2025 Prince George's Invitational

We definitely have to thank Mother Nature for letting us off the hook today. The race officials kept us much closer to the planned schedule this year than they did last year, but we still fell a bit behind. Other than a short-lived drizzle, the rain held off for us, though.

Fort Washington Park and the 'General' are icons of Maryland cross country. This course is the home of the PG public schools' county championship meet. I never had the opportunity to race this course myself, sadly, but Coach Ant is very familiar with it from his high school days at Eleanor Roosevelt.

Last year was the first time DeMatha had raced at the PG Invitational, to my knowledge. While I prefer situations that do not require waiting until all athletes from the previous race finish before the next race begins (i.e., a meet that sticks to its schedule), the legendary nature of the course offers a unique challenge for our athletes that I appreciate. It may not be an every-year staple for us, but it's a nice meet to keep in our back pocket when it falls on a weekend with a weak slate of options.

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. This year's course was a little bit different than last year's, so I won't be marking PCBs this year. However, since this year's version was more challenging than the 2024 edition, I will note those better performances after the athlete results.

Varsity

Here are the results for our varsity athletes (139 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:

4 Arvin Mirchandani (Jr.) - 17:50.31 [(1) 5:29, (2) 5:36, (3.1) 6:45]
7 Phillip Marshall II (Jr.) - 18:13.03 [(1) 5:36, (2) 5:40, (3.1) 6:57]
11 Roman Zentek (Sr.) - 18:20.64 [(1) 5:30, (2) 5:38, (3.1) 7:13]
29 Lucas Moisiuk (So.) - 19:22.50 [(1) 5:48, (2) 5:54, (3.1) 7:41]
33 Jesse Holland III (Sr.) - 19:28.51 [(1) 5:51, (2) 6:05, (3.1) 7:33]
42 Dominic Hilton (So.) - 19:42.67 [(1) 5:49, (2) 6:11, (3.1) 7:43]
62 Jeremy Juste (Sr.) - 20:48.86 [(1) 6:10, (2) 6:35, (3.1) 8:04]

Roman was the only member of the varsity team who ran faster this week than he did at the Skip Grant Invitational last Friday. Of the four returners from last year who did not set a new personal course best, all but one were within 16 seconds of last year's time. As I mentioned, this was a more challenging version of the course.

The only substantive difference was the General, which started about 50 meters further downhill than it did last year, which fatigued athletes' legs before they even reached the steep part of the climb we repeated from 2024. Personally, I think that's worth at least 20 seconds when trying to compare this year's results with last year's, and quite possibly more.

Arvin and Lucas were the two athletes who did better their times from this meet a year ago. Arvin did so by 11 seconds and Lucas did so by a whopping 94 seconds!

Jeremy was interfered with by a runner from Laurel at the finish line. I would argue Jeremy should have started his kick a little sooner to avoid having to win a dual at the line. Hopefully Laurel's coach gives that athlete a heads up that, come championships, opposing coaches won't just let that go but will get at least the athlete, if not the team, disqualified for interference.

I'm really proud of Phillip's race today. He was only about six seconds off his time from this meet last year after missing our last two practices of the week due to illness and still not feeling 100% this morning. He fought through it and ran a really strong last leg of the race; he and Arvin were our only two athletes to run the General and the rest of the final 1.1 miles in less than 7 minutes!

Team Results

1. Northwest 70 points
2. Atholton 78 points (6th finisher: 30th)
3. DeMatha 78 points (6th finisher: 42nd)
4. Albert Einstein 91 points
5. Springbrook 107 points
6. Eleanor Roosevelt 164 points
7. Bowie 175 points
8. Laurel 202 points
9. Paint Branch 243 points
10. C.H. Flowers 267 points
...
15. College Park Academy 421 points

Though Poolesville was not here this year, this year we got four out-of-county Maryland teams in this meet: Northwest (MoCo), Atholton (HoCo), Einstein (MoCo), and Springbrook (MoCo).

Last year, we finished second behind Poolesville, another MoCo school, with 116 points. This year, that point total would not have even been good enough for Top 5.

I'm pleased with today's performance in that context. Sure, it would have been nice if one of our five scorers could have beaten one more person to give us second place, the fact we held our own against four strong programs and were in a very tight race among the Top 3 is impressive.

