Photo by Keeley Olson
It was a great opening day for the Maryland running scene as both the boy's meet record fell this morning at South River.
Anish Nanjappa ran away from Sam Keeny with about a mile to go and never looked back, winning in a new meet record time of 15:00.6. Keeny stayed strong and finished second in 15:10.3 on his home course. Coming in third was another Anne Arundel County product in Tanner Piotrowski of Arundel, clocking in at 15:14.4. Starting off the scoring for Severna Park were Jake Gelfand and Nick Engleman, who finished in fourth and fifth respectively with times of 15:26.5 and 15:40.6. Rounding out the Severna Park contingent were Carson Sloat in seventh at 15:44.9, James Dennison eighth at 15:45.1 and Philip Bansemer in fifteenth in 16:13.1. This gave Severna Park the easy win over River Hill with just 39 points to River Hill's 80, thanks in large part to their 1-5 spread of just 37 seconds. Filling in the rest of the top ten were Conor McGirr of Huntingtown (6th, 15:42.4), Josh Galindo of River Hill (9th, 15:50.1), and Zach Wedding of Chopticon (10th , 15:51.7).
The times are quicker than last year's race due to some construction being done to the section in the woods known as "Death Valley". So, instead of there being only two loops as it was in years past, this year runners went for another loop on an already flat course.
Juliette Whittaker distanced herself from the field and crossed the line in 17:23.8. Northern's Oakley Olson was the runner up finishing in 18:00.8. Leading Howard to victory over the Severna Park girls were Amanda Eliker (3rd, 18:19.9), XC newcomer Nimrit Ahuja (6th, 18:46), Sara Kindbom (7th, 19:01.4), Emily Gorny (18th, 19:25.1), and Ella Werdell (19th, 19:26.5). They scored 53 points to Severna Park's 65. Headlining Severna Park's runner-up effort were Sophia Zell (4th, 18:32.9), Allysa Combs (9th, 19:04.3), Grace Cambon (13th, 19:07.2), Caroline Gage (16th, 19:13.3), and Neela Baker (23rd, 19:35.9). Other top ten finishers were Niya Torres of Arundel (5th, 18:41.2), Katie Ericson of Annapolis, (8th, 19:01.8), and Parker O'Brien of Leonardtown finishing in 10th with at time of 19:05. A name to look out for at future races is Erin Mcquitty of Middletown as she ran 19:06.3 to finish in 12th as a freshman.