

Open Race

Here are the results for our open athletes. The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the open race. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

4 Matthew Metz '18 - 17:24 [(1) 5:31, (2) 5:36, (3.1) 6:16] PCB by 2 seconds

Matthew (Michael's older brother) was our only alum in the open race this year. I can't call this a PR because I'm not sure if Matthew has beaten his high school best of 17:26, set on this course at the WCAC Championship two years ago, but it's certainly a course best. Last year he ran 18:48 on a slower but shorter course, and he said he wanted to redeem himself. He ran a great race and I'm glad I got to see it (the bus arrived and I sprinted to the start and got within eyesight of the starting line just as they fired the gun to start his race).

Hopefully I'll be back out there next October for this race.

Freshman

Here are the results for our freshmen athletes (292 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:

22 Jayden Keels - 18:57 [(1) 5:31, (2) 6:20, (3.1) 7:06]

26 Christopher Toomer - 19:04 [(1) 6:08, (2) 6:15, (3.1) 6:41] PR by 44 seconds

40 Michael Metz - 19:30 [(1) 6:02, (2) 6:23, (3.1) 7:05] PR by 42 seconds

56 Ian Parsons - 19:53 [(1) 6:01, (2) 6:25, (3.1) 7:27]

104 Sam Cockrell - 20:42 [(1) 6:09, (2) 6:52, (3.1) 7:41]

158 Jaden Davis - 21:55 [(1) 6:33, (2) 7:16, (3.1) 8:06]

188 Michael Duarte - 22:36 [(1) 6:31, (2) 7:39, (3.1) 8:26]

220 Georges Tadonki - 23:28 [(1) 6:52, (2) 8:07, (3.1) 8:29] PR by 1 minute 40 seconds

258 Yaphet Negussie - 24:45 [(1) 7:37, (2) 8:05, (3.1) 9:03]

273 Maximo Legaspi - 26:33 [(1) 7:56, (2) 8:50, (3.1) 9:47]

283 Andrew Foreman - 27:44 [(1) 7:48, (2) 9:17, (3.1) 10:39] PR by 36 seconds

286 Jaquada Moses - 28:02 [(1) 7:48, (2) 9:18, (3.1) 10:56] PR by 45 seconds

Our freshmen as a group are still learning how to run this race on different courses. On a fast course like this, it's easy to get caught up and go out too fast, which we saw a few of our athletes do.

Some of our freshmen, most notably, Chris and Michael, seem to be reaching a status of "course independency," where they can adjust to new courses very easily.

Two weeks after setting a 3-minute PR, George took another minute and three quarters off his time. It's exciting to see him not only learn the 5k distance but learn what he is capable of.

Jayden had a bit of a rough race after taking an awkward step with both feet early in the race and tweaking his ankles. Thankfully it appears we dodged anything serious and he seemed to be feeling much better after the race. Hopefully that remains the case as we go through the long weekend.

Team Results

1. Dominion 95 points

2. Centreville 159 points

3. South Lakes 181 points

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8. DeMatha 219 points

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17. The Heights 438 points

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26. Paul VI 658 points

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28. Flint Hill School 725 points

I am very excited about this finish for us. To give some context:

In 2017 there were 29 full freshmen teams in this event and we finished 15th. We had two top 40 finishers, and they were our only two in the top 100.

In 2018, there were 28 full freshmen teams and we finished 25th. Langston was our only finisher in the top 100 (he finished 50th) and we only had three finishers in the top 200.

This weekend's meet affirms the excitement I've had since the beginning of the season for this young nucleus of athletes we have.

