Henry Hopper (Wilde Lake) Winning the 3A Boys Championship.
Coming into the meet most of the talk was on could Antonio Camacho-Bucks (Centennial) break the course record and the team battle between Centennial High and Towson. While Hopper has had a good season, he finished 5th at both the Howard County Championships and 3A East Regional, losing to runners like Camacho-Bucks, Sebastian Martinez (Centennial), Christian Brower (Long Reach) and Kidus Zeleke (Reservoir). Those runners along with Ashton Tolson (C Milton Wright) and the Towson boys were the favorite. Henry however had other plans as he took the lead in the second half of the race and never looked back, running 16:11 for the fastest time in any classification.
Severna Park Girls Winning the 4A Championship
Coming into States, the Thomas Wootton girls were undefeated, winning big meets such as Bull Run, Oatlands, Montgomery County Championship, and the 4A West Regional. Luck, however, was not on their side as one of their top girls, Charlotte Chang unfortunately was unable to finish. Severna Park took full advantage of the opportunity placing 5 girls in the top 31 led by Cameron Glebocki's 9th-place finish.
Elena Blodnikar (Leonardtown) winning the Girls 4A Championship.
Coming into States Varri Higgins (Bethesda Chevy-Chase) had been on a roll; winning the Gunpowder Falls Invite, Montgomery County Championship, and 4A West Regional against some very tough competition in Avery Graham (Sherwood), Grace Finnegan (Richard Montgomery), and Alexa Avila (Montgomery Blair). While Higgins still ran a great race finishing 2nd in 19:19, it was Blodnikar who stole the show. Running a smart first mile, she broke away from the lead group as they went down the dip for the first time and was able to hold onto the lead. Her time of 18:58 was the fastest time of any girl across all classifications.
Towson Girls Winning the 3A State Championship
Most of the talk coming into States for 3A Girls was between Frederick and Northern-Calvert. Frederick looked great all year winning Bull Run (Medium) earlier in the year, and easily winning the CMC, Frederick, and 3A West Regional. Nothern-Calvert looked great at the MDXC Invite and won the SMAC Championship and 3A South Regional.
Towson ran a very smart first mile, not pushing the pace, and had their pack slowly move up throughout the race. Frederick may have made a tactical mistake at the start as their whole team was in the top 15 in the first 400m. Northern had some back luck as their top runner struggled to close and finished in 65th place. Towson took advantage and it led to a 5-point State win!
