Maryland Preview For Glory Days Grill Invitational
Speaking of the Severna Park boys, lets switch over to the other out-of-state meet which is drawing a lot of Maryland teams to go beyond our state borders to race in the Glory Days Grill Invitational at Bull Run Regional Park in Centreville, Virginia.
It will be Chapter 2 of at least 4 chapters for the rivalry this fall in head to head races between the state's two premier boys squads in Severna Park and Dulaney. Dulaney started the season out as the #1 ranked team in the preseason with the best returning team on paper, but Severna Park knocked them off in the elite race at the Bull Run Invite two weeks ago by 3 points.
Dulaney will be looking to even the score and will have one of the individual race favorites as well to help them in Eric Walz. Loudoun Valley is also competing at Glory Days, but defending race champ and US #1 ranked Drew Hunter is taking this weekend off from race, so that leaves Walz as one of the next best runners in the field.
Maryland in general could be dominant up front in this race, despite a formidable list of individuals from Virginia and DC schools as well in the race with the likes of not only Walz, but Severna Park's front two duo in Joshua Tucker and Andrew Forsyth as well as Good Counsel's Jack Wavering. Tucker actually led Walz late at Bull Run, before Walz was able to overtake him in the final quarter mile or so. Meanwhile, Wavering was Maryland's top finisher at Oatlands last month with a third place finish and has had several sub 16 races already this season including a 15:40 season best.
The Thomas Jefferson boys are the team to watch though as likely the ones to be able to spoil it being Maryland taking home the first and second place team trophies as they defeated Severna Park at Oatlands last month and will be led up front by Saurav Velleleth. Don't forget either though that Dulaney boys are the defending Glory Days champions, so have familiarity with this course and success, which Severna Park didn't have on their last trip to Virginia on a new course at Oatlands.
Beyond the big two in Severna Park and Dulaney, there are several more All-Maryland top 10 caliber boys teams at Glory Days including MD #3 Good Counsel, MD #6 Bethesda-Chevy Chase, MD #10 Howard, and MD #15 Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill actually just beat Bethesda-Chevy Chase in a tri meet this past week, so will look to replicate that win as well in a major invitational on Saturday. Good Counsel was actually not too far behind Severna Park when they raced head to head at Oatlands and was missing one of their top runners who has returned since in Kevin McGivern, so will be interesting to see how they matchup against the state's top two ranked squads.
The top two finishing girls teams from our pre-state meet at Bull Run will be racing at Bull Run again, but this time at the Bull Run Regional Park course in Virginia for Glory Days in MD #1 Bethesda-Chevy Chase and MD #4 Dulaney. Both teams will get the opportunity to race against arguably the two best teams this year from Northern Virginia in Lake Braddock and James Madison, the two teams expected to compete for the Virginia 6A state title this fall.
MD #7 Good Counsel will also be at Glory Days led by their sophomore front runner Claudia Wendt, who was Maryland's top finisher at Oatlands. Their team will once again be keyed on their WCAC rivals Bishop O'Connell, who have owned them and their conference for more than a half dozen years. They were close finishers behind them at Oatlands last month.
The top 15 individually for girls will be very competitive to crack into, but certainly Maryland could see its share placing there in the final results led by MD #4 Wendt, MD #16 Kristin Meek of Dulaney, MD #21 Michaela Peterson of Bethesda-Chevy Chase, MD #24 Virginia Brown of Bethesda-Chevy Chase, and Julia Reicin of Winston Churchill.