The Garden They Grew: The Brothers of Urbana Cross Country

Five years ago, Arman Sanei only knew one thing about Urbana cross country: it made his older brother smell terrible.

Shahyan Sanei had spent years playing soccer before getting cut from the high school team and turning to cross country as a sophomore. Fourth-grade Arman was there when he got home from practice each day.

"He would always come back from cross country training and hug me" Arman remembered. "Sure, it may sound like a wholesome gesture, but I very clearly remember him smelling absolutely rancid."

"Little did I know that I would end up being in his exact position, five years later."

This fall, Arman is a freshman on the Urbana boys cross country team, and he isn't the only one following a familiar path. Matthew Rodrigues once stood along the course at Oatlands cheering for his older brother Henry. Evan Madraymootoo remembers attending one of Ethan's cross country banquets before he was even in high school. Xander Rothery grew up watching Josh race all four years of his high school career. Knox Kauflin spent just as many years around, although his older brother Korey admits if he was in Knox’s position, attending meets "probably wouldn't have been my favorite thing in the world" either.

Alex Verdi is more blunt about whether watching older brother Anthony inspired him: "No. I was forced to run."

Six current athletes on the team have older brothers who passed through Urbana cross country during a stretch of time in which the Hawks went from a program trying to become competitive to the 2025 Maryland Class 4A state champions. The younger brothers inherited a program that looks very different from the one their older brothers first knew. But the story of what passed between them is about more than winning.

Before the Championships

Henry Rodrigues remembers his junior year in 2021 as a season when he and his fellow Hawks began believing in new possibilities.

At the county cross country championships that spring (the fall 2020 season postponed due to the pandemic), Urbana entered the race believing it had a chance to win but ultimately came up short. Still, Rodrigues remembers the significance of that belief and the turning point it would become. The breakthrough came a couple months later on the track. At the Frederick County outdoor championships, Rodrigues and his teammates entered the 4x800 as the last-ranked seed and won. For Rodrigues and fellow captains Chris Sappe, Tommy Schupp and Sean Rivard, those moments became key parts of a growing belief in what Urbana distance could become.

As younger athletes joined that effort, the expectations continued to rise.

Two of those younger athletes were Joshua Rothery and Korey Kauflin, freshmen in 2022. What Rothery remembers most about that first season is how the seniors treated him. “The seniors really looked after us as freshmen,” he said. “It was a really fun season, which was the best introduction to the sport.”

Like in fall 2021, Urbana didn't qualify for States as a team in 2022 either. Three years later, Rothery and Kauflin would leave as state champions. For Kauflin, the memories that mean the most now are tied to just how far the team had come: from “a team that didn't qualify for states” to regional champions the following year and, eventually, the Class 4A state title.

By 2023, Anthony Verdi was a senior helping lead the Hawks to their first state appearance since 2017, after a one-point regional win. At the time he wasn't thinking about whether his team was changing the program's trajectory. "I don't think I thought too much about the future beyond what we were doing that year," Verdi said. "We had a big year ahead of us as well as big goals." Only afterward could he see what was coming: "After I graduated I definitely thought the best was yet to come with the team." He was right.

What They Left Behind

By the time Urbana won the Class 4A championship in 2025, Henry Rodrigues, Anthony Verdi, Ethan Madraymootoo and Shahyan Sanei were alumni. Rothery and Kauflin were seniors who went from freshmen on a team that missed states entirely to state champions in their final season.

Rothery remembers the championship, but it isn't what he thinks will last longest. "[The] bonds are the memories that will last longest," he said, "long after the medals and awards are tucked away at the back of shelves."

Ask the other alumni what they remember and they too keep coming back to the people. Ethan Madraymootoo talks about bonding with his closest friends through struggle and being able to be unapologetically himself. Verdi remembers the friendships, a team built around "holding the rope for each other and being there for each other through everything." Sanei remembers coaches, teammates, opponents and even officials: "What stands out most is my relationship with all these people. Anytime I reminisce or talk about anything related to XC or track, I consistently bring up my coaches or friends."

The Little Brothers

Matthew Rodrigues can see the difference clearly. His earliest memories of Urbana cross country are his family hosting team pasta parties and standing at Oatlands cheering for Henry as he climbed the course's big hill. When Matthew eventually joined the team, he was often introduced as "Henry's little brother,”  but the Urbana he entered wasn't Henry's Urbana.

He's traveled to competitions like Woodbridge and NXR that weren't part of Henry's team's schedules. Matthew believes "I am able to go to these races because of how strong the Urbana program has become." 

For Henry, watching Matthew experience that growth has been especially meaningful. "Matthew being a part of this makes me especially happy because he is having the same rewarding experience I had, but with even more success." Rodrigues said. Today’s program is the garden from the seeds he and his fellow captains planted during their time on the team. Henry and his 2021 teammates never got to lift the state championship trophy, but because of the foundation they laid, Matthew and his teammates did. For Henry, seeing the program reach heights his generation could only climb towards makes everything they put into it feel worthwhile.

Matthew inherited something else from Henry too. "My brother wasn't the most talented athlete at the start of his high school career, no offense to Henry," he said. He watched Henry work anyway, watched the results eventually follow through high school and into college. "Henry has taught me what it looks like to work hard."

Henry hopes the lesson gets even bigger than running. "If there is any life skill to be gained by running thousands of miles, it is learning why you push yourself beyond what you think is possible."

