2025 Skip Grant Invitational

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

Friday was a very challenging day for our guys. We made it as easy as we could by giving ourselves more time to get ready for departure and arriving at the course much earlier than we did when we traveled to Leesburg for Trials of Miles, our other Friday meet this season.

Still, with temperatures in the mid-80s, the heat index in the upper 80s or low 90s, and a very technical course, our guys had to work very hard to perform well on Friday.

I know the times you all will see below do not look that impressive, especially in comparison with the PRs and season bests most of you set last week at Chesapeake. I'm still quite happy with the team's overall performance.

Unfortunately, being out at the 2-mile mark for splits and dealing with a piriformis injury preventing me from running at more than a slow jog, I was only able to see our athletes off the line and then in the middle of their races, so I won't have very much individual athlete feedback in this recap. 

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 seniors who competed in this meet in 2022, if they ran faster this week I've included in silver their new PCB (personal course best) for the Agricultural Farm Park 5k course.

Junior Varsity

Here are the results for our junior varsity athletes (227 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:

26 William Herman (Sr.) - 21:12.39 [(1) 6:32, (2) 7:17, (3.1) 7:23] PCB by 14 seconds
34 Ryan Pickett (Sr.) - 21:39.17 [(1) 6:31, (2) 7:16, (3.1) 7:52]
35 Nicholas Berry (Sr.) - 21:40.35 [(1) 6:33, (2) 7:25, (3.1) 7:42] PCB by 1 minute 48 seconds
42 Fareed Rahi (Fr.) - 21:56.22 [(1) 6:49, (2) 7:26, (3.1) 7:41]
48 Satchel Drabinski (Fr.) - 22:02.71 [(1) 6:49, (2) 7:28, (3.1) 7:46]
52 Joseph LeGloahec (Sr.) - 22:21.67 [(1) 6:37, (2) 7:40, (3.1) 8:06] PCB by 3 minutes 16 seconds
55 Alexander Soto (So.) - 22:32.25 [(1) 6:29, (2) 6:56, (3.1) 7:32]
70 Xavier Raymond (Sr.) - 23:08.93 [(1) 6:42, (2) 8:01, (3.1) 8:26]
73 Tyson Woods (Sr.) - 23:14.75 [(1) 6:51, (2) 7:58, (3.1) 8:26]
78 Michael Bridges (Fr.) - 23:30.74 [(1) 7:26, (2) 7:53, (3.1) 8:12]
98 Dane Kuzner (So.) - 24:11.20 [(1) 7:03, (2) 8:22, (3.1) 8:46]
117 Ian Andrews (Fr.) - 24:48.82 [(1) 7:29, (2) 8:23, (3.1) 8:57]
131 Oluwatoni "Toni" Adefiyiju (Fr.) - 25:19.80 [(1) 7:47, (2) 8:48, (3.1) 8:45]
157 Stephen Lawrence Jr. (Fr.) - 26:43.88 [(1) 8:02, (2) 9:22, (3.1) 9:20]
163 Terence Rascher (So.) - 27:08.00 [(1) 7:39, (2) 9:38, (3.1) 9:51]
167 John Tomas Felicio (So.) - 27:16.24 [(1) 7:54, (2) 9:44, (3.1) 9:38]
179 Luke Anthony Quach (Fr.) - 27:59.56 [(1) 8:27, (2) 9:37, (3.1) 9:56]
181 Chase Osby (Jr.) - 28:12.86 [(1) 7:43, (2) 10:17, (3.1) 10:13]
182 Stavros Rodousakis (So.) - 28:19.49 [(1) 8:04, (2) 9:56, (3.1) 10:19]
183 Jaidon Contreras (So.) - 28:28.82 [(1) 7:43, (2) 10:15, (3.1) 10:31] SB by 15 seconds
191 Ryan Hickey (Fr.) - 29:15.73 [(1) 8:46, (2) 10:19, (3.1) 10:11]
200 Emilio Chicas (So.) - 30:17.56 [(1) 8:33, (2) 10:37, (3.1) 11:08]
222 Oladimeji "Akin" Alade (Fr.) - 34:39.31 [(1) 9:21, (2) 12:24, (3.1) 12:54]

Congratulations to Jaidon on setting a new season best! He did not run last week at Chesapeake, but under this week's conditions this was an impressive performance for him.

Most of our athletes ran times that ranged between a 60 and 150 seconds slower than their Chesapeake Invitational times, but we did have a few athletes who missed their PRs or season bests by less than a minute:

• Will was 47 seconds off his season best from Chesapeake

• Nick was less than a second off his Chesapeake time and was 37 seconds off his season best from Bittersweet

• Dane was 32 seconds off his PR from Chesapeake

• Toni was 34 seconds off his PR from Chesapeake

Team Results

1. St. Albans 21 points
2. Sidwell Friends 86 points
3. The Heights 98 points
4. Spire Homeschool 105 points
5. Fairfax Homeschool 107 points
6. Landon 144 points
7. DeMatha 165 points
...
13. St. Mary's Ryken 383 points

We were a bit shorthanded on the JV side, so they did a really good job competing. The teams ahead of us also had either nine or ten runners entered in the varsity race, so they did not have an advantage there. But we were missing Cameron, who moved up to varsity to replace Dominic this week, and Don, who wasn't feeling well and had to sit this meet out.

