2026 Braddock Relays

First, thank you all for bearing with us on a late night and to all of the parents who have already uploaded photos to our Google Drive folder. If you took photos but haven't uploaded them yet, please use this link to do so.

Intro

Four years ago we had quite an experience at the Braddock Relays. Coach Anthony, Coach Hoke and I had to manually count all the athletes in each open race section, get our athletes' places, and get their times because the timing company wasn't recording results for them. Then in the relay, not only did the timing company not get things right, but we also had one of our top athletes suffer an injury that, thankfully, looked much worse than it wound up being.

I swore off this meet after that, though with some sadness because the atmosphere is electric. Things have changed in the four years since and so I gave them another chance and so far I'm glad I did. The timing company they brought it is one I'm very familiar with and they always do a fantastic job. They got times and places for all the high school open races and did a really good job with the relays. A technical glitch on the site hosting the live results caused splits for DC and MD schools to not show up initially but that should be corrected soon and, in the meantime, they were prompt in sending a PDF to me and the other affected coaches. As always, we had coaches getting splits as a backup, too.

Additionally, the spot on the course that caused the injury was addressed, so I was very pleased with the adjustments they made. I hope have this become a regular event on our schedule going forward. The only other meet I've been to with this sort of atmosphere is almost twice as far away so I was glad this meet got its ducks in a row.

Enough history and context; let's jump right into things. Unlike our other meets, this course was 2,500m instead of 5 kilometers. Because we haven't run at a meet like this since the 2023 RVA Relays, and the only freshman among the 15 we took to Mechanicsville was Phillip Marshall, everybody who ran on Saturday set their PR for this distance.

I still have some numbers to share for our athletes aside from their official results from the meet.

• "MP" designates the athlete's Mile Pace. I did not get mid-race splits for any athletes, but this number tells you your average pace through the 2500m (1.55 mile) race. Some of our athletes may have started much faster than this and slowed down, some ran right around this pace throughout, and others may have started off slower and sped up through the race. You can use this information, along with what you know about how you ran your race, to help you think about your strategy for the 5k, which we'll get back to next weekend.

• "P5" designates your Projected 5k time, using a formula devised by marathoner and research engineer Pete Riegel in the late 70s. Using your P5 time, I have stated whether you set a new virtual PR (personal record) or virtual SB (season best).

  • Be aware that there are a couple of caveats to consider with projecting a time for a different distance, even using a formula as tried and true as Riegel's. The time assumes a similar course (e.g., two circuits of Saturday's 2500m loop) and no strong bias on the part of the individual athlete towards speed or endurance. An athlete who excels more in shorter events (such as the 400 through the 1600 in track) will probably have a P5 time a little faster than what he is currently capable of in the 5k. An athlete who has strengths better suited for longer distances (such as the 5k, 10k, or even half marathon) will probably have a P5 time a little slower than what he is currently capable of in the 5k.

Open Race

Here are the results for our runner in the coaches & parents Open 2500m Race. We're not sure how many total runners there were, though Coach Anthony said there looked like more on the line than any of the HS open races. The number in front of his name signifies his overall place in the open race.

3 Coach Cory Puffett '10 - 8:17 [MP 5:20 | P5 17:16] Virtual SB by 8 seconds

I got out hard and did my best to hold on. Much like my offseason parkrun back in March, though, I couldn't respond when somebody took control at the mile mark and just had to hold on. I got a good reminder to hydrate a little better when my calf seized up after the race, but fortunately I had no issues moving around through the rest of the meet.

Congratulations to all the parents who ran! There may have been some I didn't catch, but I believe I saw both Luke Moisiuk's mother, Karen Thomas, and Will Dougherty's father, David, in the race. I don't have their times but I'm always happy to see those who get a chance to run the course their sons got to run later in the evening.

Boys High School Open 2500m Race - Section 2

Here are the results for our runner in Section 2 of the high school boys open race (81 total finishers in the race). The number in front of his name signifies his overall place in the second section of the open race.