Same Uniform, Different Story

When Evan Madraymootoo entered Urbana, Ethan was already well established in the program, and Evan looked up to him. "From the moment I started cross country, I knew that if I wanted to become as great as my brother I would have to immerse myself into the training and workouts that came with it," Evan said. But Ethan had been a sprinter and hurdler, and Evan chose distance, something he now considers one of the most important decisions of his life.

Evan came to Urbana knowing few people; he had attended a private middle school, and initially felt out of place. "That was until I joined the cross country team," he said. "Distance running felt like home." Ethan watched him build an identity beyond being his younger brother: "He quickly grew both as a person and athlete, paving his own way and building an identity outside of being my younger brother."

Alex Verdi describes his own experience more simply: “I got to experience the team on my own and not in the shadow of [Anthony].” The brothers certainly aren't the same runner. “Anthony used to enjoy running way more than me,” Alex said. Anthony calls Alex “a much chiller version of me.” But Alex carries at least one piece of his brother's wisdom: “Walk up the hills on easy runs.”

The Rothery brothers might be the clearest visual reminder. Watching Xander race now can be surreal for Joshua. "He has the same running form as me, face as me and haircut as me," Rothery said. "It is almost like looking in a mirror." But Joshua doesn't want Xander's experience to mirror his own: "I hope now that he doesn't feel my shoes are too big to fill and runs his own race without comparison." Xander seems ready to do exactly that. When asked what excites him about the four years ahead, his answer was simple: "To see how far the team goes with me instead of my brother."

Trust the Process

Korey Kauflin finished his senior season as a state champion in November; and in August 2026 became a freshman runner at the University of Louisville just as his brother Knox began his own freshman year at Urbana.

"I just hope that I left it in a place where he will be able to benefit from and continue being successful," Korey said.

Knox had watched the program from the outside for years, but only after joining did he understand something he couldn't see from the sidelines: "The fellowship between team members and the commitment to the running program." His favorite parts of his first season haven't been results, but instead they've been bus rides, talking during easy runs, cheering for one another.

Korey had already given him a lesson for everything ahead. When asked what his brother taught him about running, Knox said, "Trust the process even when there are setbacks." Korey, when asked separately what advice he'd give Knox for the next four years, said the same thing: "Trust the process." 

From One Freshman to the Next

Before joining Urbana, Arman Sanei was intimidated by it. He imagined a team full of older, faster runners and wondered what it would be like to be surrounded by them. Then he arrived. "It is nothing like what I imagined," Arman said. "It feels as though there's only warmth and hospitality on the Urbana cross country team."

Shahyan had tried to prepare him. Before Arman went to cross country camp, his brother emphasized something that had little to do with running: "He told me that team bonding and sticking with the group was very important," Arman said. "He prioritized this over other things like speed and performance."

At camp, Arman discovered the long runs and early-morning swims that Joshua Rothery remembers so fondly… or maybe not so fondly remembers. "How in the world does someone do this for four years straight?" Arman thought. More importantly, he discovered why they keep coming back. At a meet early in his freshman season, he reached the final stretch of his race and saw his teammates waiting. "I saw everyone cheering for me and telling me to push myself," he said. "And in that moment I knew what it truly meant to be a part of an actual team."

Shahyan has noticed it too from the outside. "[Seeing] a serious want from his captains and teammates to improve Arman gives me genuine happiness," he said. Some of those teammates were kids Shahyan himself had helped welcome to Urbana years earlier and now they were helping his brother. Arman, only weeks into his own high school career, is already thinking about the people who'll come after him. "When I grow up to be a senior runner, I wish to be as welcoming and kind as the seniors are currently," he said. "I wish to make nobody feel left out."

The Garden Keeps Growing

That's how a high school program survives. The athletes leave, they have to, but the younger ones step up to take the baton from them. The seniors who welcomed Joshua Rothery as a freshman in 2022 graduated; eventually Rothery became the senior, then graduated too, just as Xander begins his own chapter. Henry Rodrigues helped convince younger runners that Urbana could compete; Matthew inherited a program able to win a state title. Anthony Verdi helped hold the rope; Alex got to find his own place on the other end of it. Korey Kauflin finished his career atop the state podium; Knox arrived months later and discovered the fellowship underneath the championship. Shahyan Sanei helped welcome younger runners to Urbana, and years later some of those very same runners were there to welcome Arman.

Ethan Madraymootoo once watched his younger brother enter the program in his shadow. Now Evan is the senior. "I've seen how vital he has become for the team," Ethan said. "It's been wild to see how he has improved so much and solidified his place as a pillar of the team." Soon Evan will leave too. He knows that. "Urbana XC is something that I want to continue to foster and grow even when I'm not there anymore," he said.

What he wants to leave isn't simply another fast team. Evan remembers arriving at Urbana feeling like he didn't belong, and he wants the kid who arrives after him regardless of background, experience or where he starts to know there's a place for him. "I want them to look at me and be like, 'If he can do it, maybe I can do it too.'"

Arman is already looking ahead to when he becomes the senior doing the welcoming. Xander wants to see how far Urbana goes during his chapter. Knox is learning to trust the process. None of them knows exactly what the next four years will bring, but neither did their brothers who came before them.

Each generation of Urbana runners may never see everything that grows from what they planted, but that’s part of building something meant to outlast you. Eventually someone else wears the uniform, holds the rope, welcomes the freshmen, and most importantly, keeps the garden growing.