2023 Maryland XC Invitational

It's been quite a while since we've run a race in what I might call "traditional cross country conditions." Fortunately, we made it to Shawan Downs in time to set up camp and get through the course walk before the skies opened. We were also fortunate that it never became a true downpour. But nobody left the course today dry and unmuddied, and that's exactly what cross country is meant to be.

I always loved races like this as an athlete. While I've never liked having my belongings get wet, virtually every race I have a fond memory off was either in the rain or on a course that had been subject to significant rain in the days leading up to the meet. Due to my long strides and my back-kick, if the back of my jersey wasn't caked in mud, I knew I hadn't put 100% into my race.

I had a feeling coming into this week, and was extremely confident by the end of the week, that we would have more PRs today than we had at Glory Days last week. While both are PR courses, this week's workouts were slightly less intense than last week's and allowed our athletes to get their legs back under them, so to speak. I was worried course conditions might subvert my expectations, but that worry turned out to be for nothing.

Getting into 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) 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. Most of our returning athletes ran in this meet last year, and for those who did, if they ran faster today than they did on this course last season, in silver I have noted all athletes who set a new PCB (personal course best) for the Shawan Downs 5k course.

Junior Varsity
Here are the results for our junior varsity athletes. The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the JV race (837 total finishers). In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

14 Tarik Harris Jr (Sr.) - 18:16 [(1) 5:24, (2) 5:58, (3.1) 6:54]
65 Phillip Marshall II (Fr.) - 19:02 [(1) 6:05, (2) 6:09, (3.1) 6:48] PR by 17 seconds
135 Maxwell Ellison (Jr.) - 19:30 [(1) 6:18, (2) 6:04, (3.1) 7:08] PR by 0.4 seconds
200 William Jackson (Jr.) - 19:55 [(1) 5:58, (2) 6:18, (3.1) 7:39] SB by 42 seconds
223 Nicholas Berry (So.) - 20:11 [(1) 6:21, (2) 6:30, (3.1) 7:20] PR & PCB by 57 seconds
239 William Herman (So.) - 20:15 [(1) 6:35, (2) 6:41, (3.1) 6:59] PR by 1 minute 1 second
251 Jesse Holland III (So.) - 20:21 [(1) 6:38, (2) 6:37, (3.1) 7:06] PR & PCB by 13 seconds
373 Ryan Pickett (So.) - 21:24 [(1) 6:42, (2) 6:51, (3.1) 7:51] PR by 1 minute 14 seconds
397 Joseph LeGloahec (So.) - 21:36 [(1) 6:50, (2) 6:59, (3.1) 7:47] PR by 46 seconds
470 Cameron Lamb (So.) - 22:04 [(1) 6:53, (2) 7:11, (3.1) 8:00] PR by 19 seconds PCB by 1 minute 31 seconds
474 Tyler Ellis (Jr.) - 22:05 [(1) 6:54, (2) 7:07, (3.1) 8:04]
498 Brendan Dougherty (Jr.) - 22:18 [(1) 6:57, (2) 7:17, (3.1) 8:04] PR by 24 seconds PCB by 1 minute 17 seconds
500 Peter Brown (Sr.) - 22:19 [(1) 7:09, (2) 7:20, (3.1) 7:50] PR by 13 seconds PCB by 26 seconds
558 Andrew Righi (Sr.) - 22:50 [(1) 7:32, (2) 7:15, (3.1) 8:03] SB by 58 seconds
560 Xavier Raymond (So.) - 22:51 [(1) 6:46, (2) 7:17, (3.1) 8:48] SB by 53 seconds
610 Renaud Williams (Fr.) - 23:24 [(1) 7:42, (2) 7:35, (3.1) 8:07] PR by 25 seconds
611 Don DeRocha Jr (So.) - 23:24 [(1) 7:44, (2) 7:44, (3.1) 7:56]
657 Daniel Traves (So.) - 24:04 [(1) 7:49, (2) 7:48, (3.1) 8:27] SB by 1 minute 40 seconds
666 Julian Maring (Fr.) - 24:13 [(1) 8:01, (2) 7:48, (3.1) 8:24] PR by 26 seconds
694 Aleko Rodousakis (Jr.) - 24:37 [(1) 7:56, (2) 7:58, (3.1) 8:43] PR by 7 seconds
722 Caleb Garcia Jr (Jr.) - 24:57 [(1) 7:25, (2) 8:08, (3.1) 9:24] PR by 3 minutes 53 seconds
738 Tyson Woods (So.) - 25:18 [(1) 8:10, (2) 8:10, (3.1) 8:58]
756 Alexander Davis (So.) - 25:49 [(1) 7:44, (2) 8:09, (3.1) 9:56] PR by 1 minute 5 seconds
784 Ronald Thurston Jr (Fr.) - 26:58 [(1) 8:29, (2) 8:54, (3.1) 9:35] PR by 1 minute 53 seconds
805 Jesse Kliman (So.) - 28:34 [(1) 9:33, (2) 9:37, (3.1) 9:24] PR by 10 seconds
819 Elliott Kramer (So.) - 29:34 [(1) 9:45, (2) 9:54, (3.1) 9:55] PR by 35 seconds
827 Kasapo Mwanza (So.) - 31:03 [(1) 9:23, (2) 10:17, (3.1) 11:23]
830 Devin Lewis (Jr.) - 33:01 [(1) 9:32, (2) 11:39, (3.1) 11:50] SB by 24 seconds

