2026 Maryland Private School State Championship

Thursday's race featured a unique setup. In order to fit all of the necessary races into a more condensed program, they ran varsity and open runners for each division together, but started them from different lines. The open racers began on a line 10 meters behind the varsity line (it looked more like 15 to me).

This likely benefited several of our open runners. If everyone had been on one starting line, stacked behind one another, it would have taken several seconds for our last athletes to actually reach the starting line. It took our last athlete about 8 seconds to reach the varsity line. Meanwhile, our athletes at the front of the group, right on the open starting line, were able to take off from the line as they would in a normal race instead of waiting for our varsity runners ahead of them to begin running.

Compared to the usual setup of running JV races separately, this start may have cost our open athletes two or three seconds at most. While I don't love the format, I must admit it was nice for all our athletes to be able to warm up together, race together, and have some time to socialize after their races before we started breaking down.

Let's get into our results. As always, I have noted in blue all athletes who set a new PR (personal record) in the cross country 5k (3.1 mile) at the meet. Additionally, I have noted in red all athletes who set a new SB (season best), but not PR, in the cross country 5k. The course this year was a little different, but I do not believe they reset course records so for our returning athletes who ran here last year for the Private School Championship or the Bittersweet Invitational, in silver I have noted all athletes who set a new PCB (personal course best) for the Bittersweet Field course.

Class 2A Varsity

Here are the results for our athletes entered as varsity runners in the field (129 total varsity finishers in the race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place among athletes entered in the varsity division of the Class 2A race. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, third mile, and last 0.1 mile splits:

32 Arvin Mirchandani (Sr) - 17:18.9 [(1) 5:12, (2) 5:49, (3) 5:42, (3.1) 0:36]
52 Elijah Hawkins (Sr) - 17:56.4 [(1) 5:13, (2) 6:01, (3) 6:00, (3.1) 0:42] PCB by 1 minute 37 seconds
62 Renaud Williams (Sr) - 18:18.8 [(1) 5:24, (2) 6:10, (3) 6:03, (3.1) 0:42] PR by 12 seconds PCB by 1 minute 31 seconds
78 Lucas Moisiuk (Jr) - 18:48.9 [(1) 5:19, (2) 6:20, (3) 6:26, (3.1) 0:44]
80 Dominic Hilton (Jr) - 18:49.9 [(1) 5:34, (2) 6:23, (3) 6:09, (3.1) 0:44]
83 Blake Inzeo (So) - 18:58.4 [(1) 5:44, (2) 6:28, (3) 6:13, (3.1) 0:33] PR by 26 seconds
84 Evan Bouchard (Fr) - 18:59.3 [(1) 5:36, (2) 6:29, (3) 6:18, (3.1) 0:36]
88 Alexander Soto (Jr) - 19:10.4 [(1) 5:40, (2) 6:29, (3) 6:21, (3.1) 0:40] PCB by 1 second
98 Satchel Drabinski (So) - 19:31.3 [(1) 5:34, (2) 6:35, (3) 6:34, (3.1) 0:48] PCB by 1 minute 9 seconds
103 Fareed Rahi (So) - 19:46.9 [(1) 5:48, (2) 6:41, (3) 6:38, (3.1) 0:40] PR by 2 seconds PCB by 1 minute 31 seconds

In six 5k races this season, not including his workout at the parkrun a few weeks ago, Renaud set new PRs in five of them. His consistency throughout the season has been remarkable. A quick nod to his progression on this course:

• Sept. 6, 2025 (Bittersweet Invitational) - 21:45.7

• Nov. 6, 2025 (MD Private School Championship) - 19:49.9

• Nov. 5, 2026 (MD Private School Championship) - 18:18.8

Arvin has been battling hip flexor pain for the last few weeks and while he hasn't been able to get back down where his MDXC time was, he's done a good job to finish out his senior season with consistency, staying under the 17:30 mark.

Blake broke 19 minutes for the first time! And despite fatigue and feeling like the humidity affected his race, Evan remained under the 19-minute mark after first breaking the barrier two weeks ago at the WCAC Championship.