JV #1

Here are the results for our JV athletes (284 total entries in the JV #1 race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the JV #1 race. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

71 Gavin Foran (Jr.) - 20:03 [(1) 6:37, (2) 6:36, (3.1) 6:50] SB by 2 minutes 55 seconds

117 Tariq Lewis (So.) - 20:44 [(1) 6:02, (2) 7:00, (3.1) 7:42]

159 Steven Camarano (Jr.) - 21:32 [(1) 6:35, (2) 7:13, (3.1) 7:44] SB by 12 seconds

179 Dominic Williams-Dzirasa (Sr.) - 21:58 [(1) 6:28, (2) 7:20, (3.1) 8:10] PR by 36 seconds - PCB by 1 minute 16 seconds

194 Caleb Ghatt (Sr.) - 22:17 [(1) 6:47, (2) 7:22, (3.1) 8:08] PR by 2 minutes 5 seconds - PCB by 2 minutes 22 seconds

211 Cameron Polk (Jr.) - 22:43 [(1) 7:02, (2) 7:39, (3.1) 8:02] SB by 1 minute 17 seconds

221 Jacob Robertson (So.) - 23:06 [(1) 7:03, (2) 7:44, (3.1) 8:19] PR by 53 seconds - PCB by 2 minutes 48 seconds

239 Jon Kasner (So.) - 23:52 [(1) 7:12, (2) 8:03, (3.1) 8:37] PR by 43 seconds

242 Lucas Arzayus (Sr.) - 23:56 [(1) 7:41, (2) 7:49, (3.1) 8:26] SB by 20 seconds

268 Bodior Elliott (Sr.) - 25:44 [(1) 7:57, (2) 8:53, (3.1) 8:54] SB by 18 seconds

269 Jackson McCormick (So.) - 25:44 [(1) 7:55, (2) 8:55, (3.1) 8:54] PR by 1 minute 38 seconds

280 Ian Brown (So.) - 28:08 [(1) 8:00, (2) 9:23, (3.1) 10:45] PCB by 4 minutes 33 seconds

What a day for our junior varsity runners. I'll start by acknowledging that Tariq did run a good race, but it was his first time running this course as a 5k, so he didn't really have a chance to at least set a new PCB. Last year he ran in a wonky Glory Days meet where they shortened the course to approximately 2.95 miles but then suffered an ankle injury in practice the week of championships and was unable to race.

Gavin, hopefully, discovered a solution to his cramping issues by running a bit harder on his warmup to try and get the cramp out of the way. His body responded well as he was our fourth athlete through the mile mark in this race and ran incredibly even splits on the way to a huge season best time. His PR still comes from the championship meet his freshman year, but he beat his season best from last season (also set at championships) by a full 60 seconds. Hopefully these next two weeks will allow him to knock some more time off and have him feeling confident at the close of his junior season.

I was very excited to see how Caleb would run after missing the Chesapeake Invitational two weeks ago. He ran okay at Landon, but I felt like he'd been running much better in practice and at our the Braddock Relays (granted that course was only 2500m). He pulled a massive PR Saturday. We have one more chance in two weeks for him to break 22 before his high school cross country career ends and I have no doubt he can do it.

Congrats to Dominic for breaking 22 minutes for the first time! Cameron was less than 30 seconds away from his PR, set at this meet his freshman year. Jacob crushed his time from championships last year and will look to break 23 in two weeks. Jackson skipped the 26-minute range entirely! Ian was only a few seconds off his time from two weeks ago and demolished his time from the championship meet last year, and for the first time I saw a legitimate kick from him at the end of his race!

These guys impress me every day with their willingness to do the same workouts as our varsity contenders. They may not run the workouts as fast and they may not do as many reps, but I've said it before and I'll say it again. Very few high school teams put their junior varsity runners through a true workout regimen and these guys go through it every day. Results like the ones we got in the JV race Saturday are the ones that keep me falling in love with coaching again and again.

Last year, even though they don't give out JV team awards, they scored this race. They didn't do so this year, so no team scores for this event.

Seeded Varsity

Here are the results for our varsity athletes (215 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:

