Maryland Recap From NXN Southeast: No Nationals Qualifiers, But Experience Gained

Earlier in the season, Rohann Asfaw really did not have plans of racing beyond the state meet. On Saturday, he nearly made plans for himself to be racing at the Nike Cross Nationals. The junior from Richard Montgomery, Asfaw just missed qualifying individually for the national race next Saturday in Portland, Oregon.

The Montgomery County champ and 4A state runner-up, Asfaw finished 6th in the championship race at the NXN Southeast Regional with a new personal best time of 15:21. Asfaw was only two seconds behind the final and fifth qualifier in North Carolina state champ Jeremy Brown of Broughton. 

Asfaw is listed as an alternate for NXN, so if for whatever reason one of the 5 finishers ahead of him can't make it to Oregon, Asfaw would be the next up to go to nationals. Asfaw also raced against arguably the state's best individuals on Saturday and came out on top as the top finisher just ahead of Good Counsel's Jack Wavering and Dulaney's Eric Walz. 

A total of nine runners dipped under 16 minutes on the day from Maryland including Loyola-Blakefield senior Frankie Legambi (20th, 15:41) and River Hill senior Trent Rose (45th, 15:57). For Legambi, it was a new personal best and arguably his best race of the season since his season opening win at the Seahawk Invite. 

The Dulaney boys came into the weekend with hopes of qualifying for Nike Cross Nationals after a dominant state title victory over Severna Park in the 4A state race two weeks ago at Hereford, but Saturday was not there day at NXN Southeast.  

Their team ended up finishing 10th in the team standings as one of the bigger point swings against them was seeing their usual #2 or #3 runner in Sean Smyth struggle to finish and collapse at the finish line to finish back in 116th place with a time of 16:36. A team that had projected to have likely several if not all 5 runners under 16 minutes on the fast WakeMed course, only ended up having two in Eric Walz (10th, 15:29) and Andrew King (35th, 15:50).

Nonetheless, a great season for Coach Boyle and his Dulaney squad winning their first state title in several decades as well as perfect scoring the Baltimore County Championship meet.

A team that did come with their best team performance of the season this past weekend to put themselves in position to challenge for a national qualifying spot was the Good Counsel boys. Often overlooked and forgotten as they steam rolled through their private school competition in championship, Good Counsel ran incredible at NXN Southeast to finish 5th in one of the deepest fields in the region's history and only 20 points away from nationals.

Good Counsel was once again led by Jack Wavering, the WCAC champ and runner-up at the MD/DC private schools championship. Wavering nearly made it to Oregon individually finishing 7th in the championship race at NXN Southeast with a personal best of 15:22. The Virginia Tech recruit Wavering saw two more of his teammates join him under 16 minutes on the day in Matt Lopez (31st, 15:47) and Jimmy Vazzana (47th, 15:58) for a total team average of 15:55 and top 5 spread of 53 seconds.

The back end of their top 5 was solid as well with #4 Kevin McGivern (72nd, 16:12) and Jeremiah Melton (76th, 16:15). McGivern had been the team's #2 returnee behind Wavering coming into the season and ran sub 16 for 5K last fall, but had injuries earlier in the season slow him down. It would have been interesting if McGivern had been at full health this season if Good Counsel could have ended up being a team moving to Nike Cross Nationals next weekend.

After qualifying for Nike Cross Nationals the last two years, Severna Park's incredible run has come to an end and will be off next weekend for the first time in early December in three years. The 4A state runners-up finished just behind Dulaney in the team standings at NXN Southeast in 11th place with 322 points.

Severna Park had strong individual races from Andrew Forsyth (19th, 15:40) and Kasey Gelfand (50th, 15:59), especially for Gelfand with his first sub 16 minute 5K performance. Severna Park graduates 4 of their top 7 runners from Saturday, but have a strong and deep JV squad to make them one of the top teams in the state likely returning for 2016.