2023 College Park parkrun #2

This was just what we needed today. It's been a few years since we've done our WCAC tuneup 5k at the College Park parkrun. Our normal season structure was interrupted by Covid in the fall of 2020 and we've run at the Skip Grant Invitational on this weekend each of the past two seasons.

Today was an opportunity for our athletes to be competitive in an atmosphere that is less about competition and more about community and support. There was a lot of positivity through the race (many of the other runners were encouraging us as we ran back past them on the second half of the run) and at the finish line.

As always, 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. While results from this race won't show up on an athlete's MileSplit or Athletic.net profile, I include these results in my own team records. Additionally, in red, I have noted all athletes who set a new SB (season best), but not PR, in the cross country 5k. And for those who have participated in previous College Park parkruns with us, in silver I have noted all athletes who set a new PCB (personal course best) for the Paint Branch Trail out-and-back 5k course.

Open Race

Here are the results for all of our athletes (199 total finishers in the run). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the race. In brackets are their first mile splits, their last 2.1 mile splits, and their average pace for the final 2.1 miles

3 Graham Fenn (Sr.) - 17:45 [(1) 5:25, (3.1) 12:20 {5:52 pace}] SB by 6 seconds PCB by 9 seconds
5 Daden Grogan (Jr.) - 18:15 [(1) 5:31, (3.1) 12:44 {6:04 pace}] SB by 48 seconds PCB by 52 seconds
7 Roman Zentek (So.) - 18:39 [(1) 5:51, (3.1) 12:48 {6:06 pace}] PCB by 1 minute 59 seconds
8 Phillip Marshall II (Fr.) - 18:40 [(1) 5:58, (3.1) 12:42 {6:03 pace}] PR by 22 seconds PCB by 2 minutes 44 seconds
10 Brandon Smoot (Jr.) - 19:00 [(1) 5:52, (3.1) 13:08 {6:15 pace}] PR by 3 seconds PCB by 1 minute 23 seconds
12 Maxwell Ellison (Jr.) - 19:22 [(1) 6:02, (3.1) 13:20 {6:21 pace}] PR by 8 seconds PCB by 2 minutes 1 second
14 Arvin Mirchandani (Fr.) - 19:31 [(1) 5:57, (3.1) 13:34 {6:28 pace}] PR by 1 minute 2 seconds
17 Nicholas Berry (So.) - 20:21 [(1) 6:22, (3.1) 13:59 {6:40 pace}] PCB by 3 minutes 8 seconds
18 William Herman (So.) - 20:25 [(1) 6:39, (3.1) 13:46 {6:33 pace}] PCB by 2 minutes 25 seconds
21 Jesse Holland III (So.) - 20:50 [(1) 6:47, (3.1) 14:03 {6:42 pace}] PCB by 2 minutes 36 seconds
22 Don DeRocha Jr (So.) - 20:56 [(1) 6:30, (3.1) 14:26 {6:52 pace}] PR by 44 seconds
24 Brendan Dougherty (Jr.) - 21:05 [(1) 6:30, (3.1) 14:35 {6:56 pace}] PR by 1 minute 13 seconds PCB by 3 minutes 6 seconds
25 Ryan Pickett (Jr.) - 21:05 [(1) 6:39, (3.1) 14:26 {6:53 pace}] PR by 19 seconds PCB by 3 minutes 9 seconds
26 Joseph LeGloahec (So.) - 21:06 [(1) 6:30, (3.1) 14:36 {6:57 pace}] PR by 30 seconds PCB by 3 minutes 18 seconds
27 Cameron Lamb (So.) - 21:06 [(1) 6:38, (3.1) 14:28 {6:53 pace}] PR by 58 seconds PCB by 2 minutes 48 seconds
28 Andrew Righi (Sr.) - 21:15 [(1) 6:46, (3.1) 14:29 {6:54 pace}] PR by 28 seconds PCB by 3 minutes
29 Xavier Raymond (So.) - 21:21 [(1) 6:29, (3.1) 14:52 {7:05}] PR by 8 seconds PCB by 1 minute 44 seconds
33 Peter Brown (Sr.) - 21:47 [(1) 6:44, (3.1) 15:03 {7:10 pace}] PR by 32 seconds PCB by 3 minutes 59 seconds
38 Julian Maring (Fr.) - 22:34 [(1) 7:02, (3.1) 15:32 {7:24 pace}] PR by 1 minute 39 seconds
42 Aleko Rodousakis (Jr.) - 23:32 [(1) 7:25, (3.1) 16:07 {7:41 pace}] PR by 1 minute 5 seconds PCB by 5 minutes 1 second
46 Alexander Davis (So.) - 24:01 [(1) 7:10, (3.1) 16:51 {8:01 pace}] PR by 1 minute 48 seconds PCB by 8 minutes 48 seconds
51 Tyson Woods (So.) - 24:36 [(1) 7:58, (3.1) 16:38 {7:55 pace}] PCB by 3 minutes 24 seconds
57 Caleb Garcia Jr (Jr.) - 25:16 [(1) 7:22, (3.1) 17:54 {8:31 pace}]
67 Jesse Kliman (So.) - 26:20 [(1) 8:31, (3.1) 17:49 {8:29 pace}] PR by 2 minutes 14 seconds PCB by 7 minutes 39 seconds
69 Carter Leecost (Jr.) - 26:26 [(1) 8:20, (3.1) 18:06 {8:37 pace}] PR by 43 seconds PCB by 6 minutes 51 seconds
74 Daniel Traves (So.) - 26:47 [(1) 7:51, (3.1) 18:56 {9:01 pace}]
77 Ronald Thurston Jr (Fr.) - 27:16 [(1) 8:20, (3.1) 18:56 {9:01 pace}]
78 Elliott Kramer (So.) - 27:21 [(1) 8:49, (3.1) 18:32 {8:50 pace}] PR by 2 minutes 13 seconds PCB by 7 minutes 13 seconds
92 Josiah Jones-Humphrey (Fr.) - 29:35 [(1) 9:19, (3.1) 20:16 {9:39 pace}] PR by 51 seconds
115 Kasapo Mwanza (So.) - 32:17 [(1) 9:35, (3.1) 22:42 {10:49 pace}]
133 Devin Lewis (Jr.) - 35:36 [(1) 10:29, (3.1) 25:07 {11:57 pace}]