Well done everyone! I'm really proud of the effort I saw from everyone today. I may be forgetting a meet, but considering the last time I recall running in similar conditions was in 2019, none of our athletes currently on the team have had to contend with slick conditions brought on by the rain and mud. We had a few athletes fall between this and the varsity race, but everybody finish and the vast majority of our athletes set either new PRs or new season bests.

Of those who didn't, it's worth pointing out that TJ didn't get a full week of training because he's been dealing with the ankle injury he sustained last Saturday. His absence from practice was a factor in running him in the JV race today. He was well ahead of the field at the mile mark and it appears he went out a little faster than he should have. He fell 30 seconds off the pace in the second mile and then further off in the third mile, but the good news is his ankle held up, his was still fourth fastest time on the team today, and we have three weeks to get him back to his early-season condition before championships.

Tyler has also been dealing with a lower body injury that has forced him to miss our last three meets, starting with the Chesapeake Invitational which he intended to run but I decided to hold him out as a precaution. I'm glad we did as it wound up being a multi-week injury but it seems like his leg was feeling better and even after missing several weeks of training he was only about 30 seconds or so off the PR he set earlier this season.

I could spend all day on this race and I do have other things to do this weekend, but I definitely want to highlight just a few of our guys from this race. First, Phillip Marshall continues to improve every week. He's equalled the best time Christopher Toomer '23 ran as a freshman and is just one second behind Roman's best time last year. Christopher had an incredibly successful cross country career at DeMatha, graduating as the seventh fastest cross country runner in school history. This is a really special place for Phillip to be at as a freshman.

Nicholas Berry and William Herman both ran huge PRs this week, and while Jesse's PR wasn't by the same margin he began the season well off his best freshman time so this was a significant step for him, as well. All three are on the doorstep of breaking 20 minutes, which is a really exciting and significant milestone. They could do it at the parkrun in two weeks, but even if they don't, Kenilworth Park will be a great opportunity to get it done.

Finally, congratulations to Elliott on breaking 30 minutes for the first time! A few weeks ago after the Chesapeake Invitational, I mentioned that I was going to give him the 30 minutes even though he didn't quite break it because he was close and was lined up in the back of a long line of athletes in a narrow starting box. Despite similar circumstances today regarding the starting box, he took care of business and will no longer be relying on special consideration for his entry into the JV race at WCACs in three weeks.

Team Results

1. St Albans 64 points
2. Gilman 85 points
3. Calvert Hall 105 points
4. Howard 146 points
5. Winston Churchill 151 points
...
9. Gonzaga 257 points
...
13. The Heights 348 points
...
19. DeMatha 556 points
...
29. McNamara 787 points
...
38. Good Counsel 1191 points
...
53. Phelps 1758 points

Last year there were almost 200 fewer athletes in the JV boys race. To finish among the top 64% of teams in a meet this competitive is a testament to the depth of our JV team. Yes, TJ gave our JV team a boost today, but if even if we had run him on varsity and run either Daden or Brandon on JV, at worst we might have slipped to 20th.

