2015 Maryland County XC Championships Coverage Central!

Oct 29, 2015

Anne Arundel County Championships

October 29, 2015 @ Chesapeake High School in Pasadena, MD

Maria Cofffin 17:34 5K To Repeat As Anne Arundel County Champ!

Severna Park Boys Win 5th Straight County Team Title!

Meet recaps & results coming!

Coverage:

MileSplit Maryland will be on-site with race video/interview coverage from Kris Jost and photo coverage by Chris Van Valkenburgh.

Meet Preview: Maria Coffin of Annapolis not only looks to repeat as the Anne Arundel County Champion, but see if she can improve upon her 1 minute and 7 second margin of victory from last year's race. The same runners will comprise the chase pack after her including Broadneck's Natalia Jacobo and Chesapeake's Charlotte Bader as well as look out for Severna Park freshmen Kamryn Eveleth.

Last year, Coffin clocked a then personal best time of 18:16 on the South River High School cross country, so it will be interesting to see how the Hereford 3 mile course record holder runs on a new course at Chesapeake High School for this year's county meet. She has looked every bit like the prohibitive 4A state title favorite this fall.

The only drama in who might win a county title on Tuesday with strong favorites established for girls individuals as well as both boys titles may come in the girls team competition with Broadneck, South River, and Severna Park all bringing in squads more than capable of finishing first in the final team standings.

The Broadneck girls have been very impressive this season led by Jacobo as they nearly have 6 girls behind her who have run under 21 minutes for 5K (#7 at 21:0). Meanwhile, Severna Park has 6 girls under 21 and South River has 5, so it will all come down to who can pack it in the tightest among the top third of the field. The South River girls are the defending champions from a year ago.

The Severna Park boys may have seen what the Dulaney boys did this past Saturday with a perfect score at the Baltimore County Championships and look to try and achieve the same feat on Thursday in their county meet. It will not be an easy feat though with some outstanding individual runners on other Anne Arundel County teams including Charles Wood at Chesapeake, Nick Boogades at South River, and Michael Weber at Broadneck. Wood and Weber are both returning top 15 finishers from last year's county championships.

The race for the individual title should come down between two senior teammates at Severna Park in Joshua Tucker and Andrew Forsyth, who have alternated as the team's #1 runner in several races this fall. Forsyth and Tucker were second and third respectively in last year's county meet behind graduated teammate Kevin Hines.

Forsyth started off the season with a 15:28 cross country 5K season best to win the Northhampton Invite in Pennsylvania, but was relegated to the #2 man for a while after a strong string of races by Tucker through the middle portion of the season including a runner-up race by Tucker at the Bull Run Invite. However, Forsyth finished ahead of Tucker in their last major race at Glory Days though.

Broadneck, South River, and host school Chesapeake will all be battling with one another for runner-up honors behind Severna Park. Broadneck had edged South River out by 9 points last year for second place in the county meet. Each team has a quality front runner, but it will be what happens beyond their first finisher that determines their teams' outcomes.

MileSplit Maryland will be on-site with race video/interview coverage from Kris Jost and photo coverage by Chris Van Valkenburgh.