2024 Trials of Miles XC Opening Night

If you took photos during this week's meet, you can upload those photos to our Trials of Miles folder in Google Drive using this link.

It sounds like Friday was quite a day. Between the bus arriving late and cutting into the freshmen 2-milers' warmup time to the general distruption of our training schedule by racing on a weekday, I think all of the coaches are proud of the effort our guys put in on Friday.

It looks like the meet was much bigger this year in terms of attendance. We went from 37 finishers in the freshman race last year to 85 on Friday, from 107 JV finishers last year to 254 on Friday, and from 103 varsity finishers last year to 165 the other day.

The freshmen ran a 2-mile loop, thankfully changed from last year when they did two circuits around that more challenging, hilly loop). The times for our freshman athletes will stand as their cross country 2-mile PRs (a distance they very well might never get a chance to run again on a cross country course).

Everybody else ran the standard 5 kilometers (3.1 miles), and as always I have marked in blue all athletes who set a new PR (personal record) in the cross country 5k 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. For those who did, in silver I have noted all athletes who set a new MB (meet best) for Trials of Miles. I don't think this officially counts as a personal course best because it looks like the course was altered from last year.

Freshman

Here are the results for our freshman athletes (85 total finishers in the race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the freshman race. In brackets are their first mile and second mile splits. Additionally, using a race time converter I've trusted and used in the past, I've provided each athlete's converted time (CT) for the 5k:

5 Andrew Stinson - 13:48 [(1) 6:14, (2) 7:34] CT - 22:00
32 Alexander Soto - 15:28 [(1) 6:59, (2) 8:29] CT - 24:40
34 Lucas Moisiuk - 15:36 [(1) 6:26, (2) 9:10] CT - 24:53
42 Olutimilehin Adefiyiju - 15:53 [(1) 7:00, (2) 8:53] CT - 25:30 Virtual PR by 58 seconds
Jacob Schneider - DNF [(1) 7:06]

I was sorry to hear about Jacob's injured ankle. Hopefully it's nothing too serious.

With the late arrival to the meet and shortened warmup, it's not too surprising that those converted times aren't quite in line with last week's parkrun times. Big props to Timi for running a virtual PR by almost a minute on much more difficult course than the parkrun and without the benefit of a full warmup.

Now, there also could be another explanation for these times. Luke's watch apparently read 2.2 miles.

If that distance was closer to reality than the meet's official claim that the course was 2 miles, these would be their 2mi and 5k converted times:

Andrew Stinson - 2mi CT - 12:28 | 5k CT - 19:54
Alexander Soto - 2mi CT - 13:58 | 5k CT - 22:18
Lucas Moisiuk - 2mi CT - 14:06 | 5k CT - 22:29
Olutimilehin Adefiyiju - 2mi CT - 14:21 | 5k CT - 22:54 Virtual PR by 3 minutes 34 seconds

Junior Varsity

Here are the results for our junior varsity athletes (254 total finishers in the race). 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:

58 Malachi Wilson (Sr.) - 20:29 [(1) 6:45, (2) 6:46, (3.1) 6:58]*
77 Don DeRocha Jr (Jr.) - 20:53 [(1) 6:44, (2) 6:56, (3.1) 7:13] PR by 3 seconds
117 Tyler Ellis (Sr.) - 21:57 [(1) 6:48, (2) 7:21, (3.1) 7:48] MB by 2 minutes 42 seconds
139 Elijah Hawkins (So.) - 22:33 [(1) 7:30, (2) 7:22, (3.1) 7:41] PR by 1 minute 53 seconds
152 Cameron Lamb (Jr.) - 22:49 [(1) 7:15, (2) 7:18, (3.1) 8:16] MB by 3 minutes 19 seconds
161 Brendan Dougherty (Sr.) - 23:01 [(1) 7:10, (2) 7:33, (3.1) 8:18] MB by 3 minutes 6 seconds
163 Renaud Williams (So.) - 23:02 [(1) 7:28, (2) 7:24, (3.1) 8:10]  SB by 1 minute 10 seconds
164 Tyson Woods (Jr.) - 23:04 [(1) 7:33, (2) 7:40, (3.1) 7:51] PR by 1 minute 8 seconds MB by 4 minutes 45 seconds
193 Ryan Pickett (Jr.) - 24:18 [(1) 6:54, (2) 8:14, (3.1) 9:10] MB by 55 seconds
203 Kazuki Reeves (So.) - 24:46 [(1) 7:54, (2) 7:38, (3.1) 9:14]  PR by 1 minute 5 seconds
205 Xavier Raymond (Jr.) - 24:58 [(1) 7:20, (2) 8:15, (3.1) 9:23] SB by 1 second MB by 7 minutes 1 second
209 Julian Righi (So.) - 25:13 [(1) 7:37, (2) 8:09, (3.1) 9:27]
215 Alexander Davis (Jr.) - 25:46 [(1) 7:42, (2) 8:41, (3.1) 9:23] MB by 7 minutes 6 seconds
232 Aleko Rodousakis (Sr.) - 28:16 [(1) 8:29, (2) 9:33, (3.1) 10:14] MB by 3 minutes 26 seconds
235 Tre Whitfield (Fr.) - 28:35 [(1) 7:51, (2) 9:51, (3.1) 10:53]*
243 Carter Leecost (Sr.) - 31:12 [(1) 8:27, (2) 10:58, (3.1) 11:47]
244 Stavros Rodousakis (Fr.) - 31:49 [(1) 9:23, (2) 11:17, (3.1) 11:09] PR by 15 seconds
247 Emilio Chicas (Fr.) - 32:22 [(1) 9:23, (2) 11:18, (3.1) 11:41] PR by 3 minutes 14 seconds
248 Jaidon Contreras (Fr.) - 32:25 [(1) 9:19, (2) 12:11, (3.1) 10:55] PR by 48 seconds
250 Devin Lewis (Sr.) - 33:35 [(1) 10:09, (2) 11:23, (3.1) 12:03] MB by 3 minutes 45 seconds
254 Terence Rascher (Fr.) - 35:04 [(1) 10:09, (2) 11:50, (3.1) 13:05]*

