2023 Maryland Private Schools Championship

The 2023 cross country season has come to an end. Can you believe it? Even though most of our athletes have been training in some capacity since early June, it's always a little jarring how quickly the season passes us by once we arrive on campus in late August.

Today was a pretty fun experience for the most part. It was a new course to us. I never ran at Bullis as a student and we haven't had any meets there in my time as a coach (or prior, to my knowledge). It was also a low-pressure situation for our athletes. We knew coming in with five of our varsity runners from the WCAC Championship not competing, we were not going to be particularly competitive in the varsity race. We also knew that in turn that would hinder our ability to field a competitive team in the JV race since some of our top JV runners would be moving up.

I'm happy to say that, even with team success not being our primary concern in this race, we did very well today.

In the results below, 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.

Varsity
Here are the results for our varsity athletes. The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the varsity boys race, including runners from both the large school and small school divisions (160 total finishers). In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

42 Roman Zentek (So.) - 19:08.23 [(1) 5:31, (2) 6:11, (3.1) 7:26]
53 Brandon Smoot (Jr.) - 19:40.08 [(1) 5:45, (2) 6:18, (3.1) 7:37]
56 Maxwell Ellison (Jr.) - 19:44.75 [(1) 6:00, (2) 6:13, (3.1) 7:32]
77 William Herman (So.) - 20:39.29 [(1) 6:29, (2) 6:49, (3.1) 7:21]
95 William Jackson (Jr.) - 21:26.00 [(1) 6:10, (2) 6:56, (3.1) 8:20]
99 Jesse Holland III (So.) - 21:39.51 [(1) 6:29, (2) 7:12, (3.1) 7:59]

We didn't have any PRs from this group today, but Max and Will Herman were both less than 25 seconds off their PRs. Bullis isn't what I would describe as a slow course, but it certainly is not an easy PR course. I consider both Shawan Downs (MDXC) and Bull Run Regional (Glory Days) to be faster courses than this one, so being inside of 30 seconds is a solid day.

I definitely want to give Roman a shoutout on today's performance. He's been out of school all week sick, came back today and made up a test he missed earlier in the week and then turned in a solid performance. While he was well off his PR of 18:22 from MDXC, considering he was not feeling 100%, and probably not even 80%, I'm really proud of him for pushing through and for starting the process of getting caught up on the academic work he's missed this week.

Team Results

1. The Heights 30 points
2. Gilman 48 points
3. Georgetown Prep 78 points
4. Good Counsel 112 points
5. Spalding 129 points
6. Landon 168 points
7. DeMatha 186 points
8. St. Mary's Ryken 221 points
9. Bullis 223 points

It's easy to look at this result and feel a little disappointed, but I strongly believe in keeping things in perspective. We were without five of our varsity runners from the WCAC Championship, our top two freshmen who would have bumped up to varsity for this race, and our top finisher today was under the weather.

I'm very proud of our guys for stepping us and keeping us competitive. We beat two teams, weren't that far behind Landon, and it goes to show the depth we have on this team.

Junior Varsity
Here are the results for our junior varsity athletes. The number in front of each name signifies their overall place among the male athletes in the JV race (123 total finishers). In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

31 Ryan Pickett (So.) - 21:48.50 [(1) 6:03, (2) 7:15, (3.1) 8:31]
34 Joseph LeGloahec (So.) - 21:51.34 [(1) 6:25, (2) 7:11, (3.1) 8:15]
36 Cameron Lamb (So.) - 21:54.11 [(1) 6:37, (2) 7:12, (3.1) 8:05]
37 Don DeRocha Jr (So.) - 21:54.67 [(1) 6:25, (2) 7:12, (3.1) 8:18]
53 Brendan Dougherty (Jr.) - 22:38.54 [(1) 6:43, (2) 7:16, (3.1) 8:40]
58 Peter Brown (Sr.) - 22:50.28 [(1) 6:42, (2) 7:18, (3.1) 8:50]
85 Aleko Rodousakis (Jr.) - 24:30.19 [(1) 7:35, (2) 7:55, (3.1) 9:00]
93 Tyson Woods (So.) - 25:49.67 [(1) 7:40, (2) 8:24, (3.1) 9:46]
100 Jesse Kliman (So.) - 26:39.73 [(1) 8:15, (2) 8:32, (3.1) 9:53]
103 Josiah Jones-Humphrey (Fr.) - 26:55.88 [(1) 7:43, (2) 9:06, (3.1) 10:07] PR by 2 minutes 39 seconds
119 Kasapo Mwanza (So.) - 29:38.30 [(1) 8:05, (2) 9:55, (3.1) 11:38] PR by 1 minute 25 seconds
122 Devin Lewis (Jr.) - 32:17.28 [(1) 8:46, (2) 10:37, (3.1) 12:54] PR by 18 seconds
123 Akintunde Shoetan (Jr.) - 33:21.39 [(1) 8:37, (2) 13:06, (3.1) 11:38]

