2025 WCAC 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.

Folks are really figuring out this Kenilworth course. Three athletes broke 16 minutes today in the varsity race. Including last year's meet record, that brings the total number of athletes who have ever broken 16 minutes in the WCAC Championship to four. This course is truly rendering all old league records from Lake Fairfax, and even the faster Bull Run Regional Park, utterly meaningless.

As I'm not feeling my best and want to both get this out to everyone in a timely manner and get myself some rest, I'll save my commentary for the Final Thoughts section today and get right into the results from today's races.

As we jump into them, 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.

Freshmen

Here are the results for our freshmen (65 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, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

19 Fareed Rahi - 20:27.9 [(1) 6:22, (2) 6:49, (3.1) 7:17]
25 Satchel Drabinski - 20:41.3 [(1) 6:23, (2) 6:51, (3.1) 7:27] PR by 4 seconds
30 Michael Bridges - 21:27.4 [(1) 6:28, (2) 7:13, (3.1) 7:46]
44 Oluwatoni "Toni" Adefiyiju - 22:16.5 [(1) 6:56, (2) 7:21, (3.1) 8:00] PR by 48 seconds
48 Ian Andrews - 22:43.0 [(1) 6:57, (2) 7:24, (3.1) 8:22] PR by 19 seconds
49 Nathaniel Garvin Jr. - 22:55.3 [(1) 6:55, (2) 7:24, (3.1) 8:36] PR by 15 seconds
50 Stephen Lawrence Jr. - 22:55.3 [(1) 6:55, (2) 7:24, (3.1) 8:36] PR by 1 minute 16 seconds
55 Luke Anthony Quach - 25:08.9 [(1) 7:30, (2) 8:33, (3.1) 9:06]
56 Ryan Hickey - 25:32.9 [(1) 7:30, (2) 8:25, (3.1) 9:38]
59 Oladimeji "Akin" Alade - 27:40.4 [(1) 7:30, (2) 9:26, (3.1) 10:44] PR by 44 seconds
64 Sebastian Righi - 29:45.4 [(1) 8:37, (2) 10:07, (3.1) 11:01]

I don't have easy access to records from prior to my tenure, but 11 finishers in this freshman race ties a program record to my knowledge. We had the same number of freshman finishers back in 2019. To be fair, our top varsity finisher that year was another freshman by the name of Jayden Keels who went on to play a major role in our 2022 team title three years later.

We do have 12 freshmen on our team this season, too. Unfortunately, Evan Grero has been sidelined all season with a foot injury. The doctors have finally been able to give him some answers so he can get the treatment he needs.

Shifting back to our young men who ran today; these were some impressive performances. More than half of our freshmen set a new PR today, and Stephen PR'd by more than a minute!

Even from those who didn't set new PRs, I think it's noteworthy to point out that Fareed ran his second fastest time of the season, only bested by his 20:10.94 at Chesapeake.

Michael also ran his fastest time since Chesapeake, when he ran 21:10.97, and Luke Anthony was less than a second off the PR he set two weeks ago at MDXC.

Team Results

1. Gonzaga 17 points
2. The Heights 82 points
3. Bishop Ireton 86 points
4. Bishop McNamara 95 points
5. DeMatha 114 points
6. Paul VI 127 points
Inc. St. John's 4 finishers
Inc. St. Mary's Ryken 3 finishers
Inc. Good Counsel 2 finishers
Inc. Bishop O'Connell 2 finishers

Gonzaga has a really good group of freshmen this year with five of them finishing under 18:45 this morning. They nearly scored a perfect 15 points, missing out thanks to one Ireton freshman sneaking in before Gonzaga's fourth finisher.

Varsity B

Here are the results for our junior varsity athletes (154 total finishers in the race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the Varsity B boys race. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