75 Michael Bridges (So) - 10:43.5 [MP 6:54 | P5 22:22] Virtual SB by 30 seconds

Perhaps the one disappointment I had with this meet was that they placed Michael in this section of the open race with none of his teammates. He had to go through the process of warming up and preparing for his race alone -- no easy task. I'm really proud of his effort today and he earned a solid virtual season best for it.

Boys High School Open 2500m Race - Section 3

Here are the results for our runners in Section 3 of the high school boys open race (79 total finishers in the race). The numbers in front of each name signify his overall place in the third section of the open race.

2 Blake Inzeo (So) - 9:30.7 [MP 6:07 | P5 19:50] Virtual PR by 1 minute 47 seconds
69 Dane Kuzner (Jr) - 11:03.1 [MP 7:07 | P5 23:03] Virtual SB by 1 minute 2 seconds

There were a few athletes behind Blake as he entered the stadium for the final 100+ meters of the race who were surging, trying to chase him down. He did a great job keeping his form together and driving to the finish line to hold them off.

Boys High School Open 2500m Race - Section 4

Here are the results for our runners in Section 4 of the high school boys open race (77 total finishers in the race). The numbers in front of each name signify his overall place in the fourth section of the open race.

15 Dominic Hislop (So) - 10:17.4 [MP 6:37 | P5 21:27] Virtual PR by 2 minutes 29 seconds
53 Ryan Hickey (So) - 11:12.4 [MP 7:13 | P5 23:22] Virtual PR by 32 seconds
56 Nathaniel Garvin Jr. (So) - 11:33.1 [MP 7:26 | P5 24:05] Virtual SB by 1 minute 58 seconds
61 Stephen Lawrence Jr. (So) - 11:52.4 [MP 7:39 | P5 24:45] Virtual SB by 1 minute 29 seconds
63 Ian Andrews (So) - 12:06.3 [MP 7:48 | P5 25:14]
66 Julian Righi (Sr) - 12:28.2 [MP 8:02 | P5 26:00]
67 Terence Rascher (Jr) - 12:28.4 [MP 8:02 | P5 26:00] Virtual SB by 3 minutes 2 seconds
70 Chase Osby (Sr) - 12:48.1 [MP 8:14 | P5 26:41] Virtual SB by 4 minutes 32 seconds
76 Luke Anthony Quach (So) - 13:45.2 [MP 8:51 | P5 28:40] Virtual SB by 2 minutes 6 seconds

As far as I could tell, Dominic ran about as perfect a race as he could early in his cross country career. He was gassed at the finish line and couldn't hold off some late surges, but that tells me he left everything on the course. I regularly see athletes in these races lay down a serious kick at the end, and all that tells me is they should have been further up in the race before the final stretch. Dominic ran the best he is capable of right now and it showed in that massive virtual PR.

I was really proud of Julian and Terence in this race. We had a lot of solid performances aside from Dominic in this race, but I want to highlight Julian and Terence.

This was Julian's first race of the season, so it's not shocking he didn't quite nail his strategy in a distance he's never raced before. As he sprinted to the line he passed Terence and did so pretty decisively. As he did, though, he waved for Terence to go with him. This is exactly what I mean when I say we perform as individuals but we compete as a team.

Of course, that encouragement goes to waste if it's ignored, and Terence did not ignore the call. He got up to speed and matched Julian all the way down the straightaway to the finish line, finishing less than half a second behind. That takes some guts and a lot of mental strength to see somebody pass you and find one more gear within yourself.

Boys High School Open 2500m Race - Section 5

Here are the results for our runners in Section 5 of the high school boys open race (74 total finishers in the race). The numbers in front of each name signify his overall place in the fifth section of the open race.

