2023 Glory Days Grill Invitational

I told our athletes on Thursday after practice that while this is a good PR course, it would not be a good PR meet. While I love this course, this was not a meet I scheduled with the intention for us to train specifically for it.

We had a really tough week of workouts these past six days. Monday was a long run at Greenbelt Park, where you can't avoid hills. Wednesday was hill circuits at DeMatha. So we doubled down on workouts that were especially taxing to our lower bodies this week. It's hard to bounce back from a week of training like that and run your best, so I'm very impressed by the several athletes who either set new PRs or SBs or who came very close to doing so.

For those who didn't come particularly close to those marks, this introduction is my way of reminding you to keep today's result in perspective and to give yourselves some grace. I like that most of our athletes are very slow to come up with excuses for their performances; let those of us like myself, who know whether there's a legitimate reason for a poor performance, make those excuses for you when they're appropriate. But the flip side, coming down too hard on yourself, is equally unhealthy.

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. Additionally, in red, I have noted all athletes who set a new SB (season best), but not PR, in the cross country 5k. Some of our juniors and seniors ran this course two years ago when it hosted our WCAC Champion, but because of poor conditions it had to be adjusted to a 3-mile course instead of the 5k our athletes ran today, so there were no opportunities for new personal course bests (PCB) today, with one exception.

Open
Here are the results for our open race athletes. The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the open race (67 total finishers). In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

11 Jackson McCormick '22 - 22:03.87 [(1) 6:09, (2) 7:39, (3.1) 8:16] PCB by 2 minutes 27 seconds

Jackson last ran this course as a senior in 2021 and we had an unfortunate incident involving his racing chip and a bit of a rookie mistake by me. While his performance suffered that day, he had also run this course earlier in his high school career and had run it pretty well, so this is exciting to see him continue to improve in his post-DeMatha recreational running.

Jackson noteably broke 20 minutes in the 5k for the first time recently at the College Park parkrun. I know he was hoping for another sub-20 performance, but this is honestly quite impressive considering he hasn't done any 5k races outside of the pancake-flat parkrun in quite some time. Well done and way to keep representing the team!

Freshmen
Here are the results for our freshmen athletes. The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the open race (115 total finishers). In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

7 Phillip Marshall II - 19:19 [(1) 5:59, (2) 6:16, (3.1) 7:04] PR by 1 minute 21 seconds
30 Arvin Mirchandani - 20:33 [(1) 6:32, (2) 6:36, (3.1) 7:25] PR by 2 minutes 23 seconds
84 Renaud Williams - 23:57 [(1) 7:11, (2) 7:51, (3.1) 8:55]
89 Julian Maring - 24:57 [(1) 7:48, (2) 8:19, (3.1) 8:50]
108 Ronald Thurston Jr - 28:52 [(1) 8:22, (2) 9:34, (3.1) 10:56]
111 Josiah Jones-Humphrey - 30:26 [(1) 9:23, (2) 10:04, (3.1) 10:59]

Phillip ran a terrific race. He got out strong and maintained well in a challenging second mile. All three of his splits today were faster than his corresponding splits at Chesapeake three weeks ago.

Arvin ran a much smarter race today than he did at Chesapeake, which is to be expected since that was the first 5k of his high school career. His first mile was only a few seconds off of his opening split at Chesapeake, but with a few extra weeks of practice under his belt, he was able to maintain that pace into the second mile and then only lost a little bit of time in the third mile.

I was really happy with Josiah's performance today. This was his first 5k and he's still learning a lot about how to run, but I and our other coaches have seen an improvement from him in practice over the past couple of weeks so we were excited to see how today would go. Not only did he come very close to breaking the 30 minute mark, but after the race he told us the strategy that he came up with in the middle of the race and it worked exactly like he hoped it would. Whether it was the best strategy or not, I love that level of engagement because it can't be taught and because it's indicative of a competitive spirit that will enable him to continue improving.

Renaud, Julian, and RJ were all within 20 seconds of their PRs (RJ was only 1 second off his), so they fall under the explanation I led with. We were training through this meet, not for this meet. Their legs are pretty tired from a tough week of practice. While Arvin had the short term benefit of his legs not being quite as fatigued because he was not at Monday's practice for our hilly long run, the long term benefit of this week's workouts will show up as we get into the last few races of our season.