Fareed let me know a couple of weeks ago that he will not be running next fall. I'll hold out hope that he might return for his senior year, but if this is it for him on the team, three straight PRs at MDXC, WCACs, and the Private School Championship is quite a way to go out!

Mrs. Hickey sent me her favorite photo from the meet and, as it turned out, the photo was of Fareed enthusiastically cheering for our final two runners as they approached the finish line. We'll miss his energy next year.

Team Results

1. The Heights 63 points
2. Bullis 64 points
3. Calvert Hall 78 points
4. Gilman 124 points
5. Georgetown Prep 133 points
6. Landon 193 points
7. Archbishop Spalding 205 points
8. St. Mary's Ryken 239 points
9. Mt. St. Joseph 256 points
10. Good Counsel 261 points
11. DeMatha 263 points
12. Lycée Rochambeau 303 points
13. Severn 356 points
14. Archbishop Curley 361 points

We knew it would be difficult to compete in the team standings with two of our first three finishers from WCACs not racing. It would have been nice to sneak in ahead of Good Counsel, but that wasn't what this race was about for us.

How about The Heights winning by a single point, just as they did over St. John's at the WCAC Championship a couple of weeks ago? The average time for their top five finishers was about 7.5 seconds slower than the average for Bullis, but the spread between their first and fifth finishers was 1:02.4 compared to 2:14.7 for Bullis, which was the third largest spread in the race.

Our spread was 1:31.0 -- only four teams in the race were more compact.

Class 2A Open

Here are the results for our athletes entered as open runners in the field (171 total open finishers in the race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place among athletes entered in the open division of the Class 2A race. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, third mile, and last 0.1 mile splits:

50 Remi Cornelius (Jr) - 20:29.70 [(1) 5:52, (2) 7:04, (3) 6:55, (3.1) 0:39] PR & PCB by 29 seconds
56 Michael Bridges (So) - 20:39.3 [(1) 6:14, (2) 6:42, (3) 6:53, (3.1) 0:50] PCB by 1 minute 22 seconds
61 Dominic Hislop (So) - 20:51.1 [(1) 6:01, (2) 7:02, (3) 7:02, (3.1) 0:46]
63 John Tomas Felicio (Jr) - 20:54.2 [(1) 6:00, (2) 7:04, (3) 7:03, (3.1) 0:47] PCB by 1 minute 56 seconds
64 Dane Kuzner (Jr) - 20:57.8 [(1) 6:01, (2) 7:03, (3) 7:04, (3.1) 0:50] PCB by 1 minute 55 seconds
71 Zahir Accilien (So) - 21:18.9 [(1) 6:16, (2) 7:21, (3) 6:58, (3.1) 0:44]
100 Ryan Hickey (So) - 22:45.3 [(1) 6:48, (2) 7:41, (3) 7:22, (3.1) 0:54] PCB by 3 minutes
108 Logan Von Spiegelfeld (Jr) - 23:05.7 [(1) 6:55, (2) 7:45, (3) 7:40, (3.1) 0:46]
113 Ian Andrews (So) - 23:14.1 [(1) 6:56, (2) 7:44, (3) 7:41, (3.1) 0:53]
124 Nnamdi Onwuka (Fr) - 23:44.6 [(1) 7:14, (2) 7:56, (3) 7:44, (3.1) 0:51]
132 Stephen Lawrence Jr. (So) - 24:06.6 [(1) 7:10, (2) 8:08, (3) 8:05, (3.1) 0:44]
135 Luke Anthony Quach (So) - 24:15.3 [(1) 7:22, (2) 8:10, (3) 7:54, (3.1) 0:49] SB by 1 minute 31 seconds
143 Kendall Gratton (Jr) - 24:49.0 [(1) 7:23, (2) 8:32, (3) 8:13, (3.1) 0:41]
146 Nathaniel Garvin Jr. (So) - 25:35.5 [(1) 7:27, (2) 8:40, (3) 8:35, (3.1) 0:54] PCB by 47 seconds
147 Chase Osby (Sr) - 25:36.1 [(1) 7:28, (2) 8:40, (3) 8:40, (3.1) 0:48] PCB by 2 minutes 2 seconds
149 Miguel Guzman (So) - 25:38.0 [(1) 7:28, (2) 8:40, (3) 8:37, (3.1) 0:53]
150 Oladimeji "Akin" Alade (So) - 25:39.6 [(1) 7:25, (2) 8:42, (3) 8:36, (3.1) 0:57]
153 Emilio Chicas (Jr) - 25:57.8 [(1) 7:46, (2) 8:32, (3) 8:46, (3.1) 0:54]
159 Stavros Rodousakis (Jr) - 26:48.2 [(1) 7:46, (2) 9:10, (3) 8:58, (3.1) 0:54]
164 Terence Rascher (Jr) - 27:38.4 [(1) 7:47, (2) 9:37, (3) 9:25, (3.1) 0:49]
167 Eddie Castillo-Gutierrez (So) - 28:48.2 [(1) 8:13, (2) 10:10, (3) 9:43, (3.1) 0:42]
169 William Dougherty (Fr) - 28:57.7 [(1) 7:58, (2) 10:02, (3) 10:06, (3.1) 0:52]