Placing five athletes in the Top 50 of the race, with a couple more close behind, is a strong showing for us. Well done!

Varsity

Here are the results for our varsity athletes (144 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:

10 Arvin Mirchandani (Jr.) - 17:32.06 [(1) 5:09, (2) 6:01, (3.1) 6:22]
14 Phillip Marshall II (Jr.) - 17:58.74 [(1) 5:29, (2) 6:06, (3.1) 6:24]
23 Roman Zentek (Sr.) - 18:22.99 [(1) 5:20, (2) 6:18, (3.1) 6:45] PCB by 38 seconds
34 Lucas Moisiuk (So.) - 18:54.13 [(1) 5:46, (2) 6:23, (3.1) 6:45]
38 Jesse Holland III (Sr.) - 19:01.65 [(1) 5:40, (2) 6:31, (3.1) 6:51] PCB by 2 minutes 20 seconds
61 Jeremy Juste (Sr.) - 19:44.04 [(1) 5:54, (2) 6:49, (3.1) 7:01]
66 Elijah Hawkins (Jr.) - 19:49.72 [(1) 5:50, (2) 6:37, (3.1) 7:23]
97 Darrius Jones-Humphrey II (Sr.) - 21:11.28 [(1) 5:56, (2) 7:15, (3.1) 8:00]
99 Cameron Lamb (Sr.) - 21:29.05 [(1) 6:15, (2) 7:25, (3.1) 7:49]
135 Andrew Stinson (So.) - 24:08.72 [(1) 6:14, (2) 8:39, (3.1) 9:16]

Arvin had another strong performance this week. He was just two seconds away from recording a fourth straight performance on DeMatha's Top 100 5k leaderboard. He did medal for the third straight race.

I wasn't at the finish line, so I can't confirm that Jesse crossed it with both shoes on his feet. I can say, though, that he ran a strong race. He had the second largest improvement on this course of any of the seniors who ran at this meet in 2022. He also ran faster on Friday than he did two weeks ago at Bittersweet

Two other varsity athletes managed the same feat, but more impressive was the number of runners on our varsity who were within a minute of their times from last week at Chesapeake:

• Arvin was 44 seconds of his PR from Chesapeake

• Luke was 22 second off his PR from Chesapeake

• Jesse was 28 seconds off his season best from Chesapeake

• Jeremy was 43 seconds off his PR from Chesapeake

Team Results

1. St Albans 68 points
2. DeMatha 116 points
3. School Without Walls 137 points
4. Bullis 144 points
5. Sidwell Friends 146 points
6. Spire Homeschool 150 points
7. Fairfax Homeschool 151 points
8. Georgetown Day 214 points
9. The Heights 227 points
10. The Potomac School 241 points
...
15. St. Mary's Ryken 420 points
16. St. Andrew's Episcopal 495 points

The Height did not have any of their Top 5 athletes running at Skip Grant, but as far as I can tell they are the only school that raced this week without at least most of their true varsity. So at worst we should have placed third, which I think we should all be very happy with.

Final Thoughts

The Agricultural Farm Park course is what many coaches like to refer to as a "fair" course. It can be very fast if you learn how to navigate the technical aspects of it. Rolling hills present one of the most challenging course features for many runners, and unfortunately we don't get to run very many courses that present this unique challenge.

Being in class all morning and then running in the heat of the afternoon also presents a challenge. Yes, we do it virtually every day in practice; but there is a very big difference between performing in practice and performing in competition.

These were things I tried to prepare our athletes for mentally this week, while also not providing excuses for poor performances. We had some athletes who were well more than two minutes off their PRs or season bests. For them, it is time to refocus.

Some of these, athletes, though, are also dealing with injuries that we have to take into consideration. While I hate to potentially sit some guys out next weekend right before we have a bye week anyway, it may be for the best for some of our athletes. We will assess, early in the week, those athletes who are dealing with ailments that are becoming chronic, whether it be shin splints, back pain, or something else.

We are coming up on one month until Championships, and the goal every year is for every athlete on the roster to qualify by breaking 30 minutes in the 5k and to be healthy enough to race. As the team gets bigger and bigger, it becomes more and more challenging to meet that goal, but it is one I set for myself as a coach every summer. We have five or six athletes on the roster right now I have concerns about, and now is the time to address those injury concerns before we get too late in the season for us to take effective action.

We've also been affected by whatever respiratory infection has been making its way through the school these past two weeks. It's better that it's happening now than in mid- or late-October, but let's continue to work on hydrating and avoid being in close quarters with friends you know are sick. At least two athletes made the decision to sit out Friday's race because of this illness, and possibly a few others who didn't race are also sick.

If you are injured, regardless of which training tier you are in, you should not run Saturday. Take the rest of the weekend to rest and we'll evaluate how you are doing on Monday. It is possible that I will dismiss a few athletes from practice(s) this coming week so they can get in to see the athletic trainers and/or train by another method (bike or swim) for a day or more as we prepare for the stretch run of the season.