2022 Gunpowder Falls Invitational

It's always difficult to convert 5k times from one cross country course to another. To say it's an inexact science would be an understatement and would probably (rightfully) offend every science teacher at DeMatha.

Still, it's a fun exercise; and so I looked back at last year's varsity runners from this race who also ran at MDXC to see if I could come up with an estimated conversion between the two courses.

Just about everyone who ran in both meets last year ran faster at MDXC, and they were also run on back-to-back weekends in the same order as this year so there's some consistency there. Some athletes ran less than 10 seconds faster at Shawan Downs, others ran as much as 50 seconds faster. Most athletes seemed to fall in the 30 to 35-second range, though, so I feel comfortable estimating that this course is, for the average varsity athlete who runs similarly well on both courses, about half a minute slower than the MDXC course we ran last week.

Now, Coach Anthony, Coach Hoke and I were talking to each other about how the course conditions seemed worse today than they did last year. I certainly do not remember as many slick and muddy spots as we saw today. I initially thought the difference would be even more substantial; but the Top 10 times from this year's varsity race are not very different from the Top 10 times from last year's varsity race.

For JV athletes, it's a little more difficult to make the conversion. Firstly, because they are running at a slower pace, the difference between the two courses can widen. However, small differences in course conditions tend to not affect slower athletes' times as much as faster athletes.

In general, I feel comfortable saying that if you were within 30 seconds of your MDXC time, you ran what would have equated to a PR a week ago and should be very pleased with your race. If you managed to set a new PR on today's course, you should be thrilled with your performance.

Let's get to today's results. As always, in blue, I have noted all athletes who set a new PR (personal record) in the cross country 5k (3.1 mile). Since this is the second time many of our athletes have run on this course, it was also an opportunity for a new PCB (personal course best) for the Gunpowder Falls 5k course, which I will indicate in silver where applicable. I always mention that in red, I have noted all athletes who set a new SB (season best), but not PR, in the cross country 5k, but that's not applicable at this point this season because every single one of our athletes has set a new PR at some point this year, so a faster time will inherently be a new PR rather than simply a new SB.

Fresh/Soph

Here are the results for our freshmen and sophomore non-varsity athletes (99 total entries in the race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the Fresh/Soph race. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

2 Jalen Neptune (So.) - 18:23.23 [(1) 5:46, (2) 6:18, (3.1) 6:19]

3 Daden Grogan (So.) - 18:35.56 [(1) 5:46, (2) 6:18, (3.1) 6:32]

7 Roman Zentek (Fr.) - 19:04.62 [(1) 6:00, (2) 6:37, (3.1) 6:28] PR by 4 seconds

9 Hayden Walsh (So.) - 19:06.21 [(1) 5:50, (2) 6:30, (3.1) 6:46] PCB by 27 seconds

14 William Jackson (So.) - 19:34.82 [(1) 6:10, (2) 6:47, (3.1) 6:38] PR by 9 seconds PCB by 26 seconds

23 Brandon Smoot (So.) - 20:39.04 [(1) 6:36, (2) 7:09, (3.1) 6:54]

24 Jesse Holland III (Fr.) - 20:41.07 [(1) 6:36, (2) 7:08, (3.1) 6:57]

35 Nicholas Berry (Fr.) - 21:18.23 [(1) 6:37, (2) 7:14, (3.1) 7:27]

48 William Herman (Fr.) - 21:58.33 [(1) 6:53, (2) 7:33, (3.1) 7:32] PR by 19 seconds

57 Xavier Raymond (Fr.) - 22:30.48 [(1) 6:39, (2) 7:45, (3.1) 8:06]

64 Daniel Traves (Fr.) - 22:40.78 [(1) 7:10, (2) 7:54, (3.1) 7:37] PR by 54 seconds

74 Cameron Lamb (Fr.) - 23:48.57 [(1) 7:21, (2) 8:03, (3.1) 8:25]

79 Brendan Dougherty (So.) - 24:02.83 [(1) 7:15, (2) 8:19, (3.1) 8:29] PCB by 38 seconds

90 Joseph LeGloahec (Fr.) - 25:39.26 [(1) 7:50, (2) 8:52, (3.1) 8:57] PR by 36 seconds

95 Carter Leecost (So.) - 28:47.39 [(1) 8:28, (2) 10:36, (3.1) 9:43]

96 Amari Wright (So.) - 28:50.84 [(1) 7:35, (2) 10:30, (3.1) 10:46]

98 Akintunde Shoetan (So.) - 30:16.02 [(1) 8:28, (2) 10:38, (3.1) 11:10]

Our Fresh/Soph athletes who were within 30 seconds of their PRs (which were set either at Chesapeake or at Shawn Downs):