109 James Hudson (Jr.) - 18:00 [(1) 5:30, (2) 6:01, (3.1) 6:29] PR by 41 seconds - PCB by 1 minute 13 seconds

136 Thomas Parsons (Sr.) - 18:23 [(1) 5:34, (2) 6:00, (3.1) 6:49] SB by 6 seconds

157 Langston Stovall (So.) - 18:35 [(1) 5:41, (2) 6:11, (3.1) 6:43] PR by 1 second - PCB by 1 minute 18 seconds

172 Hayward Smith-Cassidy (Sr.) - 18:49 [(1) 5:46, (2) 6:15, (3.1) 6:48] PR by 33 seconds - PCB by 59 seconds

208 Dawson Grogan (So.) - 19:46 [(1) 5:37, (2) 6:32, (3.1) 7:37]

210 Jaiden Mosley (Jr.) - 19:53 [(1) 5:49, (2) 6:33, (3.1) 7:31] SB by 10 seconds - Tied PCB

213 Desmond Holt (So.) - 20:35 [(1) 5:53, (2) 6:46, (3.1) 7:56] PR by 5 seconds

Oh soooo close! What a run by James, but he'll just have to fuel his fire for a couple more weeks to break that 18-minute mark. If he does it, and the word choice there is purely an attempt to avoid jinxing him, he'll be the first DeMatha runner to do so since Anthony Perry and Matthew Metz did it at championships in 2017.

Thomas is less than 10 seconds from the PR he said at that championship meet in 2017. That year he ran 19:15 at this meet and then 18:15 at championships. Now, there were three weeks between the two meets rather than two, but that still gives him a legitimate shot to break 18 along with James in a couple weeks.

I honestly thought Langston had beaten his PR from a couple weeks ago by more than he did, but he ran a fantastic race. He kept a steady pace, he was our third fastest runner after the 2-mile mark (Chris Toomer ran his last 1.1 in 6:41), and beat his time from last year's championship meet by a big margin. He might be flirting with 18 flat himself in a couple weeks.

Hayward ran the race of his life, so far. I think he's got one more PR in him to cap off his high school cross country career.

Dawson caught a bad charley horse early in his race, and actually stopped briefly to stretch it out in the middle of the race. I spoke to him after the race and he's confident he'll be fine and that he's not dealing with a repeat of last season's fatigue at this meet, so I have no reason not to be confident in him as well.

Jaiden looked very strong and Desmond stepped up to the plate in his first varsity appearance with a nice PR.

Team Results

1. West Springfield 144 points

2. Herndon 159 points

3. L.C. Bird 197 points

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19. Bishop O'Connell 418 points

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24. Eleanor Roosevelt 580 points

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27. DeMatha 719 points

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29. Colonial Forge 824 points

As we do every year, we handicapped our varsity team a bit by (a) running varsity freshmen in the freshman race and (b) entering our team in the seeded varsity race rather than the unseeded, Varsity B, alternative. I believe in giving freshmen a chance to race against their fellow graduating class members and in exposing our varsity runners to the very best competitors in the region.

I'm not thrilled about being so far behind O'Connell. They're likely number 3 in the conference right now and I want that spot, but we can't worry about what other teams are doing. We have our own business to take care of in two weeks and as long as we as a team are satisfied that we've done that, this season has been a success. I hope our best nets us a top 3 finish in the WCAC, and I believe our best deserves a top 3 finish. I haven't lost confidence that we can achieve that goal and neither should our varsity athletes.

Final Thoughts/Quick Preview

Next week we'll run a tune up race at the College Park parkrun. Glory Days is for visualizing the course and the parkrun is to, one last time before championships, get our bodies used to the 5k distance. Make sure you all come in with a game plan for what you want to accomplish next week. For some of you, it might be to get a PR. Some of you may want to work on a particular element of your race.

Championships is not the time to experiment, but next week is if there's something you want to try out to see if it works. If you want to work on something and you're not sure how to do so, talk to me about it this week and I'll give you guidance on how to do it.

Our varsity lineup at WCACs is largely determined by results from Glory Days, but don't assume just because you were top 7 this weekend that you've locked up a varsity spot or that because you weren't top 7 this weekend that you can't still earn a varsity spot. What I see over the next week in practice will be taken into consideration.

Any freshman who does not run in the varsity race at championships will run in the freshman race. All non-freshmen who are not in the varsity race will run JV. Everybody will be entered and everybody is expected to run if they are healthy. I'll be having conversations with the athletes in the varsity conversation over the next week as I reach my final decisions. I will have a varsity lineup set when I publish championship meet information early next week.

If you didn't see it, be sure to check my email to the parents/athletes from Friday night for information about the practice schedule for this week.

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." - T.S. Eliot