Photo by Brandon Miles
As if five major invitationals within state borders wasn't enough on this busy second weekend of cross country, many of Maryland's top runners and teams traveled south to the Oatlands Invitational in Virginia. The Varsity A girls brought out some of the top performances we've seen this season as three girls went under 18:30 for the full 5K course: Juliette Whittaker (Mount de Sales, 18:17), Jenna Goldberg (Walter Johnson, 18:25) and Charlotte Turesson (Richard Montgomery, 18:29).
They are easily the three fastest 5K times in the state so far this season. Sherwood sophomore Katie Kaneko finished just outside the top ten, while Urbana's Sara Jarman and Calvert's Kirsten Prince were also within the top 25 in the varsity A race. The top girls team performance of the day, however, belonged to Walt Whitman. After finishing third at the Seahawk Invitational last week, they finished third again in another loaded race. While they did not have a finisher in the top 30, they used a 1:08 1-5 split to their advantage, much like they did last week.
Photo by Brandon Miles
On the boys side, Richard Montomery's Garrett Suhr nearly picked up his second win in as many tries this season. Suhr was with eventual race winner Kellen Hasle (Loudoun Valley) until the very end of the race and finished second in a final time of 16:11. Behind Suhr the Rockets finished fifth - the top finish by a Maryland squad in the Varsity A race. Suhr's teammate Elias Applebaum finished 20th, while Sherwood's Sean Enright (16th) was the other top 20 finisher among Maryland boys.