Well done to all of our finishers in Thursday's race. Last year we set a record with 27 athletes competing in the Private School State Championship, eight more than in any other season during my tenure. This year we had 32!

Remi races just once each fall, at the Private School Championship, and he made the most of it this week. He went out a little too aggressively, but he eventually settled into his rhythm and finished well, beating his time from last year by nearly 30 seconds and finishing as our top runner in the open division.

I didn't realize just how much faster he was running, but Luke Anthony looked the best he has all fall. He used the downhills well and ran a great race. He only missed out on a new PR by about 5 seconds.

Team Results

1. Calvert Hall 26 points
2. The Heights 37 points
3. Gilman 83 points
4. Mt. St. Joseph 124 points
5. Bullis 173 points
6. Landon 177 points
7. DeMatha 199 points
8. Archbishop Spalding 203 points
9. Good Counsel 233 points
10. Georgetown Prep 252 points
11. Severn 358 points
12. St. Mary's Ryken 380 points

Though team scores weren't officially being kept, Athletic.net did the math. Last year we finished 6th out of 18 teams in 197 points. This year there were fewer teams but it was a bit more competitive. We tallied roughly the same score as we did last year and outperformed two of our three conference rivals.

Final Thoughts

Congratulations to everyone on making it to the end of the season, and particularly to our seniors. I talked about Arvin and Renaud in the varsity section, but I also want to recognize Elijah and Chase, who both set new course bests by substantial margins.

I will be holding meetings with our athletes over the coming weeks, starting with a session during homeroom on Friday for athletes who ran on varsity at WCACs and/or the Private School Championship. Class-level meetings with team members will follow, as well as one-on-one debriefs for those who want them.

This year saw the most significant overhaul of our training plan in my time as head coach. We had a lot of success this season. Early in the year, PRs came frequently for our JV runners. Our varsity athletes had to be patient, but PRs eventually came at MDXC and we felt extremely confident at that point with how our season would end.

While a few of our athletes continued to improve through the postseason, most saw their times slow over the final weeks, leaving course bests as the main thing to celebrate. We can and should celebrate those -- they indicate year-over-year growth. But it is fair to be frustrated when the best races of our season come before they matter most.

The purpose of the discussions I'll hold with various groups from the team will be to get feedback on their physical and mental states late in the season so I can consider adjustments to our training schedule. I have a few theories of what might have been wrong, and hopefully the information I gather from our athletes will help me narrow down which is most probable -- we'll make the necessary adjustments from there.

We have our Ultimate Frisbee matchup against the Rowing team on Monday and our banquet on Wednesday, November 18.

Athletes can begin returning jerseys next week. All athletes need to return their jerseys before the banquet so I can inventory them. Athletes running track may get jerseys reissued afterward. Seniors who purchase their jerseys are exempt.

Keep an eye out for that information and more in an email I expect to have out this weekend. Thank you for a great season. I am looking forward to celebrating it with you in a couple of weeks!