Maryland XC Weekend Rundown: Bull Run Was A Lot To Take In...Need A Few Days To Process It All

Sep 27, 2015

Bull Run Invitational

September 26, 2015 @ Hereford HS 3 Mile Course in Parkton, MD

A perfect day for racing led to historically great times in arguably one of the fastest years ever at the Bull Run Invitational. None better example than Annapolis junior Maria Coffin obliterating the girls course and meet record. Coffin, the top ranked runner in the state, dropped a jaw dropping 18:09 performance to win the large school girls race. Fastest time of the day by a whopping 42 seconds.

The previous best time that we can recently recall at the Hereford course, which has had some minor changes over recent years was a 18:28 clocking from the 2012 Maryland State Meet by Hannah Oneda of Winters Mill. This girl is certainly ready to take her talents to the national level when given the opportunity this post-season to represent Maryland well beyond its state borders, but first she is still searching to win her first state title come November when she races again at Hereford in the 4A state race.

Eric Walz of Dulaney was the defending elite boys race champion at the Bull Run Invite, so the expectation was obviously there. However, not feeling well had him on the ropes as they returned back up the "Dip" with Severna Park's Joshua Tucker trying to pull away from him for the upset victory. Walz was able to summon the strength to rally back though on the final field loop to put on the burners in the final 400 meters for a course PR win and repeat win in 15:44.

Walz like Coffin is putting himself in some elite company with that kind of winning time on the Hereford course. Sean McGorty ran 15:53 at the Bull Run Invite four years ago and went onto to become a Foot Locker Nationals runner-up and 8:45 two miler.

Photo by John Roemer

Other boys varsity individual winners of the day went to South Hagerstown's Darren Harman in the large schools race at 16:21, Bel Air's Kieran McDermott in the medium schools race at 16:36, and Liberty's Nick Tilson in the small schools race at 16:23.

While Tucker (2nd, 15:52) was not able to come out on top in the individual battle with Walz, he was able to enjoy a nice consolation prize alongside his Severna Park boys as they maintained their dominance over Dulaney and rest of the state edging out the recently top 25 nationally ranked squad by 3 points (57-60).

The 3-time defending 4A state champs Severna Park had all of their top 5 runners break 17 minutes on the Hereford course on Saturday, which most teams would love to have just one runner under that time barrier.

Dulaney looked to have the race one through four runners with their #4 man Elijah Hawkins coming in 11th place with a time of 16:43, but Dulaney's fifth finisher would take some time to come through in 35th place as Severna Park put 7 runners ahead of Dulaney's #5 as well as had the assistant of displacers from other schools to give them the 57 to 60 point win. Dulaney should get stronger at season's end if can get Austin Carey coming back from injury as the team's sixth runner at Bull Run to return closer to his top fitness as a 16 minute flat ball park 5K runner.

For now though, the Kings of Hereford title still belongs to the Severna Park boys and they don't have any plans of moving off that throne either when it comes to the state meet in November.

The MD #1 ranked Bethesda-Chevy Chase girls were not challenged by one, but three Baltimore County schools in Dulaney, Hereford, and Towson in the elite division girls race. Throw in several other Maryland top 10 ranked squads including Centennial, Northern-Calvert, and River Hill to know that the pecking order for the state's best girls cross country squads would certainly be shaken up after this race. However, the top team remained on top in this finish order with the Bethesda-Chevy Chase girls (99 pts) holding off Dulaney (103 pts) by a narrow margin of 4 points.

Like last weekend down in Cary, junior Michaela Peterson and freshmen Virginia Brown were the B-CC girls top individual finishers with top 10 races from both with Peterson in 6th (19:36) and Brown in 8th (19:57). The Dulaney girls, led by third place run by Kristin Meek (19:24), did the best job of closing the back end of their scoring five with their #5 runner Brynn Jones just missing a sub 21 minute race in 31st place at 21:01 to make things very close with last year's 4A state runners-up in Bethesda-Chevy Chase.

The Hereford girls were hoping to be their school's first team champs in a long time at their own invitational, especially after seeing their team's top two runners in Sarah Coffey (2nd, 19:20) and Kelly Shearer (5th, 19:36) both finish among the top 5 places. However, the 2A state title favorites had to settle for third place and 18 points off Bethesda-Chevy Chase.

The elite race for girls was won individually by Easton's Kathryn Gearhart. The third fastest returnee from last year's state meet overall, Gearhart is isolated from rest of state's top runners attending a school on Maryland's Eastern Shore and she maintained that isolation in her race on Saturday at Hereford shooting out to the lead early and able to continue to gap the field for a 29 second win the day's second fastest performance at 18:51.

Photo by John Roemer

Defending 2A state champ Hayley Jackson of Patuxent won the medium schools varsity race comfortably in a time of 19:18, while Boonsboro's Haley Wright is definitely racing up to her full potential after defeating two of the state's top tier runners in Brit Lang of Oakland Mills and Emily Craig of Maryvale Prep in the small schools division race in a time of 19:08.

Lang, the 5 minute miler, was closing hard on Wright though taking second place in a time of 19:10. Lang will be trying to challenge Jackson later in the season for the 2A state title, while Wright is the strong favorite to claim the 1A state title.

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