6 Logan Von Spiegelfeld (Jr) - 10:30.3 [MP 6:46 | P5 21:54]
40 Stavros Rodousakis (Jr) - 11:57.3 [MP 7:42 | P5 24:56] Virtual SB by 16 seconds
43 Nnamdi Onwuka (Fr) - 12:02.6 [MP 7:45 | P5 25:07] Virtual PR by 3 minutes 38 seconds
45 Caene Nartey (Fr) - 12:03.5 [MP 7:46 | P5 25:08] Virtual PR by 1 minute 33 seconds
59 Oladimeji "Akin" Alade (So) - 12:36.6 [MP 8:07 | P5 26:17] Virtual PR by 4 seconds
62 Sebastian Righi (So) - 12:53.1 [MP 8:18 | P5 26:52] Virtual PR by 11 seconds
67 Miguel Guzman (So) - 13:29.3 [MP 8:41 | P5 28:07] Virtual PR by 9 minutes 19 seconds
70 Emilio Chicas (Jr) - 14:14.7 [MP 9:10 | P5 29:42] Virtual SB by 3 minutes 34 seconds
71 William Dougherty (Fr) - 14:28.6 [MP 9:19 | P5 30:11] Virtual PR by 7 minutes 15 seconds

Logan had a solid debut. Much like Blake in the third section of the open race, Logan had a runner behind him, this one from St. John's, who was really coming for him. Logan did a great job to maintain his pace and eventually the St. John's athlete gave up his pursuit.

Stav ran another nice race to open his junior season. This time he was just four seconds off a virtual PR, so he's set himself up very well for a shot at an early-season PR next week.

As Sebastian came around the corner and through the gate into the stadium at the finish, he had to deal with a bunch of knuckleheads trying to cross the course at the last moment, but he locked in and had a really strong finish.

I was really impressed with our first year runners in this race. Nnamdi and Caene did a really good job maintaining contact with Stav, letting the upperclassman guide them through the course and pace them to big virtual PRs.

Further down the standings but no less impressive, Miguel and Will ran massive virtual PRs, with Emilio doing the same for Will that Stav did for his classmates. They're still learning how to pace, so we'll see how accurate those projected times are, but they should both feel really good about their races and confident that they can lock in to a slightly more relaxed rhythm in the 5k and be in the range of 30 minutes or faster very soon.

Boys A & B Championship Relay (5x2500m)

Here are the results for our relay teams (48 total team finishers in the race). Individual splits will be listed below. Each team is identified by a color designation (red for our A team, blue for our B team). The number inside the brackets is the average mile pace for each relay as a whole.

22 A team - 43:41.5 [MP 5:38]
40 B team - 47:47.0 [MP 6:09]

We've competed at this meet three times since I've been the head coach. In 2019 our top two finishing teams went 45:24 and 48:50, respectively. Then in 2022, a month and a half before our varsity captured the WCAC team title, our two relay teams finished in 42:06 and 44:06, respectively.

We're certainly a ways off that 2022 5-man relay right now, but we're closer to them than we are to that 2019 A-team, and it's worth noting we'd already run three races before the Braddock Relays in mid-September of 2022.

Our A team placed 15th out of 26 A-relay teams and our B team placed 14th out of 22 B-relay teams.

Team Results

1. Lake Braddock 9 points A Team: 5 points | B Team: 4 points
2. West Springfield 7 points A Team: 2 points | B Team: 5 points
3. St. John's 6 points A Team: 3 points | B Team: 3 points
4. West Potomac 4 points A Team: 4 points | B Team: 0 points
5. James W. Robinson 3 points A Team: 1 point | B Team: 2 points
6. C.G. Woodson 1 point A Team: 0 points | B Team: 1 point

Unlike most cross country events, a higher point total was desirable for this meet. Scoring for this meet was determined by each school's relay placement against other schools within the same category. The first A relay to finish earned 5 points for their school; second place among A relays earned 4 points; third place earned 3 points; 4th place earned 2 points; 5th place earned 1 point. The same scoring was then implemented for each school's B relay against other B relays.

Lake Braddock certainly took full advantage of their home course and had a great showing. St. John's looked very good last night. Their B relay finished the event four seconds faster than our A relay did in our 2022 championship season.

Relay Splits

Here are the splits for each of our 10 relay athletes, including their MP and P5 calculations. They are listed in the order in which they appeared on their respective relay teams.

