See all of the nearly 1,500 photos by Melissa Rose from Saturday's scrimmage here!
On a warm, muggy Saturday morning in Clarksville, Maryland, three of the best cross country teams in the state met for their annual scrimmage at River Hill High School. Despite the summertime conditions, everyone at the school had the same feeling:
Cross country is back.
Almost three months removed from the outdoor track state championships, most distance runners have been waiting patiently to return to competition. On Saturday, the runners from River Hill, Severna Park and Walter Johnson got that opportunity.
The festivities kicked off at 8:30 with the girls' scrimmage between the 3x defending state champions Walter Johnson and the Howard County powerhouse River Hill. With Abigail Green, one of the top returning runners in the state, sitting out to rest, River Hill's Jasmine Tiamfook led nearly wire-to-wire, pulling away at the end for the win in under 20:30. Only a rising junior, Tiamfook finished seventh at last year's 3A State Championships, and her win Saturday could be a preview of even better things to come this season.
Behind her was teammate Owen Dannelly, who kicked to a second-place finish after hanging behind in third for most of the race. The River Hill girls won the race pretty handily (albeit without WJ running their top runner), but their performance certainly puts them in contention with the other top 3A schools in the state.
After the girls finished, the boys race started and things got really crazy. It featured a showcase of two of the top teams in the state: the 2x defending state champions River Hill, and the defending 4A runners-up Severna Park (who won three straight state titles prior to last year). Parents, coaches and fellow athletes lined almost every inch of the course, creating an atmosphere reminiscent of a regional meet, rather than a preseason scrimmage.
As for the race, River Hill's Rahul Reddy spent the first couple miles with two Severna Park boys before pulling away at the end for the win in about 16:38. Like Tiamfook, Reddy also finished seventh at last year's state championships and will be counted on heavily this season if the Hawks are going to make it a three-peat of their own.
The Severna Park boys, however, were the ones who flexed their muscles the most at Saturday's scrimmage. Coming off a bit of a down year (relatively speaking) the coaches and athletes alike showed the intensity and focus of a team wanting to make a statement. They won the race, putting about a dozen guys at or under the 17:30 mark.
The massive turnout from athletes and parents alike was a testament to the intensity and passion that these three programs have for the sport. Still a week away from the first weekend of invitationals in the 2016 cross country seasons, everyone at River Hill on Saturday got to experience its return a little before everyone else. Undoubtedly, everyone who left that scrimmage that morning had one thought running through their minds:
Cross country is BACK.