2025 Chesapeake Invitational

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

What a great performance for our guys today. I know the team results don't necessasrily scream "great meet!" But the great thing about sports like cross country is that we are first and foremost racing our past selves.

We have no control over how athletes from other teams perform; we can't influence their performance through defense the way you can in most team sports. Instead, we can measure success through improvement, and our team showed great improvement today.

This course is a fast one. We did not run at this meet last year, but in years we have roughly half of our athletes' best times of the season come from this meet. We will run on other fast courses before the season ends, though, so don't take your feet off the gas.

With all that said, the measurement of this course is the source of a small amount of contraversy. It does measure a full 5k, but not when you run the tangets (the shorts distance through each turn). If you are able to do that, you can cut as much as a tenth of a mile off the course.

Most of our athletes are not at a level of experience where that is a focus for them during races, though. Those who are typically are on the faster side and may be cutting anywhere from 32 to 41 seconds off their 5k time. This does not take anything away from those who set PRs by smaller amounts of time, especially if you were not focuses on taking every tight as tight as you could. I only provide this information so you have the information as you evaluate your own performances and prepate to move forward into the next week of training.

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. For our juniors and seniors who competed in this meet in 2022 and/or 2023, if they ran faster today I've included in silver their new PCB (personal course best) for the Chesapeake High School 5k course.

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:

15 Arvin Mirchandani (Jr.) - 16:47.71 [(1) 5:14, (2) 5:30, (3.1) 6:04] PR by 27 seconds PCB by 6 minutes 8 seconds
30 Roman Zentek (Sr.) - 17:21.76 [(1) 5:19, (2) 5:50, (3.1) 6:13] SB by 1 minute 20 seconds PCB by 1 minute 23 seconds
74 Jesse Holland III (Sr.) - 18:33.53 [(1) 5:44, (2) 6:09, (3.1) 6:41] SB by 16 seconds PCB by 3 minutes 18 seconds
75 Lucas Moisiuk (So.) - 18:36.15 [(1) 5:45, (2) 6:09, (3.1) 6:42] PR by 2 seconds
76 Andrew Stinson (So.) - 18:37.30 [(1) 5:46, (2) 6:11, (3.1) 6:40] PR by 18 seconds
84 Dominic Hilton (So.) - 18:46.34 [(1) 5:42, (2) 6:20, (3.1) 6:44] PR by 3 seconds
85 Elijah Hawkins (Jr.) - 18:46.48 [(1) 5:51, (2) 6:13, (3.1) 6:42] PR by 47 seconds
100 Jeremy Juste (Sr.) - 19:01.50 [(1) 5:50, (2) 6:25, (3.1) 6:47] PR by 53 seconds

Arvin's time of 16:48 today puts him in special company. His name is now on our Team History page in the list of Top Historical Performers. He is the 11th DeMatha cross country runner I have a record of who has broken 17 minutes in the 5k, and his time today places him 8th on that list.

Additionally, his time ranked 34th among all 5ks run by DeMatha athletes since 2000 and it is the 10th fastest 5k time run by a junior in that time frame. The only athlete I have a record of from before 2000 displacing Arvin on those lists was Rudy Kriester, a German transfer student who ran 16:08 to win the 1991 WMAC Championship before moving back to Germany for his senior year.

Roman took an important step forward this week. This was his third fastest career 5k and only two second off his time from the WCAC Championship meet last year. His 17:22 today ranks 86th among all 5ks run by DeMatha athletes since 2000. I only have a record of nine times faster than that from before 2000.

Jesse was our third finisher for the second meet in a row, and he decided to one-up himself after sprinting out of his shoe at the end of the Bittersweet Invitational. I don't know where it came off today, but he was carrying his right spike in his hand as he sprinted into the stadium and down the final straightway. I told him I won't be giving him any more shoutouts for this after today; at this rate, by the time we get to Championships, he'll be carrying both shoes, both socks, and both his big toes across the finish line and I'm scared my acknowledgements will making that outcome more likely.

All of our varsity guys ran so well today. Everybody either set a new PR or a new season best and was within 15 seconds of their PR. That's a terrific performance regardless of how fast a course is. I want to make sure I shout out Elijah on the first sub-19 5k of his career. I know Jeremy wanted it, and he came painfully close. The next couple of meets will be tough, but if he can't get it at either of them, MDXC next month will be a great opportunity.