• Jalen was 12 seconds off his PR

• Daden was 21 seconds off his PR

• Hayden was 20 seconds off his PR

• Brandon was 21 seconds off his PR

• Jesse was 7 seconds off his PR

• Nicholas was 10 seconds off his PR

In addition to those strong performances, Carter outperformed his race from last week at MDXC by almost 30 seconds, so today was a nice bounce-back effort for him.

It's been really fun to see all of these young athletes mature as runners through the season. Out of the 17 who ran in this race today, only Jalen, Hayden, William Jackson, Brendan, and Carter were on the team in 2021, so most of these guys are at least new to high school cross country if not new to the sport altogether.

Team Results

1. DeMatha 35 points

2. Towson 88 points

3. Walter Johnson 96 points

4. Bethesda-Chevy Chase 108 points

5. Carver A&T 131 points

...

10. Quince Orchard 223 points

Last year we finished 12th out of 15 teams in this event. The mixture of our team's growth and the talent we have in your youngest two classes is something we should be very excited about. Even if Towson had run their one underclassman from varsity in the Fresh/Soph race, which he would have won easily, we would have beaten Towson by more than 15 points. Well done, gentlemen!

Varsity

Here are the results for our varsity athletes (126 total entries in the race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the Varsity race. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

4 Sayid Shakur (Jr.) - 16:49.09 [(1) 5:13, (2) 5:38, (3.1) 5:58] PCB by 40 seconds

11 Christopher Toomer (Sr.) - 17:23.45 [(1) 5:22, (2) 5:54, (3.1) 6:07] PCB by 13 seconds

12 Ian Parsons (Sr.) - 17:28.14 [(1) 5:22, (2) 5:54, (3.1) 6:12] PCB by 21 seconds

13 Jayden Keels (Sr.) - 17:28.56 [(1) 5:09, (2) 6:01, (3.1) 6:19]

14 Graham Fenn (Jr.) - 17:34.10 [(1) 5:13, (2) 6:10, (3.1) 6:11] PCB by 45 seconds

23 Tarik Harris Jr. (Jr.) - 17:50.33 [(1) 5:24, (2) 6:00, (3.1) 6:26]

32 Michael Metz (Sr.) - 18:06.22 [(1) 5:46, (2) 6:01, (3.1) 6:19] PCB by 42 seconds

Our Varsity athletes who were within 30 seconds of their PRs (which were set either at Chesapeake or at Shawn Downs):

• Sayid was 4 seconds off his PR

• Ian was 15 seconds off his PR

• Michael was 14 seconds off his PR

From the first time I saw our guys at about the 1.25-mile mark, Jayden never looked comfortable. It sounds like his leg was kicked several times by an athlete from another team coming off the line and it bothered him through the race. He gutted it out but I know he was frustrated with how today went. The good news is we have another 5k before championships so we can get in a race to feel better about before the one that matters most.

I was really impressed to see Ian running with Christopher the entire way. He was with him the first time they passed me and they were still together at the 2-mile mark. Christopher just about always gets stronger compared to the field as the race goes on, so I was all the more impressed with Ian's closing mile, only losing about five seconds in that span.

Michael also ran a really solid race. He, along with the rest of our varsity, finished within the first 25% of the field today. That's truly remarkable. And while Towson was a bit stronger than us on the front end of their varsity, Tarik finished before their sixth man and Michael finished just ahead of their seventh.

Here is where our varsity finishers rank on our program leaderboard:

• Sayid - #29 for DeMatha since 2000, #11 among DeMatha juniors since 2000

• Christopher - #67 for DeMatha since 2000

• Ian - #73 for DeMatha since 2000

• Jayden - #75 for DeMatha since 2000

• Graham - #81 for DeMatha since 2000

Team Results

1. Towson 32 points

2. DeMatha 54 points

3. Walter Johnson 101 points

4. Liberty 111 points

5. Wilde Lake 167 points

...