Eight points is not a lot to lose by, so we should feel very confident coming out of this meet. We won't run another course nearly this challenging for the rest of the season.

Junior Varsity

Here are the results for our junior varsity athletes (143 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:

14 Elijah Hawkins (Jr.) - 20:32.75 [(1) 5:57, (2) 6:24, (3.1) 8:12]
22 Cameron Lamb (Sr.) - 21:16.76 [(1) 6:30, (2) 6:42, (3.1) 8:05]
28 Don DeRocha Jr. (Sr.) - 21:27.21 [(1) 6:32, (2) 6:41, (3.1) 8:14]
34 Renaud Williams (Jr.) - 21:47.18 [(1) 6:42, (2) 6:47, (3.1) 8:18]
37 Satchel Drabinski (Fr.) - 21:53.55 [(1) 6:49, (2) 7:28, (3.1) 7:46]
40 Nicholas Berry (Sr.) - 22:01.23 [(1) 6:37, (2) 7:36, (3.1) 8:48]
44 Alexander Soto (So.) - 22:15.55 [(1) 6:46, (2) 7:03, (3.1) 8:27]
48 Joseph LeGloahec (Sr.) - 22:31.75 [(1) 6:45, (2) 7:03, (3.1) 8:44]
62 Michael Bridges (Fr.) - 23:26.27 [(1) 7:15, (2) 7:19, (3.1) 8:52]
64 Xavier Raymond (Sr.) - 23:34.27 [(1) 6:36, (2) 7:24, (3.1) 9:34]
76 William Herman (Sr.) - 24:30.33 [(1) 6:34, (2) 6:37, (3.1) 11:19]
77 Tyson Woods (Sr.) - 24:32.17 [(1) 7:05, (2) 7:51, (3.1) 9:36]
81 Dane Kuzner (So.) - 24:46.93 [(1) 7:16, (2) 8:00, (3.1) 9:31]
87 Nathaniel Garvin Jr. (Fr.) - 25:12.34 [(1) 7:58, (2) 8:11, (3.1) 9:03]
95 John Tomas Felicio (So.) - 25:45.20 [(1) 7:23, (2) 8:04, (3.1) 10:18]
96 Julian Righi (Jr.) - 25:54.13 [(1) 7:19, (2) 7:58, (3.1) 10:37]
98 Oluwatoni "Toni" Adefiyiju (Fr.) - 25:58.77 [(1) 7:59, (2) 8:11, (3.1) 9:49]
112 Luke Anthony Quach (Fr.) - 27:09.57 [(1) 8:25, (2) 8:07, (3.1) 10:38]
113 Chase Osby (Jr.) - 27:33.91 [(1) 8:18, (2) 8:51, (3.1) 10:25] PR by 4 seconds
117 Terence Rascher (So.) - 27:46.87 [(1) 7:52, (2) 8:45, (3.1) 11:10]
118 Ryan Hickey (Fr.) - 27:48.98 [(1) 7:48, (2) 8:36, (3.1) 11:25]
125 Stavros Rodousakis (So.) - 28:33.36 [(1) 8:46, (2) 8:46, (3.1) 11:01]
126 Jaidon Contreras (So.) - 28:33.65 [(1) 7:41, (2) 8:53, (3.1) 12:00]
136 Dawit Gezae (So.) - 31:10.69 [(1) 8:55, (2) 9:59, (3.1) 12:17]
140 Oladimeji "Akin" Alade (Fr.) - 33:53.75 [(1) 9:02, (2) 10:31, (3.1) 14:21]
141 Emilio Chicas (So.) - 33:59.14 [(1) 9:02, (2) 10:28, (3.1) 14:29]
Sebastian Righi (Fr.) - DNF [(1) 8:51, (2) 11:48]

Though the weather was much better for running than it was for the JV athletes last year, when we were entering the heat of the day and had a much longer wait on the starting line as they combined the boys and girls JV races, this year's edition of the General proved much harder for our JV athletes to conquer.

Cameron was the lone returner to beat his time from this meet last year, and he did so by 21 seconds! Elijah and Renaud were each within about two seconds of their times from this race a year ago. I'm especially impressed by that result for Renaud considering he's been dealing with an illness for more than a week now, one that led to the decision for him not to start last week's race at Skip Grant and that still had him feeling lousy this morning before his race.

