2025 Maryland Private School State Championship

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

Today was a great way to end the season. The bugs from the Bittersweet Invitational were gone and other than a steady bit of wind, it was great racing weather for our guys.

The benefit of running two regular season races on school days this year is that our guys were better prepared for how to manage being in class in the morning and a bus for an hour in the early afternoon before their races. It's always great when you can run a PR in the last race of the season and several of our athletes did that today.

As we jump 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. For our returning athletes who have run on this course one of the last three WCAC Chamionships, in silver I have noted all athletes who set a new PCB (personal course best) for the Kenilworth Park 5k course.

Junior Varsity

Here are the results for our junior varsity athletes (203 total finishers in the race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the JV boys race. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

39 Renaud Williams (Jr.) - 19:49.9 [(1) 6:13, (2) 6:35, (3.1) 7:02] PR by 0.4 seconds PCB by 1 minute 56 seconds
45 Joseph LeGloahec (Sr.) - 20:14.6 [(1) 6:21, (2) 6:37, (3.1) 7:17] PR by 25 seconds PCB by 1 minute 45 seconds
62 Satchel Drabinski (Fr.) - 20:40.6 [(1) 6:26, (2) 6:43, (3.1) 7:32] PR by 0.7 seconds PCB by 1 minute 13 seconds
70 Remi Cornelius (So.) - 20:58.4 [(1) 6:26, (2) 6:48, (3.1) 7:44]*
89 Xavier Raymond (Sr.) - 21:35.4 [(1) 6:42, (2) 7:06, (3.1) 7:47] PCB by 2 minutes 23 seconds
90 Ryan Pickett (Sr.) - 21:37.8 [(1) 6:41, (2) 7:07, (3.1) 7:50] PCB by 3 seconds
103 Michael Bridges (Fr.) - 22:01.5 [(1) 7:02, (2) 7:12, (3.1) 7:48] PCB by 43 seconds
109 Ian Andrews (Fr.) - 22:17.3 [(1) 7:11, (2) 7:16, (3.1) 7:50] PR by 26 seconds
117 Tyson Woods (Sr.) - 22:30.6 [(1) 7:11, (2) 8:28, (3.1) 9:30] PCB by 52 seconds
123 John Tomas Felicio (So.) - 22:50.3 [(1) 7:04, (2) 7:27, (3.1) 8:19] PR by 3 seconds PCB by 4 minutes 47 seconds
124 Stephen Lawrence Jr. (Fr.) - 22:50.4 [(1) 7:03, (2) 7:29, (3.1) 8:18] PR by 5 seconds PCB by 5 minutes 4 seconds
125 Dane Kuzner (So.) - 22:52.9 [(1) 7:00, (2) 7:28, (3.1) 8:25] PCB by 1 minute 42 seconds
138 Oluwatoni "Toni" Adefiyiju (Fr.) - 23:40.5 [(1) 7:09, (2) 7:48, (3.1) 8:44] PCB by 2 minutes 43 seconds
148 Luke Anthony Quach (Fr.) - 24:10.1 [(1) 8:01, (2) 7:51, (3.1) 8:18] PR by 58 seconds PCB by 2 minutes 55 seconds
163 Stavros Rodousakis (So.) - 24:52.1 [(1) 7:41, (2) 8:10, (3.1) 9:01] PR by 4 seconds PCB by 3 minutes 47 seconds
172 Emilio Chicas (So.) - 25:17.1 [(1) 7:50, (2) 8:16, (3.1) 9:11] PR by 59 seconds
188 Oladimeji "Akin" Alade (Fr.) - 26:21.0 [(1) 7:45, (2) 8:31, (3.1) 10:05] PR by 1 minute 19 seconds PCB by Unknown (minimum 6 minutes 55 seconds)

After our JV guys ran so well at WCACs a week and a half ago, I wasn't sure how much they had left in the tank for today's race. Turns out they had plenty!

Renaud and Satch both eked out PRs after setting new ones by 34 and 4 seconds, respectively, at Kenilworth Park. Joe gave the 20-minute threshold a great run today. I have no doubt if he hadn't spent most of his junior season injured, we would've gotten him there before his senior cross country season ended.

Remi ran great today. Though I don't think the time he ran is anywhere close to what he is capable of running, this was his first race of his career and to break 21 right off the bat is great. His lack of experience shows in the amount of time he lost in the third mile, but he ran very strong splits in the first two. I'm already brainstorming ways to help him get a little more experience with the distance before the state championship if he decides to run on the team against next fall, which I hope he does.

Luke Anthony, Emilio, and Akin, along with Alex in the varsity race, may have had the most noteworthy performances of the day. I especially enjoyed Luke Anthony's reaction about 150 meters from the finish line when I shouted "you might break 24!" He looked over and responded, "really!?" And he nearly did it!

I wish I knew exactly how much time Akin took off his performance from this course back in September. Unfortunately they stopped the clock before he finished so that 6 minutes 55 seconds is based on the last finisher whose time was recorded at the Bittersweet Invitational.

Team Results

1. Calvert Hall 20 points
2. The Heights 65 points
3. Lycée Rochambeau French Int. 90 points
4. Gilman 93 points
5. Landon 147 points
6. DeMatha 197 points
...
10. Good Counsel 299 points
...
16. St. Mary's Ryken 446 points
...
18. Berman Hebrew Academy 521 points

At WCACs, our JV guys were at a bit of a disadvantage because of the shakeup we've had on varsity this season, first with the athletes who were dismissed from the team and then with Phillip's injury. Today that was exacerbated by a few athletes in that mix who did not continue their season beyond WCACs and the additional three varsity slots.