Team Results

1. West Springfield 35 points
2. WT Woodson 106 points
3. George C Marshall 128 points
4. James W Robinson 150 points
5. West Potomac 165 points
...
12. DeMatha 251 points

Junior Varsity
Here are the results for our junior varsity athletes. The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the combination of both sections of JV boys races (318 total finishers). In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

102 William Jackson (Jr.) - 21:08 [(1) 6:35, (2) 6:54, (3.1) 7:39]
111 William Herman (So.) - 21:16 [(1) 7:02, (2) 7:03, (3.1) 7:11] PR by 9 seconds
142 Jesse Holland III (So.) - 21:50 [(1) 7:01, (2) 7:13, (3.1) 7:36] SB by 5 seconds
151 Maxwell Ellison (Jr.) - 22:04 [(1) 6:13, (2) 7:34, (3.1) 8:17]
166 Joseph LeGloahec (So.) - 22:22 [(1) 7:00, (2) 7:19, (3.1) 8:03] PR by 0.5 seconds
173 Cameron Lamb (So.) - 22:33 [(1) 6:57, (2) 7:23, (3.1) 8:13] SB by 32 seconds
175 Ryan Pickett (So.) - 22:38 [(1) 6:55, (2) 7:18, (3.1) 8:25] PR by 40 seconds
192 Don DeRocha Jr (So.) - 23:08 [(1) 7:10, (2) 7:33, (3.1) 8:25]
215 Xavier Raymond (So.) - 23:44 [(1) 7:09, (2) 7:45, (3.1) 8:50] SB by 2 minutes 28 seconds
236 Brendan Dougherty (Jr.) - 24:19 [(1) 7:08, (2) 7:55, (3.1) 9:16]
239 Andrew Righi (Sr.) - 24:29 [(1) 7:58, (2) 8:06, (3.1) 8:25]
243 Peter Brown (Sr.) - 24:36 [(1) 7:56, (2) 8:04, (3.1) 8:36]
271 Aleko Rodousakis (Jr.) - 25:37 [(1) 8:10, (2) 8:29, (3.1) 8:58]
274 Daniel Traves (So.) - 25:48 [(1) 8:12, (2) 8:15, (3.1) 9:21]
281 Tyson Woods (So.) - 26:38 [(1) 8:11, (2) 8:43, (3.1) 9:44]
284 Alexander Davis (So.) - 26:54 [(1) 7:58, (2) 8:41, (3.1) 10:15] PR by 38 seconds
294 Akintunde Shoetan (Jr.) - 28:05 [(1) 8:08, (2) 9:17, (3.1) 10:40] SB by 4 minutes 19 seconds
301 Jesse Kliman (So.) - 28:44 [(1) 8:54, (2) 9:20, (3.1) 10:30] PR by 1 minute 7 seconds
302 Caleb Garcia Jr (Jr.) - 28:50 [(1) 8:10, (2) 9:20, (3.1) 11:20]
306 Carter Leecost (Jr.) - 29:48 [(1) 8:29, (2) 9:32, (3.1) 11:47]
314 Devin Lewis (Jr.) - 35:13 [(1) 9:55, (2) 11:40, (3.1) 13:38]
318 Zayden Spencer (Jr.) - 38:57 [(1) 11:11, (2) 13:23, (3.1) 14:23]

First off, congrats to Joe on keeping the streak alive. Even after a tough week of practice, he's never failed to hit a new PR in every race, and it's the second time this season he's hit that PR by just half a second.

Will Herman ran great today. It's always pretty impressive to me when a young runner is able to run such consistent splits through a race and get a PR. Just an FYI, that 7:11 for the final split translates to 6:31/mile pace over the final 1.1 miles of the race, so I think Will could take another 10-15 seconds off each of his first two mile splits and still keep a steady pace through the third mile.