Team Results

1. Montgomery Blair 35 points
2. Crofton 46 points
3. Oakdale 108 points
4. Broadneck 138 points
5. Good Counsel 167 points
6. Century 186 points
7. Francis Scott Key 209 points
8. Chesapeake 210 points
9. DeMatha 239 points
10. South River 284 points
...
17. St. Mary's Ryken 438 points
...
20. Glen Burnie 546 points

I don't have much to add here. If Phillip had been with us today and been around 20th (17:08) or earlier, we would have moved up to 7th. There'd still be a gap between us and Good Counsel, but it's not insurmountable and we have a lot of season left to close it.

Junior Varsity

Here are the results for our junior varsity athletes (233 total finishers in the race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the junior varsity race. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

37 Cameron Lamb (Sr.) - 19:49.61 [(1) 6:05, (2) 6:33, (3.1) 7:12] PR by 26 seconds PCB by 3 minutes 1 second
50 Ryan Pickett (Sr.) - 20:08.01 [(1) 5:52, (2) 6:42, (3.1) 7:34] PR by 57 seconds PCB by 3 minutes 10 seconds
53 Fareed Rahi (Fr.) - 20:10.94 [(1) 6:28, (2) 6:35, (3.1) 7:08] PR by 56 seconds
60 Ryan Jones (So.) - 20:22.36 [(1) 6:14, (2) 6:36, (3.1) 7:32] PR by 54 seconds
61 Renaud Williams (Jr.) - 20:23.90 [(1) 6:26, (2) 6:43, (3.1) 7:15] PR by 14 seconds PCB by 3 minutes 25 seconds
63 William Herman (Sr.) - 20:25.54 [(1) 6:27, (2) 7:02, (3.1) 6:57] SB by 11 seconds PCB by 1 minute
78 Satchel Drabinski (Fr.) - 20:56.70 [(1) 6:29, (2) 6:56, (3.1) 7:32] PR by 57 seconds
93 Michael Bridges (Fr.) - 21:10.97 [(1) 6:47, (2) 6:57, (3.1) 7:27] PR by 1 minute 34 seconds
98 Joseph LeGloahec (Sr.) - 21:20.74 [(1) 6:29, (2) 7:11, (3.1) 7:41] SB by 39 seconds PCB by 1 minute 2 seconds
100 Alexander Soto (So.) - 21:21.75 [(1) 6:47, (2) 7:04, (3.1) 7:31] SB by 20 seconds
108 Xavier Raymond (Sr.) - 21:30.93 [(1) 6:19, (2) 7:14, (3.1) 7:58] SB by 1 minute 29 seconds
115 Nicholas Berry (Sr.) - 21:39.80 [(1) 6:14, (2) 7:13, (3.1) 8:13]
126 Tyson Woods (Sr.) - 22:03.51 [(1) 6:31, (2) 7:14, (3.1) 8:19] PR by 6 seconds PCB by 2 minutes 29 seconds
152 Ian Andrews (Fr.) - 23:01.83 [(1) 7:10, (2) 7:30, (3.1) 8:22] PR by 1 minute 33 seconds
161 Dane Kuzner (So.) - 23:39.36 [(1) 7:13, (2) 7:49, (3.1) 8:37] PR by 26 seconds
177 Stephen Lawrence Jr. (Fr.) - 24:22.29 [(1) 7:33, (2) 8:16, (3.1) 8:33] PR by 57 seconds
181 Terence Rascher (So.) - 24:29.30 [(1) 7:15, (2) 8:21, (3.1) 8:53] PR by 1 minute 47 seconds
184 John Tomas Felicio (So.) - 24:39.17 [(1) 7:22, (2) 8:14, (3.1) 9:03] PR by 2 minutes 58 seconds
187 Oluwatoni "Toni" Adefiyiju (Fr.) - 24:45.54 [(1) 7:55, (2) 8:27, (3.1) 8:24] PR by 1 minute 38 seconds
189 Nathaniel Garvin Jr. (Fr.) - 24:53.80 [(1) 7:55, (2) 8:25, (3.1) 8:34]
198 Julian Righi (Jr.) - 25:35.79 [(1) 7:49, (2) 8:23, (3.1) 9:24] SB by 13 seconds
205 Stavros Rodousakis (So.) - 25:53.23 [(1) 8:28, (2) 8:06, (3.1) 9:19] PR by 56 seconds
206 Luke Anthony Quach (Fr.) - 26:00.69 [(1) 7:58, (2) 8:50, (3.1) 9:13] PR by 1 minute 4 seconds
211 Ryan Hickey (Fr.) - 26:25.50 [(1) 7:51, (2) 8:53, (3.1) 9:42]
222 Dawit Gezae (So.) - 28:47.01 [(1) 8:35, (2) 9:24, (3.1) 10:48]
223 Oladimeji "Akin" Alade (Fr.) - 28:54.70 [(1) 8:28, (2) 9:28, (3.1) 10:59] PR by 9 minutes 25 seconds
226 Emilio Chicas (So.) - 29:16.87 [(1) 8:48, (2) 9:31, (3.1) 10:58] SB by 2 seconds
227 Sebastian Righi (Fr.) - 29:28.02 [(1) 8:28, (2) 9:49, (3.1) 11:11) PR by 1 minute 10 seconds