For these guys to still compete the way they did and finish in the top 3rd of the JV race is a testament to the hard work they've put in all season. I know I put greater expectations on our JV athletes than many programs do; I hope their performances these past two or three weeks have made it worth it for them.

Varsity

Here are the results for our varsity athletes (263 total finishers in the race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the varsity race, including both athletes in the small schools and large schools divisions. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

62 Lucas Moisiuk (So.) - 17:51.3 [(1) 5:38, (2) 5:51, (3.1) 6:22] PR by 5 seconds PCB by 1 minute 25 seconds
84 Dominic Hilton (So.) - 18:15.0 [(1) 5:38, (2) 6:04, (3.1) 6:33] PR by 2 seconds
89 Jesse Holland III (Sr.) - 18:19.3 [(1) 5:48, (2) 5:57, (3.1) 6:34] PCB by 43 seconds
107 Jeremy Juste (Sr.) - 18:39.3 [(1) 5:59, (2) 6:05, (3.1) 6:35] PCB by 1 minute 15 seconds
121 Cameron Lamb (Sr.) - 18:52.2 [(1) 5:58, (2) 6:09, (3.1) 6:45] PCB by 2 minutes 58 seconds
136 Alexander Soto (So.) - 19:11.2 [(1) 6:10, (2) 6:19, (3.1) 6:42] PR by 36 seconds PCB by 3 minutes 23 seconds
141 Don DeRocha Jr. (Sr.) - 19:19.6 [(1) 5:58, (2) 6:24, (3.1) 6:58] PCB by 1 minute 22 seconds
144 William Herman (Sr.) - 19:21.7 [(1) 6:18, (2) 6:25, (3.1) 6:39] PR by 5 seconds PCB by 1 minute 15 seconds
159 Nicholas Berry (Sr.) - 19:43.8 [(1) 6:11, (2) 6:31, (3.1) 7:02] PR by 3 seconds PCB by 1 minute 19 seconds
175 Elijah Hawkins (Jr.) - 20:01.6 [(1) 5:50, (2) 6:18, (3.1) 7:54]

Nicely done, Lucas! His second time breaking 18 minutes moves him up from #33 to #31 in DeMatha's cross country rankings dating back to 2000, passing Michael Metz '23 (17:52) and Darryl Sanders (17:54), who was a senior on our 2006 WCAC championship team.

Our varsity team ran much better today than they did a week and a half ago at WCACs. Dominic and Jesse rebounded nicely; Jesse was less than five seconds off the PR he set at the second College Park parkrun. Jeremy also bounced back very nicely, taking more than a minute off his time from Kenilworth Park.

Alex was one of the highlights of this race. It's obviously disappointing that Phillip's hip injury flared back up this week and kept him out of his fourth straight race to end the season, but it did open up a spot for Alex, who was going to be left off our varsity team at this meet by just the tenth of a second he lost to Nick by at WCACs.

Though he was a little hesitant when I first brought it up to him this morning, he ultimately decided to make the switch to the varsity race and he ran a huge PR, took more than three minutes off his time from this same course exactly two months ago, and was ready to be the tiebreaker if we'd needed it.

Team Results (Large School (2A) Division)

1. Calvert Hall 26 points
2. The Heights 101 points
3. Gilman 107 points
4. Bullis 115 points
5. Mt. St. Joseph 173 points
6. Good Counsel 191 points
7. Georgetown Prep 196 points
8. Archbishop Spalding 202 points
9. Landon 209 points (6th finisher - 87th)
10. Archbishop Curley 209 points (6th finisher - 212th)
11. DeMatha 277 points
12. St. Mary's Ryken 346 points
13. Severn 370 points
14. St. Vincent Pallotti 409 points

Final Thoughts

I honestly could not have asked for a better way to end this season. We all know how tumultuous it got at times, but the team we carried through WCACs and Private School States is one I will be able to look back on with fond memories and gratitude for the work they put in to help propel the program forward.

We haven't continued to this meet every year. Not including our COVID season, we've only attended the private school championship meet six times in the nine 'normal' seasons I've coached. The main reason for that has been the lack of consistent desire or availability by our athletes to continue.

Prior to this year, we'd never had more than 19 athletes race at the Private School State Championship during my time as coach. Today we had 27 race, and we had six others who've been at practice over the past week and half and had intended to race today but were unable to for various health/injury-related reasons.

Hopefully this was the sort of day that solidifies our team culture and excites our athletes to get back to work when the time comes in June.

We have two more events before we officially put a ribbon on the 2025 season. Monday many of our athletes will go to the PG Sports & Learning Complex for an Ultimate Frisbee Day. It should be a really fun hour or so for the guys to pay off the cardiovascular fitness they've developed with a different form of competition.

Then on the 19th we'll celebrate the season with our annual cross country banquet in DeMatha's Antler Room. I've had a few parents reach out with ideas for the banquet, and I'm open to others and to help executing those ideas. Returning families know I put a lot of work into my annual slideshow and I'll be going through our photo albums to put together a photo montage of the season, as well. Zest will cater the event (menu TBA) and we'll have various awards and varsity, JV, and freshman letters to present to our athletes. It should be a great night and I hope everyone can attend.

I will be in touch soon with other end-of-season details including jersey return instructions, plus I hope to schedule a few different meetings with groups of athletes in the coming months in preparation for next season. And of course, juniors interested in being the/a team captain next fall will be invited to meet with me one-on-one to discuss the role. Our journey continues.