First and foremost, congrats to our three athletes who set new PRs today! Josiah broke 30 for the first time at the parkrun a few weeks ago and took a huge step forward today. Kasapo broke 30 for the first time today on arguably the hardest course he ran this season. And Devin beat his PR from Gunpowder Falls last season. Additionally, Jesse was only about 20 seconds off his PR today.

For our athletes near the front of this race, I know we didn't have any PRs and they were all more than 30 seconds away from setting new ones, but it's been a long season and these are some of the hardest and most consistent workers we had on the team this year. It's very difficult to keep up not only that intensity but also that level of performance for these extra two weeks. So, while the times may not be reflective of it, I am very proud of their effort today.

I also want to recognize Tunde, whose effort made me very proud today. Tunde fell sometime in the first mile and may have fallen again later in the race, I wasn't entirely clear on whether he only fell the one time. In any case, he was pretty cut up with some skin torn from the palm of his left hand. We were able to clean it up and wrap it after the race, but he was clearly in some discomfort as he approached the mile mark and in even more discomfort as he passed me at the two mile mark. He managed to finish his race pretty strong, however, and just the effort it took to finish is something I wanted to be sure to acknowledge.

Team Results

1. The Heights 20 points
2. Gilman 42 points
3. Charles E Smith 119 points
4. DeMatha 120 points
5. Spalding 157 points
6. Sandy Spring Friends 167 points
7. Georgetown Prep 192 points
8. Bullis 197 points
9. St. Mary's Ryken 223 points
10. St. Andrew's Episcopal 280 points
11. Berman Hebrew Academy 310 points

Considering we had to move some of our regular JV guys up to varsity to field a full team today, the fact that we finished in the Top 5 and very nearly in the Top 3 is yet another testament to the depth we've developed on this squad, thanks in large part to some of last year's freshmen recruiting so many of their classmates to join the team this fall. This is the best team finish our JV team has had at this meet in a long time, if not ever. Well done!

Final Thoughts

Thank you to all of our athletes for another successful season and to these 19 young men, plus Alexander Davis, for a very fun extra two weeks of the season. Alex did not end up running in today's JV race because he was feeling some pain and other weird sensations in his knee and I decided it wasn't worth it to risk worsening what is hopefully only a minor injury heading into the offseason.

I am excited for a break, but I am also very excited for the opportunity to work with all of our returning athletes when we begin our summer training plan in June.

I'll be in touch in the coming days regarding jersey returns, other miscellaneously end-of-season items, and of course our team banquet. With a team that was larger than ever, it is unfortunately inevitable that there will be some conflicts and some of our athletes may not be available on the day of our banquet. But over the next several days I will be looking at the upcoming school calendar to do my best to avoid conflicts with winter sports events, music concerts, and other events that are likely to impact the availability of large groups of students. I expect the banquet to take place sometime in late November or early December, after we return from the Thanksgiving break.

Additionally, we often announce the next year's captains at the team banquet, so I will be reaching out to juniors in the coming days so they can begin meeting with me if they are interested in being considered for the role of senior captain. I will also be meeting with many of our sophomores and freshmen to wrap up the season and talk about what their roles will be heading into next season. We'll have a long offseason to reset but I like to hold these meetings while the season is fresh in our minds.

Considering Tunde's injuries today, a handful of twisted ankles for William Jackson this season that had us pretty nervous about the roots and rocks on today's course, and a handful of other injuries our athletes pushed through this season, I felt it appropriate to end this final meet recap of the year with a quote from one of our athletes after the JV race concluded. Thanks again for a great season, everyone!

"Somehow we're made of glass and made of steel at the same time." - Jesse Kliman