Varsity
Here are the results for our varsity athletes. The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the Black & Gold Varsity race (155 total finishers). In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

19 Chase Lopez (Sr.) - 16:30 [(1) 4:59, (2) 5:28, (3.1) 6:03] PR by 10 seconds
43 Sayid Shakur (Sr.) - 17:10 [(1) 4:59, (2) 5:28, (3.1) 6:43]
83 Graham Fenn (Sr.) - 17:51 [(1) 5:32, (2) 5:48, (3.1) 6:31] SB by 25 seconds
110 Roman Zentek (So.) - 18:22 [(1) 5:38, (2) 5:54, (3.1) 6:50] PR by 23 seconds PCB by 47 seconds
119 Jalen Neptune (Jr.) - 18:30 [(1) 5:36, (2) 5:55, (3.1) 6:59]
139 Brandon Smoot (Jr.) - 19:18 [(1) 5:55, (2) 6:19, (3.1) 7:04] PCB by 1 minute
145 Daden Grogan (Jr.) - 19:35 [(1) 5:46, (2) 6:19, (3.1) 7:30]

I'll start by putting our top two performances into historical context with the program:

Roman was visibly excited as he cross the finish line. I'm sure the fact that he knew he had run a PR was a part of it. I also wouldn't be surprised if he was just happy that he only had to stop once today after being stopped mid-race for a pair of emergency vehicles to cross the course at Glory Days last week.

Daden took a huge step forward this week after running nearly two minutes slower at Glory Days. He missed a few significant weeks of training with his ankle injury but now that he's healthy and getting consistent workouts in again, I'm confident we can at least get him back to the mid-18s by championships, if not closer to his PR of 18:15 he set on this course last year.

Team Results

1. Towson 110 points
2. St. Albans 128 points
3. Gonaga 148 points
4. Thomas S Wootton 149 points
5. Winston Churchill 179 points
6. Howard 184 points
7. The Heights 222 points
8. Montgomery Blair 240 points
9. Walt Whitman 260 points
10. Bethesda-Chevy Chase 271 points
...
14. Richard Montgomery 369 points (6th place: 132nd)
15. DeMatha 369 points (6th place: 139th)
16. Good Counsel 381 points
...
19. McNamara 466 points
...
23. Seneca Valley 570 points

I'll start by mentioning that if TJ had been on varsity today, we would have finished 12th.

While 15th out of 23 sounds underwhelming, it's worth remembering that this was the more competitive of two varsity races. The earlier Red & White varsity race had 42 teams in it. It would take a great deal of time and effort to determine the scores if the two races were combined, but I can tell you that out of those 42 teams, only eight ran faster than us based on a combination of their first five finishers, which would put us at an estimated 23rd out of 65 teams.

Final Thoughts

Next week Chase and Sayid will go down to Mechanicsville to run in the Milestat.com Invitational at Pole Green Park, where 15 of our athletes ran in the RVA Relays a few weeks ago. I'm excited to see how they do. It's a blazing fast course and will give both of them a chance to climb the DeMatha leaderboard and also get a little more attention from college coaches.

The rest of us have next weekend off. We'll make the most of this week from a training standpoint, though. For those of you new to the sport, here's some information that may help you understand some of the methodology that goes into developing a training plan.

It takes roughly 12 to 14 days for the benefits from a given workout to take effect in a race. What this means is that the most recent workout we complete that actually had a meaningful impact on your race today was the hill repeats we did at Greenbelt Park on September 18. It also means that the last workout you will complete that can have any meaningful impact on your performance at the WCAC Championship will be the workout you complete a week from Monday.

To maximize what little time we have left, we are going to fit three workouts into this coming week and then one last quality/quantity workout on Monday October 16. After that, we continue to train in a similar manner to what we've been doing, because those next workouts will still benefit you at the Private School Championship and because we don't want to disrupt your routine too much as we head into Championships because that could negatively impact your performance. But we will back off the quantity of some of your workouts (e.g., your runs may be a little bit short or you may do fewer reps during intervals) because at that point in the season the risk of injury becomes more of a concern because there is little reward to be had from those workouts.

Take advantage of this coming week of training. We do not have a team practice on Monday; that run will be done on your own (OYO). Don't skip it, it is a quarter of the remaining quality workouts we have that can realistically benefit you at championships. If you were to ignore all the homework and sleep through all of your quizzes and tests in one of your classes during the entire first quarter, how much chance do you think you would have of earning an A, or a B, or even a C by the end of the year in that class? Think of Monday's workout in the same way and don't waste one of the few remaining opportunities you have to get better in preparation for WCACs.

"Character reins preeminent in determining potential." - Laura Hillenbrand