WATCH ALL 2018 BARNHART INVITATIONAL VIDEOS!
In keeping with the theme of our last Unlocked Race of the Day featured video, today we travel back to September 2018 on another muddy course, this time at the Baltimore Agricultural Center for the 36th Annual Barnhart Invitational. Toeing the line in the girls race were some of the top freshmen in the class of 2022, headlined by Manchester Valley's Rubie Goffena. She took off early in the race and never looked back, navigating through the muddy maze of twists and turns by herself sometimes as much as 15 seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Juliette Whittaker ultimately closed the gap, but never enough to challenge Goffena, who won the first major race of her career.
Whittaker and Broadneck's Mollie Fenn (who finished fourth), along with Hereford's Piper Lentz (seventh) and Dulaney's Anna Albergo (ninth) rounded out the group of five freshmen at the forefront of the field. The five went on to finish among the top nine freshmen (sorted by 5k season best) of the year in 2018. Since then, Goffena and Fenn have gone on to win a state title apiece (as of the 2020 spring season) and Whittaker has become one of the country's top distance runners.