2015 Maryland County XC Championships Coverage Central!

MileSplit Staff

Frederick County Championships

October 22, 2015 @ Urbana High School in Ijamsville, MD

Coverage:

Recap: Middletown's Reilly Caldwell learned from champions as a freshmen at Green Hope High School in North Carolina and two years later showed what she learned in becoming one herself now as a junior at Middletown High School. Despite being a Frederick County runner-up last year in cross country as a sophomore, Caldwell struggled to match her freshmen year times that included a 18:55 5K PR.

No problem blowing that PR out of the water on Thursday at Urbana High School's 5K course as she broke the course record in a 18:28 5K victory as she was able to distance herself from Oakdale's Charlotte Kowalk in the final loop of the course for a nearly 20 second margin of victory.

Kowalk, who last time raced on this same course suffered a hamstring injury at the Urbana Invite that set her back in her training and race schedule a few weeks ago, showed she's back to her form earlier in the season when she finished in the top 20 at Oatlands by clocking a new personal best for herself as the runner-up in 18:47. Catoctin's Julien Webster was reeling Kowalk in the last mile before Kowalk separated again in the final quarter mile, but Webster also joined the sub 19 minute club in third place with a time of 18:55.

It has been decades since the Walkersville girls have possibly been county champions in cross country, but they were back on top of Frederick County on Thursday. Led by a freshmen in Mary Miller (4th, 19:40) and senior in Jennifer Simmons (8th, 20:42) with top 10 finishes, Walkersville (1st, 56 pts) won the team title by 24 points over Oakdale (2nd, 80 pts) averaging 20:52 as a squad.

An emerging team that is very capable of a top 3 state meet finish in the 2A race despite not having qualified a team one year ago and according to senior Simmons struggled just to have 5 girls on the team score in a meet two years ago.

Easy to confuse Linganore junior Micah Hewitson with top nationally ranked runner Drew Hunter. Well because he looks just like him! While Hewitson is not in the same class as Hunter who just dropped a 14:22 nation's best 5K this past Saturday, Hewitson is doing his own time drops as well. The top returnee from last year's Frederick County Championships, Hewitson won his first county title on Thursday at Urbana High School in a new 5K personal best time of 16:14.

Similar to girls race winner Caldwell, Hewitson was able to leave no drama for the final 300 meters on the track by distancing himself from his competitors on the second loop of the course. Next up for Hewitson will be trying to challenge one of the 3A state title contenders in South Hagerstown's Darren Harman at the 3A West Regional.

The drama for an exciting kick finish was saved for the battle for second place behind Hewitson with four guys entering the track together to fight over county runner-up honors. It would be Tuscarora's Gavin Prather who had the best closing speed over the others to shock even himself with his place and performance of 16:32 to become this year's county runner-up. Prather had run over 18 minutes on this same course only 3 weeks ago!


Two of the runners which Prather outkicked in the end were Urbana's Nick Danner (3rd, 16:33) and Garrett Santis (5th, 16:35) who helped their squad get over the hump from consecutive county runner-up finishes to become the champions this fall hosting the meet on their home course with a 19 point margin of victory over Oakdale (2nd, 62 pts).

Their squad nearly averaged under 17 minutes on their home 5K course and have their eyes set on competing for a top 3 finish in the 3A state race next month at Hereford.

Another rising star in the making can be found at Linganore High School beyond race champ Hewitson in his freshmen teammate Michael Belmaggio finishing third in his first county championships with a time of 16:34, which ranks second fastest among all 9th graders in the state of Maryland.

Schedule:

2:30- Very Brief Coaches Meeting
2:45 - Teams begin to line up in boxes & Senior parents to the field
3:00 - Senior Recognition
3:30 - JV Girls Race
4:10 - JV Boys Race
4:40 - Varsity Girls Race
5:20 - Varsity Boys Race
6:00 - Awards Ceremony in Stadium

Course Map:

Rankings:

Schools:

Meet Preview

Third in last year's county championships, Oakdale senior Charlotte Kowalk is looking to navigate through a very competitive field this year and go for the win.


Middletown's Reilly Caldwell was a runner-up one year ago, while Gov. Thomas Johnson's Abby Pinto was fifth. Catoctin's Julien Webster also challenged Kowalk earlier in the season at the Mountain Run. Meanwhile, defending race champ Maria Carberry of Urbana has been out all season due to injury.

With Carberry out, the defending county team champions from Urbana have had to make due without their #1 runner all fall and remained competitive with a tight spread for their top 5, but Walkersville enters this meet as the favorites led by a freshmen in Mary Miller. They very well could make the remarkable leap from 6th to 1st place in the county meet in over a year's time.

Catoctin has a pretty strong top 3, but needs back end help for them to challenge for the win. Oakdale also should be in the mix after taking second a year ago at the Frederick County Championships and returning 5 of their top 7.

Micah Hewitson of Linganore finished third in a sea of seniors making up the top 10 in the 2014 Frederick County Championships to make him the meet's top returnee. Hewitson also has the leading 5K time among Frederick County boys this fall with a 16:16 season best performance. Freshmen teammate Michael Belmaggio has the second fastest at 16:48.

Host school Urbana should have many of their boys finishing among the top 10 places including Nick Danner and Garrett Santis among a team that has 6 runners this fall under 18 minutes for 5K. Last year's team runners-up from Urbana will be a strong favorite to win the 2015 county title.

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