While there was no individual or team qualifiers from the state of Maryland at the Nike Cross Southeast Regional on Saturday in North Carolina, the future looks bright for the state with the top 3 girls individual performers all being among the sophomore class with 2 more years of high school running to go.
The 3A girls state champion Oakley Olson of Huntingtown was the highest finisher from Maryland as she rolled to a new 5K personal best of 18:22 to finish 11th in the championship girls race. Olson had the fastest time overall at the state meet two weeks ago and showed herself once again as arguably the top runner in the state with her race down at NXN Southeast.
Another talented sophomore from the SMAC conference in Northern-Calvert's Hannah Mack followed up her great race at the state meet to help her squad to another state team title by finishing 22nd in the NXN Southeast Regional with a 5K PR of 18:42.
Rounding the trio of rising sophomore stars was 4A state champion Bronwyn Patterson of South River as she placed 24th overall matching her previous 5K PR at 18:45.
The Severna Park girls had the best Maryland team finish overall in the championship division coming 16th place with 402 points. Alyssa Combs was their team's top finisher in 38th place (19:03).
One of the best meet performances from the state came earlier in the meet in the invitational girls race with Northwood senior Madison Armonda chopping off 42 seconds from her previous PR to finish as a runner-up with a time of 19:04.
In the rising stars race, Maryland girls comprised 3 of the top 4 places with Northern Calvert freshmen Sydney Yankanich (2nd, 19:26), Dulaney freshmen Anna Albergo (3rd, 19:28), and Towson sophomore Madeline Till (4th, 19:31).