Arvin Mirchandani (Sr) - 8:20.4 [MP 5:22 | P5 17:23]
Lucas Moisiuk (Jr) - 8:42.2 [MP 5:36 | P5 18:09] Virtual SB by 26 seconds
Elijah Hawkins (Sr) - 8:31.7 [MP 5:29 | P5 17:47] Virtual PR by 16 seconds
Kendall Giles (Sr) - 8:38.0 [MP 5:33 | P5 18:00]
Renaud Williams (Sr) - 9:29.2 [MP 6:06 | P5 19:47] Virtual PR by 3 seconds

Dominic Hilton (Jr) - 9:20.1 [MP 6:01 | P5 19:28]
Satchel Drabinski (So) - 9:22.9 [MP 6:02 | P5 19:34]
Evan Bouchard (Fr) - 9:20.0 [MP 6:00 | P5 19:28]
Fareed Rahi (So) - 9:38.8 [MP 6:13 | P5 20:07] Virtual PR by 4 seconds
Alexander Soto (Jr) - 10:05.2 [MP 6:30 | P5 21:02]

Unlike our open race results, these are currently unofficial and will be updated if we get the official splits online. The PDF I received did not have tenths so I am working with the official results I do have and the hand times gathered by Coach Ant and Coach Phillips. If and when the official splits are available, I will update this with those times.

Our guys fought hard and did quite well. Arvin shot off the line and was in the lead coming out of the first turn before settling into his rhythm and running a strong race. Luke took a nice step forward from last week's parkrun and his P5 time was within 20 seconds of his PR. Elijah seems to have had a solid summer of training. He looked really strong during Monday's long run, prompting me to elevate him to the A relay, and he came through with our second fastest split of the day.

In the B-relay, Dominic, Satchel and Evan did a nice job at the front. I think all three have more in them, but I'm proud of the way they went out and competed.

In a long-distance relay like this, the last two legs can find themselves in a challenging situation. Kendall and Fareed were in pretty good spots when they got their batons and both did very well. Fareed didn't have a great time trial back on August 12 but he looked much better last week at the parkrun and took another massive step forward on Saturday. Kendall missed last week's parkrun due to the SAT, so he didn't have an official in-season race to compare to, but he did run with us at the parkrun back on July 11 and ran 18:50, so this represented a virtual PR by 50 seconds for him.

In the final legs, Alex in particular found himself in a tough spot in no-man's land. The team one spot ahead of us was off the track and disappearing behind the bleachers as he finished his first 400 meters on the track and there was nobody close behind, so he had to run his leg entirely solo. It was a gutsy effort and I'm proud of him.

Final Thoughts

We absolutely have a more competitive team this year than we did in 2025, and our guys can feel good about that. We have loftier goals, though, and if we are serious about competing for a top three spot at WCACs, our guys on varsity and on the bubble of getting there have a lot of hard work ahead of them. If they can answer the call over the next seven weeks, we'll be just fine, but it will take a real commitment to doing the little, oft-forgotten things that allow us to get maximum benefit from each training session.

I am very pleased with the performances from our JV and freshman runners in the open races. They were the highlight of the meet for us. Much of their improvements can be attributed to the experience they are slowly gaining, but I don't want to undersell the hard work they have been putting in over the past two and a half weeks. We have a long way to go and the season will feel like a grind at moments, but they've built a good foundation and performances like this should help fuel their excitement for what's to come.

As we prepare for our first week of school, it becomes all the more important that we plan out our days effectively. Make a hydration plan so you don't forget while in class. Pack your practice bags the night before so you don't forget important items like shoes and yoga mats. If you forget shorts, it won't be ideal but you can run in your khakis -- you absolutely cannot run in your school shoes.

All athletes should check their emails this evening. By then I hope to have sent out an email going over details for weight lifting and water duty, along with a link to our spreadsheet containing target training paces, lifting groups, and water duty assignments. The schedule for this week and meet info for next Saturday will be out via Remind as soon as I can get all of it together.