2022 Maryland Private School Championship

Today was a nice way to end a very successful 2022 season. We were without four of our varsity runners from the WCAC Championship, including the 3rd and 4th place finishers from that race, as well as the 1st and 2nd place finishers from the Varsity B race at WCACs.

With that in mind, I knew repeating our 3rd place team finish from last season would be unlikely, but I felt our depth definitely gave a shot to finish among the Top 5 teams. As it turned out, it was just enough to do so.

For a bit of extra perspective, this is the fourth time in my seven years as head coach we've competed in this meet to end the season. The first two times, in 2016 and 2017, we finished 12th and then 9th, and we had essentially our full complement of varsity runners for both of those races with one exception each year. Our placement today is a testament to the depth our team had this year.

This is a difficult course. I often tell my athletes that I set the DeMatha 5k record on this course as a way to keep them from psyching themselves out over the difficulty, but the truth is the course they used on Georgetown Prep's campus when I was in high school was easier than the current iteration, albeit slightly. Today's course is probably about 45 seconds slower than the this year's WCAC Championship course on average.

Let's jump right into our results from the day. As always, in blue, I will note all athletes who set a new PR (personal record) in the cross country 5k (3.1 mile). This was not the same course that was used for this meet last season, and we did not run in the Georgetown Prep Classic in 2019, so none of our athletes had an opportunity to run a new PCB (personal course best) today.

Varsity

Here are the results for our varsity athletes (114 total finishers in the race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the varsity race, including athletes from both large and small schools and unattached athletes. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

10 Christopher Toomer Jr. (Sr.) - 17:51.6 [(1) 5:30, (2) 5:36, (3.1) 6:46]

15 Graham Fenn (Jr.) - 18:04.5 [(1) 5:32, (2) 5:45, (3.1) 6:48]

38 Michael Metz (Sr.) - 18:59.5 [(1) 6:04, (2) 5:55, (3.1) 7:01]

51 Ian Parsons (Sr.) - 19:30.6 [(1) 5:54, (2) 6:10, (3.1) 7:27]

59 Hayden Walsh (So.) - 19:47.4 [(1) 6:11, (2) 6:09, (3.1) 7:27]

60 Roman Zentek (Fr.) - 19:48.8 [(1) 6:15, (2) 6:11, (3.1) 7:23]

85 William Jackson (So.) - 20:52.4 [(1) 6:21, (2) 6:28, (3.1) 8:03]

Michael ran a heck of a race to bounce back from a rough WCAC Championship race during which he was very sick and I'm sure would not have been running if he wasn't worried about letting down his teammates. He ran very well today despite still being a bit under the weather.

Ian was the difference maker at WCACs and then missed the next week of practice due to illness. His cardiovascular system almost certainly was at no higher than 75% of where he'd been two weeks ago so after a solid first mile all he could do was finish. He did, and was a big part of our team finish today.

Christopher capped off his high school cross country career with a great race and a 7th place finish among large school athletes and 10th overall. That is the first Top 10 finish by a DeMatha athlete in this meet since 2009!

Graham also had a really strong performance today to finish 11th in the large school division and 15th overall.

Our underclassmen stepped up big time today. None of them had run on varsity this season but they answered the call.

Team Results

Here are the varsity team results for the Large School Division:

1. Calvert Hall 69 points

2. Gilman 86 points

3. The Heights 98 points

4. Mt. St. Joseph 117 points

5. DeMatha 127 points

6. Good Counsel 128 points

7. Georgetown Prep 146 points

8. Landon 155 points

9. Spalding 216 points

10. St. Mary's Ryken 231 points

11. Bullis 346 points

As I said at the top, we did just enough to finish among the Top 5 teams today, holding off Good Counsel by a single point.

To sate my own curiosity, I checked what would have happened if we'd had our Top 2 finishers from WCACs today. Putting them conservatively right behind Christopher, and before applying additional points to finishers from other teams due to that displacement, our team score would have been 62 points. So while we don't get to claim this state title, our team at full strength would have won this race which is pretty awesome!

Junior Varsity

Here are the results for our junior varsity athletes (116 total finishers). 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:

41 Jesse Holland III (Fr.) - 21:32.8 [(1) 6:40, (2) 6:47, (3.1) 8:06]

56 Yaphet Negussie (Sr.) - 22:04.3 [(1) 7:03, (2) 6:45, (3.1) 8:16]

57 Maximo Legaspi (Sr.) - 22:04.5 [(1) 7:03, (2) 6:53, (3.1) 8:09]

66 Brendan Dougherty (So.) - 23:15.3 [(1) 7:17, (2) 7:17, (3.1) 8:41]

67 Cameron Lamb (Fr.) - 23:16.2 [(1) 7:17, (2) 7:10, (3.1) 8:49]

102 Akintunde Shoetan (So.) - 27:46.0 [(1) 8:19, (2) 8:47, (3.1) 10:40]

113 Devin Lewis (So.) - 34:53.9 [(1) 10:22, (2) 10:21, (3.1) 14:11]

Yaphet was just 7 seconds off the PR he set two weeks ago at WCACs, and Tunde was only 15 second off his PR from two weeks ago, so they were our top performers of the day in terms of how close they were to setting new PRs. Way to go!

I'm so proud of the effort these guys made today. They left everything on the course and closed out their season (with the exception of Yaphet) with a terrific race. Yaphet also ran a terrific race, but he plans to run in the senior race at the Footlocker NE Regional in two weeks up in New York. I'm looking forward to seeing him run up there. If anybody else decides at the last minute to go up, please me sure to let me know so I can adjust my plans so I can be there for any other race(s), as well.

Team Results

1. Calvert Hall 20 points

2. Gilman 51 points

3. The Heights 66 points

4. Good Counsel 130 points

5. St. Mary's Ryken 140 points

6. Charles E Smith 182 points

7. DeMatha 198 points

8. Berman Hebrew Academy 229 points

9. St. Andrew's Episcopal 269 points

Even with much of our depth missing today, our guys put together a solid showing in the team scoring.

Final Thoughts

Once again, congratulations to everyone on a terrific season. We achieved our goal of winning the WCAC Championship and had a strong showing today in the final meet of the season.

There will be some end-of-season loose ends to tie up in the coming week. I will reach out to everyone regarding those items, including uniform return (seniors also have the option to purchase their uniform to keep), the team banquet (which I plan to schedule for early December), and a couple other odd and ends such as championship ring measurements for those interested in purchasing a ring to commemorate this season. Additionally, I will be asking juniors to reach out to me in the coming week or so if they plan to return and are interested in being a captain next season.

I'd like to thank Coach Anthony and Coach Hoke for all their help this season. They are both terrific coaches. I and the athletes are very fortunate to have them. Thank you to Michael and Maximo for all their efforts as team captains, as well as to all the rest of our amazing seniors! Thank you to the parents for all of your support throughout the season. And thank you to all of our athletes for making this one of the most memorable seasons in DeMatha's cross country program history!