20 Cameron Lamb (Sr.) - 18:44.8 [(1) 5:50, (2) 6:18, (3.1) 6:37] PR by 46 seconds PCB by 1 minute 31 seconds
37 William Herman (Sr.) - 19:27.1 [(1) 6:19, (2) 6:23, (3.1) 6:45] PR by 34 seconds PCB by 1 minute 2 seconds
44 Nicholas Berry (Sr.) - 19:46.8 [(1) 6:02, (2) 6:37, (3.1) 7:08] PR by 8 seconds PCB by 9 seconds
45 Alexander Soto (So.) - 19:46.9 [(1) 6:06, (2) 6:33, (3.1) 7:08] PR by 8 seconds PCB by 37 seconds
50 Renaud Williams (Jr.) - 19:50.3 [(1) 6:06, (2) 6:32, (3.1) 7:12] PR by 34 seconds PCB by 48 seconds
76 Joseph LeGloahec (Sr.) - 20:59.1 [(1) 6:28, (2) 6:57, (3.1) 7:34] PCB by 1 minute 9 seconds
80 Ryan Pickett (Sr.) - 21:04.4 [(1) 6:14, (2) 6:57, (3.1) 7:53] PCB by 1 minute 3 seconds
107 Xavier Raymond (Sr.) - 22:10.0 [(1) 6:08, (2) 7:37, (3.1) 8:25] PCB by 21 seconds
116 John Tomas Felicio (So.) - 22:53.0 [(1) 6:51, (2) 7:29, (3.1) 8:33] PR by 44 seconds
117 Dane Kuzner (So.) - 22:55.9 [(1) 7:06, (2) 7:37, (3.1) 8:13]
123 Julian Righi (Jr.) - 23:18.9 [(1) 6:48, (2) 7:42, (3.1) 8:49] PR by 22 seconds PCB by 2 minutes 1 second
125 Tyson Woods (Sr.) - 23:25.4 [(1) 6:51, (2) 7:44, (3.1) 8:50]
138 Jaidon Contreras (So.) - 25:09.1 [(1) 7:11, (2) 8:28, (3.1) 9:30] PR by 21 seconds PCB by 2 minutes 16 seconds
141 Stavros Rodousakis (So.) - 25:50.2 [(1) 7:35, (2) 8:27, (3.1) 9:48]
142 Chase Osby (Jr.) - 25:50.7 [(1) 7:35, (2) 8:40, (3.1) 9:36]
147 Emilio Chicas (So.) - 26:25.8 [(1) 7:38, (2) 9:01, (3.1) 9:47]
148 Terence Rascher (So.) - 26:40.2 [(1) 7:30, (2) 9:08, (3.1) 10:02] PCB by 10 seconds
149 Dawit Gezae (So.) - 26:45.6 [(1) 7:38, (2) 9:14, (3.1) 9:54] PR by 15 seconds
153 Kasapo Mwanza (Sr.) - 29:32.4 [(1) 8:26, (2) 9:58, (3.1) 11:08] PR by 4 seconds

What a day for our Varsity B runners! Our five scorers all set new PRs and they all broke 20 minutes!

To my knowledge, we've only had two other seasons in program history with five non-varsity runners under 20 at the championship meet. In 2019 we had two sub-20s in the Varsity B race and three in the freshman race. Three years later, in our championship season, we had four in the Varsity B race (nearly five; William Jackson was at 20:01) and one in the freshman race.

Cameron ran an excellent race up front for us. This was the first time in his career he officially broke 6 minutes in the first mile of his race (I clocked him at a 5:59.94 hand time last week at the parkrun, with what was likely a small delay). He did an excellent job controlling the middle mile and his average pace for the final 1.1 miles was 6:00.7!

After losing his entire junior season to injury, Will had a terrific race today. He went out conservatively in the first mile as our sixth runner through the checkpoint. By the second marker he'd only moved up one spot, but he had an incredible finish to his race. On the entire day, only Cameron and Jesse ran the final 1.1 mile faster than Will.

Nick, Alex, and Renaud did a great job of pack running. They were within four seconds of each other at every checkpoint. Renaud joined Will in breaking 20 minutes for the first time today. Really good stuff from those guys.

John Tomas continues to make really good strides. Like Cam did with the 6-minute threshold for the opening mile, JT broke 7 minutes for the opening segment for the first time today. While he did lose a good bit of speed in his pacing over the rest of the race, and his final 1.1 miles was slower today than at MDXC, the middle of his race was still a good bit faster allowing him to set a big PR.

Dawit came so close to breaking 27 minutes at MDXC a couple weeks ago, so I'm really happy to see him break that today for the first time. Kasapo did a great job in the first two miles today. He came through almost 16 seconds faster than he did at MDXC and he did well to hold on for another PR today.

Team Results

1. St. John's 28 points
2. Gonzaga 40 points
3. The Heights 68 points
4. DeMatha 141 points
5. Bishop O'Connell 149 points
6. Bishop McNamara 191 points
7. Paul VI 200 points
8. Good Counsel 203 points
9. Bishop Ireton 213 points
10. St. Mary's Ryken 304 points

With our team finishes in the other two races today, this is an exciting result for us to celebrate. Our depth is really good. While that depth was senior-heavy (six of our top eight in this race are seniors), I'm really excited about what those guys have done to bring along several of our sophomores and juniors to pick up next year where they've left off.

