Championship season is still a ways off, but the last weekend of September gave Maryland cross country plenty to talk about.
Bull Run offered an early look at how the state's contenders handle the championship course at Hereford, while many of Maryland's programs headed out of state to Oatlands and Carlisle instead. Oatlands alone drew more than 3,600 runners from 133 teams onto its brutal 5K layout.
Bull Run
Hereford's Girls Take the Win at Home
A week after besting defending 4A champ Bethesda-Chevy Chase at Barnhart, Hereford turned around and bested another defending state champion team, this time beating defending 3A champion Severna Park 70-82 in the Bull Run Maroon race.
Three Hereford runners placed in the top 14: Dempsey Nelson (7th, 19:35.7), Kylie Jacobson (10th, 19:48.8), and Charlie Brill (14th, 20:20.4). Severna Park had Siena Pegues (11th), Caitlynn Nunn (17th), and Lucy Crawford (19th).
Individually, Clarksburg's Madeline Kelly took the win in 18:47.7, just ahead of Wootton's Eleanor Finnegan (18:53.8) and Severn Run's Adriana Vastag (19:00.9). Crofton's Katelyn Waters rounded out the top four in 19:27.4.
Crofton Goes 1-2, Wins It on the State Course
Jordan Gelineau and Scott Cunningham went 1-2 in the Maroon race, running 16:15.8 and 16:19.5. Oakdale's Patrick Salter was right on their heels in 16:19.6, just a tenth back of Cunningham: the top three separated by less than four seconds.
Crofton took the team title with 87 points, clear of Towson (119) and Dulaney (121). That's back-to-back wins for the Cardinals, who also won the Chesapeake Invitational a week earlier with Gelineau taking the individual title there too.
The Towson-Dulaney battle behind them is worth watching for the Baltimore County Championships coming up in a few weeks. Towson edged Dulaney by two points here at Bull Run after a five-point win at Barnhart last week.
Marriotts Ridge was fourth (160), Severna Park fifth (172).
Bull Run Gold Races
Tight racing down in Gold too. Quince Orchard won the boys team title with 93 points, edging Catonsville (102) and Great Mills (103). Catonsville's Matthew Foster took the individual win in 16:41.9.
On the girls side, Maryvale Prep scored 80 to beat Gaithersburg's 86, with Baltimore Poly just two back at 88 and Chesapeake-AA fourth (93).
Oatlands
Sherwood Leads Maryland's Boys at Oatlands
Down at Oatlands Sherwood came out as Maryland's top boys team in Varsity A, finishing fifth overall with 330 points, led by the Rementelas brothers: Dimitrios fifth overall (15:52.48) and Ioannis seventh (16:08.84).
More telling for the 3A race, Sherwood finished 85 points clear of defending state champ Centennial, which placed ninth (415). Urbana was next among Maryland teams in 11th (479) and B-CC 14th (651).
Maryland also had a strong showing in Varsity B. Urbana was second with 79 points, only Chantilly's 28 ahead of them. Centennial was third (137), Churchill fifth, Sherwood seventh.
Centennial's Girls Lead the Way at Oatlands
On the girls side, Centennial was Maryland's top Varsity A finisher, fifth overall with 319 points. Kaylee Beal led the way in 14th (19:26.79), and a 14-62-64-72-107 scoring line.
Urbana followed in 13th (456) behind Kate Miner's 18th-place 19:36.40.
Whitman finished in 17th, led by an incredibly strong front two in Kinjal Kapoor (13th, 19:23.26) and Maya Gros-Slovinska (15th, 19:26.88). Mount de Sales went 19th (603), just ahead of defending 4A champ B-CC in 20th (620).
In Varsity B, Sherwood led Maryland's girls in third (137), just ahead of Whitman in fourth (145). B-CC was 10th.
Carlisle
Don't Sleep on Thomas Johnson's Girls
TJ's scoring five in the Girls Challenge race ran 19:04.7, 19:55.8, 20:02.5, 20:09.3, and 20:51.1. Good for 185 points and fifth place overall. Salma Mahfoud led the way in 19th, with Madelene Kate Partlow, Nina Kirkendall-Plaia, and Elizabeth Lombardo close behind.
That's one week after the Patriots won the Chesapeake Invitational outright with 45 points, putting four in the top 10.
North Hagerstown had a strong day up front too as Mackenzie Philp and Caroline Philp went 3-4 in the Challenge race, 18:02.6 and 18:04.2 for the full 5K.
More From Carlisle
Carlisle splits its varsity races into Champions (smaller schools) and Challenge. Catoctin's Noah Riling won the Boys Champions race outright in 16:03.7, more than 17 seconds up on Susquehannock's J. Bucalo. Catoctin finished seventh as a team (189).
In the Boys Challenge race, Bullis' Owen Heilman was fourth (15:40.5) and Smithsburg's Dylan Herbst seventh (15:58.1). Smithsburg, the defending 1A state champ, placed 12th as a team (303).