Chase deserves a special shoutout. While he did not run at Chesapeake where nearly all of our athletes set a new PR or season best, he did best the PR he set three weeks ago at the Bittersweet Invitational. He looked really good passing me at the two-mile mark and he held up better than several of his teammates past the General.

Jaidon also missed Chesapeake because he was on the Voices of DeMatha retreat, but he had an impressive performance last week at Skip Grant, setting a season best, and he nearly equaled that today.

We had a handful of athletes who bested their times from last week at Skip Grant and from three weeks ago at Bittersweet, but I want to specifically point out those who ran faster times today than at both of those other courses. Satchel, Alex and John Tomas all accomplished this. While I don't have an official time for Akin from Bittersweet, I believe he may have, as well.

Of the others, Luke Anthony earns my attention this week because he ran 50 seconds faster today than he did at Skip Grant. This despite walking a stretch of the final mile, something he told me after the race he regretted doing. The General really did him in and made the final third of the race challenging for him, but he ran so much better in the first two miles than he did at the Agricultural Farm Park that it more than made up for the way he finished today's race.

Team Results

1. Albert Einstein 31 points
2. Atholton 45 points
3. Northwest 52 points
4. DeMatha 110 points
5. Eleanor Roosevelt 161 points
...
10. College Park Academy 278 points

These meets where we are limited to seven varsity runners really give us an opportunity to showcase our depth. Even with Ryan Pickett and Fareed not racing today, and Andrew not either running this race or bumping Jeremy to it, we competed well. Like varsity, only non-PG County schools finished ahead of us.

Final Thoughts

I am very proud of all our athletes today and up to this point in the season. It's all downhill from here, truly.

• MDXC is a relatively flat course, one that regularly results in PRs for our athletes.

• A week later most of our athletes will run the parkrun again, another PR race, while some may go down to Mechanicsville for the VA Showcase on one of the fastest courses on the east coast.

• The WCAC Championship is on a flat course that we've seen PRs on.

• A week and a half after that, our athletes who aren't doing winter sports will get another crack at Bittersweet Field in the Maryland Private School Championship.

We ask a lot of our athletes, and this has been a pretty brutal stretch heading into our bye week. While we haven't quite reached the taper phase of our season, I do want to start building in a little bit of rest. So, while I usually 'sneak in' an extra quality workout on the Friday of our bye weeks, since this is our only one this year we're going to go a different direction.

Friday will be an off day for us this week. I'll expect all of our athletes to get out on Saturday for a run on their own, so you'll need to work that into your plans for the weekend between the homecoming football game Friday night and the homecoming dance on Saturday evening. Sunday will remain an off day before we begin our final stretch of the season the following Monday.

I ask that all of our athletes take some time this weekend to assess their seasons up to this point:

• What accomplishments are you proud of?

• Where do you see room for improvement?

• What goals did you set at the beginning of the season?

  • If you've met them, what is a new goal you can reach for over the final four to six weeks?

  • If you haven't meet them, what can you do to get there by season's end?

• How is your body feeling?

  • Fatigued? What can you do to help yourself feel more rested and fresher for your runs and races?

  • Injured? What can you do to address it so you aren't still managing it in the final races of the season?

  • Healthy? What does this free you up to do with your training and racing in October?

I frame these questions through a lens of personal accountability; you each have to take some personal responsibility for how you will choose to handle your individual situations. Your coaches cannot go to the trainer for you if you are injured; they can't do the workouts for you; they can't go to bed earlier for you or eat healthier foods for you.

That being said, I do not expect you to come up with the answers to each of these questions on your own. If you want to improve in some area(s) of your preparation or health in the final month of the season, your coaches (and the athletic trainers) are willing and ready to help you come up with a gameplan. But you ultimately have to take ownership of putting those plans into action.

When you ask, "what can I do to..." questions, there will never be a simple "oh, that's easy; just do _____ and you'll magically cut minutes from your time" answer. The answer will always include hard work in one area or another. But if you're willing to put that work in, the rewards you'll enjoy will be worth it.

Great job today; let's do everything we need to so we can have another great race in two weeks!