Congrats first of all to all our guys who PR'd on Friday. The first real meet of the season can be challenging to PR on because you're either trying to best times from the end of the prior year when you were in peak form or you're trying to improve on a time from a flat course just a week ago at the parkrun.

We had a few guys run their first 5ks of the year and it looks like everybody who ran at this meet last year set a new personal meet best, most by more than a minute.

Some of the finishing places are not entirely accurate and I'm hoping the results will be edited in the coming days. There was an issue with coaches for various teams (including ours and Gonzaga's) were carrying unused bib numbers in their bags and passed near enough the sensors at the mile mark and the finish line.

Team Results

1. Hempfield Area 07 58 points
2. The Heights 84 points
3. Gonzaga 103 points
4. Langley 131 points
5. Heritage 155 points
...
12. Bishop O'Conell 278 points
...
15. DeMatha 402 points
...
17. Paul VI 465 points

Varsity

Here are the results for our varsity athletes (165 total finishers in the race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the varsity race. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

59 Brandon Smoot (Sr.) - 17:39 [(1) 5:55, (2) 5:39, (3.1) 6:05] PR by 4 seconds MB by 2 minutes 36 seconds
105 Phillip Marshall II (So.) - 18:38 [(1) 6:01, (2) 6:05, (3.1) 6:32] PR by 2 seconds
106 Arvin Mirchandani (So.) - 18:38 [(1) 5:54, (2) 6:00, (3.1) 6:44] PR by 6 seconds
111 Roman Zentek (Jr.) - 18:50 [(1) 5:49, (2) 6:06, (3.1) 6:55] MB by 1 minute 19 seconds
131 Maxwell Ellison (Sr.) - 19:30 [(1) 6:23, (2) 6:10, (3.1) 6:57] SB by 1 minute 17 seconds MB by 1 minute 30 seconds
134 Jesse Holland III (Jr.) - 19:38 [(1) 6:25, (2) 6:21, (3.1) 6:52] PR by 40 seconds MB by 4 minutes 38 seconds
153 Nicholas Berry (Jr.) - 20:36 [(1) 6:27, (2) 6:42, (3.1) 7:27] SB by 11 seconds MB by 2 minutes 35 seconds
160 William Jackson (Sr.) - 21:40 [(1) 6:29, (2) 7:12, (3.1) 7:59] MB by 17 seconds

To give a little extra context on how much more competitive this meet was this year, Brandon ran more than two and a half minutes faster on Friday than he did last year and only finished 7 spots ahead of his finishing position in 2023. Roman took more than a minute off his time and finished 49 spots behind his 2023 finish of 62nd place.

In fact, last year our top runner at this meet finished 20th overall. Brandon finished 39 spots later but ran 16 seconds faster! With his time of 17:39, Brandon is now the 22nd fastest cross country runner DeMatha has had since at least 2000.

Team Results

1. Loudoun County 79 points
2. Loudoun Valley 117 points
3. Gonzaga 123 points
4. Hempfield Area 07 126 points
5. Tuscarora 177 points
6. Dominion 179 points
7. Heritage 188 points
8. The Heights 192 points
9. Wakefield 207 points
10. Langley 221 points
11. Bishop O'Connell 290 points
...
15. Paul VI 359 points
16. DeMatha 446 points
...
18. Rappahannock County 575 points

Final Thoughts

We're still early in the season and we had a lot of interruptions this past week. Still, I think we see that we have our work cut out for us to remain in contention for a Top 3 finish in the WCAC team standings this season. Gonzaga and The Heights still look strong and O'Connell and Paul VI both finished ahead of us. And we still have yet to see St. John's, Good Counsel, or Bishop McNamara, all of whom ought to be pretty competitive this fall.

Coach Hoke wants to shout out Devin for encouraging Terence, helping him through a good portion of his first careerk 5k. We also want to thank Will and Joe for helping capture splits and our senior leaders who were a big help in getting their teammates warmed up and to the starting line on time.

We do a lot of things with this team that force our athletes to take ownership of aspects of their training and racing, but I still remain thankful every time our experienced guys demonstrate their reliability when the coaches need them to take the reins and make sure things get done.