14. Western Tech 406 points

I love the bang-bang-bang-bang finish of Christopher, Ian, Jayden, and Graham all finishing without any other athletes displacing them. That helped us keep things competitive. The problem was we did it with our 2-5 runners while Towson essentially did it with their 1-4 runners, with only Sayid interrupting them by squeezing in between their second and third finishers.

Speaking of Sayid, though, what a race! Of our varsity athletes, he came the closest to a new PR. According to his dad, Sayid told his mom he woke up "feeling fast." He looked fast, so I'd say his feeling was accurate. He's been coming on strong lately.

Open

Here are the results for our athletes who ran in the open race (53 total entries in the race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the co-ed Open race. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

12 Maximo Legaspi (Sr.) - 22:17.58 [(1) 6:56, (2) 7:47, (3.1) 7:35] PCB by 3 minutes 2 seconds

13 Andrew Righi (Jr.) - 22:19.29 [(1) 6:56, (2) 7:47, (3.1) 7:36] PCB by 3 minutes 46 seconds

14 Peter Brown (Jr.) - 23:02.21 [(1) 6:57, (2) 7:52, (3.1) 8:13] PCB by 2 minutes 55 seconds

18 Yaphet Negussie (Sr.) - 23:51.05 [(1) 7:26, (2) 8:03, (3.1) 8:22]

36 Anthony Bardonille Jr. (Jr.) - 26:49.30 [(1) 7:59, (2) 9:35, (3.1) 9:15] PR by 48 seconds PCB by 3 minutes 44 seconds

53 Devin Lewis (So.) - 32:35.69 [(1) 9:17, (2) 11:20, (3.1) 11:59] PR by 55 seconds

All of these guys did great today. It's tough for any athlete to have to run last in a meet. These guys were rooting for the fresh/soph runners a couple hours before they had to run and their bodies had to go through a significant temperature shift before their races. This isn't something many people thing about when they consider challenges athletes must overcome on race day, but it is a challenge and these guys handled it very well.

Of the four who did not set new PRs, Peter came the closest at only about 32 seconds off his PR, right in that window of what I estimated this course to be slower than MDXC by. Yaphet and Devin did not run last year, which was the only other time we've run this course, or they would have set new PCBs, too, I'm sure.

As it was, Anthony and Devin both managed to run new PRs on a fairly challenging course. I often refer to this course as "fair." I've seen much, much more challenging courses, but it's by no means an easy one and is certainly more difficult than Chesapeake, where Anthony's previous PR came from, and MDXC, where Devin ran his most recent PR last week.

Final Thoughts

One thing I'm a little worried about is whether we've started to hit our peak a little bit earlier than intended. Sayid missed some time early in the season due to injury, so he has about a week or so less training under his belt than the rest of our varsity runners. I know several of our varsity athletes have been running faster than their target paces on recovery runs and so their legs may be more worn out than they're supposed to be at this point in the season. Considering James is also pulling double duty this season with his club lacrosse team, I'm growing concerned that we may be plateauing while Gonzaga and St. John's continue to ascend.

We may have to make an adjustment these last two weeks to build in some additional recovery for some of our athletes, particularly those on varsity. It wouldn't be the first time. In 2018, Dawson Grogan, Daden's older brother, didn't take any time off between summer track and cross country and was getting worn down late in the season. After a poor race in early October, I held him out of every quality workout (Monday and Wednesday workouts) for two weeks, only having him practice with us on recovery and easy days. He then came back into quality workouts for the final week leading into WCACs to make sure he got his legs moving quickly again before championships. He responded well and ran almost 2 minutes faster on virtually the same course three weeks later. He went from being our 9th fastest runner at the Glory Days Grill Invitational to being our fastest finisher at the WCAC Championship.

I will talk to the athletes this week and make a determination on what we need to do to ensure they are at their best in two weeks. I will have this week's practice and tentative workout schedule out tomorrow morning, along with target training paces for our athletes. I strongly advice athletes not run any faster than those target paces these next two weeks. For most of the season, running too fast can be a risk/reward calculation. It might pay off, but it can also be detrimental to your training. In the final two weeks leading into championships, it can only be detrimental because it's now too late for gain any additional fitness from these workouts. All these next two weeks are about is maintenance.

"There are only two options regarding commitment. You're either in or you're out. There is no such thing as a life in-between." - Pat Riley