Varsity A

Here are the results for our varsity athletes (68 total finishers in the race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the Varsity A race. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

46 Jesse Holland III (Sr.) - 18:38.2 [(1) 5:41, (2) 6:15, (3.1) 6:42]
51 Dominic Hilton (So.) - 18:49.7 [(1) 5:35, (2) 6:14, (3.1) 7:01]
52 Lucas Moisiuk (So.) - 18:51.8 [(1) 5:39, (2) 6:15, (3.1) 6:58] PCB by 58 seconds
53 Andrew Stinson (So.) - 19:01.8 [(1) 5:45, (2) 6:19, (3.1) 6:58] PCB by 12 seconds
59 Don DeRocha Jr. (Sr.) - 19:39.8 [(1) 5:46, (2) 6:27, (3.1) 7:27] PCB by 26 seconds
60 Jeremy Juste (Sr.) - 19:43.0 [(1) 5:46, (2) 6:40, (3.1) 7:17] PCB by 41 seconds
65 Elijah Hawkins (Jr.) - 20:52.0 [(1) 5:42, (2) 6:51, (3.1) 8:19]

It wasn't a particularly great day for our varsity guys. It'll probably take some conversations with them to determine why that was.

These guys all ran extremely well last week. Minus Lucas and Andrew who didn't race last week due to illness and injury, respectively, the other five varsity members were all between 18:15 and 18:20 at the parkrun.

Most of our returners set new personal course bests, which is nice to hang your hat on, but this definitely was not one of our better performances of the season.

Team Results

1. St. John's 32 points
2. Gonzaga 40 points
3. The Heights 95 points
4. Bishop O'Connell 106 points
5. Bishop Ireton 131 points
6. Good Counsel 172 points
7. Paul VI 211 points
8. Bishop McNamara 248 points
9. DeMatha 261 points (6th finisher - 60th)
10. St. Mary's Ryken 261 points (6th finisher - 67th)

To address the elephant in the room, Phillip's injury hurt us a bit today. With his training being interrupted throughout the past three weeks, he would not have been at his best today if he had run so there's no telling how much difference it really would have made and it was absolutely the right decision for him to sit out.

At his best, though, running, say 18:00.0, our score would have dropped by 23 points to push us ahead of McNamara.

I already pointed out that today was not a great day for our varsity runners, but I will point out a few places where their efforts at least saved us from a last place finish for the first time since 2004 when only seven full teams were fielded:

• If Jesse had finished 4.3 seconds slower, we would have gained a point and finished last.

• If Don had finished 4.1 seconds slower, we would have gained a point and finished last.

• If Jeremy had finished 3.1 seconds slower, St. Mary's Ryken would have taken off a point and finished ahead of us in 9th.

Ryken's top two finishers came through ahead of Jesse, but putting four runners through before their third finisher got us back in the mix. As our sixth finishers, Jeremy didn't score but he did a great job to displace both Ryken's fourth and fifth runners to give them two additional points.

In fact, Elijah also displaced Ryken's fifth runner, adding a point to their score. There was an 18.4-second margin there, so it wasn't particularly close. But with how poorly his race went, bumping his knees together on the uneven terrain, if he'd given up on today that also would have moved us down to last place.

Just goes to show that even though the seventh guy doesn't score and doesn't factor into a tie, those extra points he can add to another team make a difference.

Final Thoughts

We had 18 athletes run today who have run this course at one or more of the last three WCAC Championships. Of them, 83% set a new course best today.

I'm proud of a lot of our athletes' performances today. The freshmen and Varsity B runners, in particular, did very well in representing the program on the course today.

One thing I will say that bothered me: during the awards ceremony, looking around at all the other teams, our athletes were the only ones on their phones, talking to each other through the whole ceremony, and not paying attention. It wasn't all of our athletes, but it was enough to gain my attention (and a few glances from parents of other teams).

We disallowed phones at practice last year; this year they were not supposed to be out at practice but it became difficult to police and so by the middle of the season we really didn't make much effort to do so outside of the strength and cooldown routines.

Next year that will change, and if our athletes can't put their phones away when needed without constant reminders, the coaches may have to collect phones at the start of practice and on meet days like several other teams at DeMatha already do.

The last thing I want is to add another thing to the pile of organizational tasks I already take on, but that conduct during the awards ceremony today was disrespectful to our competitors and that's not how I want our school or our program represented.

On a more positive note, I want to shout out our parents. They've been a real joy to have at our meets this season. They've picked up our athletes' slack by cleaning and packing up our team area a few times now (most notably today and at Chesapeake).

Mrs. Berry organized the senior recognition before the meet began with the baloons for each of our seniors. We've never had a 'Senior Day' type of event for the cross country team before; I've always just given a little extra time for each senior during our banquet. But multiple seniors expressed to me how much that meant to them, and if two or three young men are willing to vocalize that appreciation, I'm confident the rest of them appreciated it just as much without saying so.

We turn our attention now toward the Private School State Championship in a week and a half. The team will shrink in size as several of our athletes move on to winter sports. Our track runners will stick with us, with possibly a couple exceptions, and we may have one or two swimmers who are able to stick with us through November 6, but the rest of our winter athletes will take the next 3+ days off before tryouts begin for their winter sports.

I'll be reaching out to our athletes as a group, and to some of them individually, over the next day or so to make sure we're all on the same page and I know who to expect at practices moving forward.