I think Xavier's performance was the most exciting to me in this race, simply because I know he's been very disappointed following each of his first three races this season, particularly Trials of Miles but also following Chesapeake. Last year his fastest time was 21:29, so he's still a couple more minutes to go, but this was a huge step forward physically and hopefully the mental lift he gets from this will help spur that physical jump over the next few weeks.

I do want to mention that Cam's SB was just 10 seconds off his PR, and Daniel was only 4 seconds off his season best.

Team results were not compiled for the JV race.

Varsity
Here are the results for our varsity athletes. The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the varsity race (164 total finishers). In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

5 Chase Lopez (Sr.) - 16:40 [(1) 5:05, (2) 5:28, (3.1) 6:07] PR by 37 seconds
13 Sayid Shakur (Sr.) - 17:21 [(1) 5:12, (2) 5:30, (3.1) 6:39]
40 Graham Fenn (Sr.) - 18:16 [(1) 5:34, (2) 5:55, (3.1) 6:47] SB by 15 seconds
84 Roman Zentek (So.) - 19:20 [(1) 5:55, (2) 6:16, (3.1) 7:09]
112 Brandon Smoot (Jr.) - 19:44 [(1) 6:06, (2) 6:29, (3.1) 7:09]
147 Daden Grogan (Jr.) - 21:21 [(1) 6:01, (2) 7:09, (3.1) 8:11]
158 Tarik Harris Jr (Sr.) - 23:48 [(1) 5:44, (2) 8:03, (3.1) 10:01]

If today was going to be a PR day for anybody, I really did not expect it to be one for any of our varsity guys, making Chase's performance today extra impressive. Three weeks ago at Chesapeake, Chase became the 30th DeMatha cross country athlete to break 18 minutes in the 5k since 2000 (I'm still missing a lot of data from prior to 2000). Today he became the 9th in that span to break 17 minutes.

Overall, his time today ranks 21st among all 5k times for DeMatha since 2000, but the 20 times ahead of his were run by just three different individuals (15 of them are mine, 3 are from Robert Patterson '09, and the remaining two are from Jayden Keels '22. For Chase to pull off a run like this off such a difficult week of practice is really something and I'm excited to see what this may mean for the rest of his fall season.

Graham still has a bit to go to return to the form his was at a year ago when he set his current PR at MDXC (where we will race next week). His time that day was 16:58 and while nearly 80 seconds is a pretty huge gap to try and make up in a week, the fact that he ran another new season best on tired legs suggests it's not out of the realm of possibilities. We have a milder week of workouts coming up, so here's hoping fresher legs will allow him to make up most if not all of that gap.

Roman and Brandon had some bad luck today, particularly Roman. A firetruck and an ambulance had to cross the course right in the middle of the race and Roman was one of the first, if not the first, to be stopped. Not only did that open up a gap between him and the runners he was near, it also halted his momentum, which is not an easy thing to regain in the middle of a race when you're moving as quickly as he was. That interruption likely cost him 20 seconds or more, not quite enough for me to believe it cost him a new PR, but he likely would have been within 15 seconds or so.

TJ also appears to have had some bad luck. Somebody stepped on his foot early in the race and it took his (Julian's) shoe off his left foot. He ran the rest of the way with the shoe in his hand. As early as it happened, it probably would have been better off stopping to put it back on. On top of that, he said he rolled his ankle in a divot. He was able to finish the race, albeit in a time he hasn't seen in years, but that would suggest to me that it won't be a serious injury that keeps him out for long. Daniel's ankle injury at Trials of Miles appeared much worse at the time and he was back running with us early that week. That said, ankle injuries can be weird and sometimes the ones that look less severe end up being worse, so we'll see how it's feeling on Monday.

Team Results

1. Lake Braddock 94 points
2. West Potomac 106 points
3. St. John Paul the Great 148 points
4. Thomas Edison 168 points
5. Hayfield 190 points
6. Thomas Jefferson S&T 200 points
7. Chantilly 210 points
8. DeMatha 221 points
9. Patriot 233 points
10. South County 235 points
...
18. Bishop O'Connell 462 points
...
20. Paul VI 518 points
21. St. Stephen's & St. Agnes 552 points

Considering we didn't have Jalen, who has been a Top 5 guy for us, TJ had a bad race (usually our #3 finisher), Sayid has been a little under the weather for the past week and has missed a bit of running over the past two weeks with some calf pain, and Daden also missed a significant amount of time for two weeks before returning to practice this week, I'm honestly thrilled with this result.