We also had a few former team members run at today's parkrun. Congrats to each of them!

1 Coach Cory Puffett '10 - 17:25 [(1) 5:25, (3.1) 12:00 {5:43 pace}] PCB by 14 seconds
11 Corlie McCormick '22 - 19:19 [(1) 5:56, (3.1) 13:23 {6:22 pace}] PCB by 28 seconds

It's been quite some time since I raced and it felt great to be out there running with the team today. I've run a few races over my eight seasons coaching at DeMatha and I've only run this fast one other time when I ran 17:25 on the Glory Days course in 2017. I also want to shoutout Jackson today because even though I don't track PRs for athletes no longer in the program, I'm really proud of the work he continues to put in. His PR as a part of the team was 23:01.75 at Skip Grant two years ago and he's taken off almost 4 minutes from his 5k time since then! Earlier this year he broke 20 minutes for the first time on this parkrun course and he ran another new PR today.

Back to our current athletes who this is really about, it was great to have so many out there running today. The 31 athletes who ran today tie a record for the biggest showing DeMatha cross country has ever had at the parkrun.

Daden earns a big shoutout because even though he didn't set a new PR, he did tie his PR from last season. He wasn't quite where we would have liked him to be early in the season and then his training got interrupted by a mid-season ankle injury, but these last few weeks of training have been excellent and I had a feeling today was going to be a good day for him. It was a great day for him and hopefully next week's race at WCACs will be even better.

On a similar note, Andrew and Xavier hadn't gotten back to the PRs they set in the 2022 season through the first several meets this year, but they broke through that wall today to set their first new PRs of the season. Xavier in particular I know was frustrated with his performance over the last few meets of the 2022 season and the first two or three races of this season, but ever since Glory Days he has looked really good in his races and in practice.

Phillip took a huge step this week to break 19 minutes. He's the fifth fastest freshman DeMatha has had during my time as the coach:

• Devin Smith - 17:46 (2016)

• Jayden Keels '23 - 17:57 (2019)

• Dawson Grogan '22 - 18:25 (2018)

• Sayid Shakur - 18:36.8 (2020 - Covid season)

• Phillip Marshall II - 18:40 (2023)

Of the athletes who did not set new PRs today:

• Caleb Garcia was 19 seconds off his

• RJ Thurston was 18 seconds off his

• Roman Zentek was 17 seconds off his

• Will Herman was 10 seconds off his

• Nick Berry was 10 seconds off his

• Tyson Woods was 3 seconds off his

• Daden Grogan tied his

Almost everybody who has run in this event before set a new personal course best (PCB) today. Many of them were by multiple minutes, and in some of those cases athletes may not have run a parkrun since last year. In one case (Carter's), he hadn't run a parkrun with us since 2021. But I'm really impressed with some of the PCBs by our first-year athletes. Alex Davis, Jesse Kliman, and Elliott Kramer each beat the times they ran a little less than two months ago by more than 7 minutes! Their performances today go to show how much our athletes can accomplish in a short time when they make the most of every day in practice.

I'm particularly impressed with Jesse considering he hasn't had the benefit of as much practice time as Alex and Elliott have had. Because a big part of him being at DeMatha is his participation in the arts (music and theater), he's had to miss most of our Monday and Friday practices for rehearsals for the fall play and he is part of the (incredibly disciplined) group of Jazz Lab participants who make their way to practice late every Wednesday but get through their warmup and most if not all of the workout in a much shorter time than we allot for the rest of the team on those days.

There are so many other performances I would love to have the time to point out, but I'll have to limit it to one more. Congratulations to Josiah on breaking 30 minutes for his first time! He's earned a spot in the championship meet and will get to join our other freshmen in the conference's freshman race. I'm so excited to see that time next to his name in just the second race of his high school career.

Final Thoughts

I don't have too much else to share today. We've tried to spend some time this week focusing on our mental preparedness for WCACs. I think today shows that our physical preparation is coming together and that we should be ready to run our best next week.

I know a few of our athletes finished today in a little bit of distress. Jesse Holland was having a hard time catching his breath and both Daniel and Xavier were dealing with tightness in their legs after the race (Daniel's leg seemed to be bothering him by the time he reached the mile mark).

Some of thoese issues will hopefully resolve themselves with a restful remainder of the weekend. But particularly for any muscle aches and pains, be sure to address those by going to see the trainers. We're only off campus one day this coming week which should allow for more opportunities to see our athletic trainers if necessary.

I hope our guys are as excited about next weekend as I am. I'm still very hopefully for a strong placement from our varsity team, but I'm also excited to see just how competitive our JV depth will be. Let's have a great week of practice!

"Number one is just to gain a passion for running. To love the morning, to love the trail, to love the pace on the track. And if some kid gets really good at it, that's cool, too. - Pat Tyson