There were so many great performances from our JV athletes today. Cameron, of course, stands out with his first career sub-20 performance to lead our squad.

Will was less than 11 seconds off his PR, Joe was less than 15 seconds off his, and Xavier was within 10 seconds of a PR and within 2 seconds of a personal course best.

Dawit completed his first 5k and broke 30 soundly after rolling his ankle in the final mile of the Bittersweet Invitational and being unable to finish.

We had a number of athletes missing days of school and practice over the past week due to an illness that is making its rounds. Ryan Hickey and Emilio were probably the two most affected by it today, but both put forward strong efforts this afternoon and Emilio even managed to best his time from Trials of Miles by a couple of seconds!

John Tomas, "JT", had a really good race today. He's been dealing with an ankle injury that we so far have not been able to pinpoint, but we decided it was something he could try and run through and he looked better during his race than I've seen him on any of his runs so far this season.

I do want to mention that while Akin's PR is officially by more than 9 minutes, that is only because I still do not have an exact finishing time for him from last week. I know with certainty that he finished much quicker than the 38:20 he ran at the season-opening parkrun; I just don't know how much quicker.

And how about Ryan Pickett, Fareed, Ryan Jones, Satchel, Stephen, and Stavros all setting new PRs by between 54 and 57 seconds?

Finally, I have to call out some impressive negative splits from today. Will and Toni both ran faster closing 1.1-mile stretches than their second miles, and the pace was faster even than their first miles. Stavros pulled off a negative split in his second mile, not an easy accomplishment; the middle mile tends to be the toughest for 5k runners.

Team Results

1. Broadneck 19 points
2. Crofton 58 points
3. Oakdale 65 points
4. Montgomery Blair 96 points
5. Chesapeake 176 points
6. Good Counsel 203 points
7. South River 204 points
8. DeMatha 205 points
...
11. St. Mary's Ryken 307 points
12. Arundel 339 points

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed to see us so close to beating Good Counsel and coming up two points and two places short. That's a really tight contest between the two of us and South River. But all five of our scorers on JV set solid PRs today, so we truly can't be upset with this result. As long as we keep improving as we've done so far this season, our JV team will be very competitive at WCACs. Remember, we can only run seven on varsity at championships, so three of the guys we've had entered on varsity over the past two weeks will be in the JV race at that point.

Final Thoughts

I don't have a whole lot to add to the thoughts I've already shared. I am proud of all of our athletes today. I know some wanted to PR by more. I know some did not set new PRs, season bests, or even course bests. I saw great effort from everybody, though, and nobody should be hanging their heads.

Continue to do the little things to take care of your bodies. This becomes even more important as we enter a short week with a race this coming Friday at Skip Grant. It will be a tough day for us, sitting in class for a few hours and then running in the heat of the day with temperatures expected to be in the mid-80s.

Hydration continues to be a necessary focus for us this coming week. Let's keep each other accountable in all areas and be ready for a great race on a tough course.