If things had been more ideal for us, I think we easily would have finished in the Top 5 and possibly as high as 3rd.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy we've been dealing with these injuries and illnesses; but if it's going to happen I'd rather it happen in the middle of the season when we have time to make recover and adjustments. We only have one more real meet before championships, but we have four weeks. It's not an eternity, but it is enough time to work through some of these issues and get back on track.

Final Thoughts

Nice work today, everyone. Today was a bit of a mixed bag with some really high highs, and some equally low lows. But what makes me excited looking back on this meet as that very few of the lows were completely unexpected.

I knew that the majority of our guys were not going to PR today despite our team typically having a great record of PRs on this course and the course conditions being ideal for it. Usually the timing of this meet is more ideal within our training schedule than it was this year.

The weirdness of having shoes stepped on or an ambulance having to cross the course in the middle of the race aren't really avoidable, particularly the latter of the two, so we have to accept those and move on from them. I appreciated seeing Roman still finish so strong. Keep in mind that the interruption to his race came just after the 2 mile mark, so in the final split of his race. His pace for that final 1.1 miles, including the stoppage, was 6:30/mile, only 14 seconds off his second mile split. That resilience to do everything he could to pick up where he was cut off is worth more than any PR to me; better yet, it will lead to many more PRs for him.

I do need to point out a couple of things before I close out for today, and I'm sorry to have to call out a couple of our guys, but this is important as a learning experience not only for them individually but for all of us as a team.

Max ran very poorly today if you look only at his time in comparison to his previous races this season; but he had to pretty much sprint roughly half a mile right before his race because he never put his racing chip on his shoe and he left it back at the team area, which was at least a quarter mile away. Then he opened his race with a first mile that was two seconds faster than his opening split at Chesapeake. That would certainly explain the struggle he underwent through the final two miles just to get to the finish line.

When I tell you to put your bibs on your jersey and your chips on your shoe right when I give them to you, it is to help us avoid situations like this. In the lead-up to our races, our minds are often focused on the task ahead of us, and I'm trying to make sure there is one less thing you have to remember to do in those final moments before race time.

To be clear, Max was not the only athlete today who did not put his bib on right away or who did not lace his chip into his shoe right away. He just has the unfortunate distinction of being the example for the rest of the team because he never got around to it until he was already on the line and realized he had forgotten it. For the rest of you who also waited to get those things done today, I hope you'll realize that you're playing a dangerous game and that you should learn from Max so it never happens to you.

The other athlete I need to bring up is TJ with the compression shorts he wore today under his racing shorts. I've already talked to him about this, but I do need to bring it up for the team as a whole because if I don't, other athletes may see the compressions he wore today and think we can just wear any compressions under our shorts.

This is not the case. The reason we have to be uniform in the color of our compressions is not because it's my rule. I chose which color we would use, but it is a rule that every athlete wearing compression shorts on a team must have the same color compression shorts. It is a rule that virtually every meet we attend follows based on the sanctioning the meets apply for. Meet directors may choose not to enforce these rules themselves, but if a coach from another school brings it up, then because it is in the rule book the meet director would be forced to disqualify not just the individual offender, but the entire team.

Now, it's true that during the regular season we rarely see this come up. Most coaches don't want to get their rivals DQ'd from a regular season meet, but it's not because they're nice and don't want to get an opponent disqualified over something petty. The reason they usually don't do this in the regular season is because it tips their opponents off that they're looking for it. They would much rather wait until a championship meet to bring it up when the consequences are much more significant.

So yes, technically I could tell our athletes to wear what they want under their racing shorts during regular season meets, but if we do that and then suddenly we have to get stricter about it for the championship, the chances of an athlete forgetting, or even of a coach forgetting to bring it up, increase. So it's much better for us to just follow these rules throughout the season as a part of our routine.

"What is done cannot be undone, but at least one can keep it from happening again." - Anne Frank