This past weekend (10/13) up in Silver Spring Maryland, Northwood high school played host to the Montgomery County Public Schools Consortia Championship meet. The meet featured not only high school (5K) races but also elementary (2.25K) and middle school (2.5K) races.
First for the high school races was the boys’ JV race which was run in quite chilly temperatures where at the time of the start the Weather Channel listed the temperature as 39 degrees! Mind you, there was still frost on ground. This race, though fairly close throughout the beginning, came to be all about the Einstein team. At the mile mark, it was three Einstein boys, Roberto Andaya, Jack Cummings (both at 5:45) and Matt Kaiser (5:47) leading the way with two Paint Branch runners also finding their way to the front, Victor Koech (5:53) and Hartej Singh (5:47). At the two mile the leaders came through roughly at 11:59. At the point where the runners left the woods it was all Andaya who had opened up a sizeable lead on the field and continued to drive further ahead culminating in a victory time of 18:37. Second to cross the line was Jack Cummings in 18:52 and third was Matt Kaiser (19:27). Finishing out the top five were Alejandro Arias (19:35) and Joe Ferrin (19:36). The reason the schools aren’t listed above is because they were all the same, Yes! That is right, the Einstein boys pulled off the perfecta and went 1, 2,3,4,5 not to mention also 7, 8.
Following such easy addition it is obvious that the Einstein boys won with a grand total of 15 points followed in second by Spring Brook with 57 and Montgomery Blair with 95.
For the varsity races, it was the girls up first. By the time of this race, second race of the day, the temperature had risen to 42 degrees and featured six teams. This race had a nice start to it where the meet director had all seniors raise their hands and their teammates give them a round of applause for their tenure, a nice thing you do not see at every meet which was then replicated during the guys’ varsity race. After this moment of recognition, the race was off. The course looped around the fields twice and then made haste into the woods featuring multiple hills. At the one mile mark it was Sydney Almeida of Springbrook off to an early lead splitting 6:20 at the mile. Close in pursuit were a pair of Montgomery Blair runners, Morgana D’Ottavi and Natalie Gradwohl, who split 6:24 and 6:27 respectively. Also coming through the mile in relative close proximity to the lead was Lauren Logan of Albert Einstein who came through at 6:34.
By the time the Sydney came out of the woods for the last half mile she had opened at least a two hundred meter lead on the competition and sought to add on to it, which she did while pushing herself even harder to a 20:26 first place finish. In second, it was Victoria Cabellos of Albert Einstein who moved up throughout the race and lengthened her lead over third place slowly through the race while finishing in 20:46. Third place was Logan in a time of 21:11, fourth was Gradwohl who passed her teammate to finish in 21:12 and finishing out the top five was D’Ottavi who ran 21:23.
For the girls’ team competition it was Montgomery Blair bringing home the victory with a total of 36 points, with four top eight finishers. Second, closely behind, was Albert Einstein with 38 points, 9 seconds away from a team victory. Third was Springbrook with 88.
Next up and last for the high school races was the boys’ varsity championship, which also was by far the best race of the day. By the time this race had begun the temperature had risen to a cool, sunny 47, which was a lot better then the earlier races. This race, unlike the others, had a huge group of guys at the front from early on and all of whom stayed in contention for at least the first two miles. At the one mile mark it was Nick Simson (Einstein), Ben Withbroe (Einstein), Ryan Henderson (Einstein) and Luke Simpson (Einstein) creating a wall that led the first pack, roughly ten runners, through the mile at 5:20. By the two mile the group had dwindled slightly and the leaders came through at roughly 10:50.
With the whole race being very close, it was no surprise to see at the end of the forest portion of the race that teammates Nick Simpson and Ben Withbroe were head to head with a thirty meter lead on Lorenzo Neil who was another twenty meters ahead of Harold Dorsey. Both Nick and Ben kept speeding up, it became evident that both were waiting for the right time to drop the other, but training with someone can of course tell you their weaknesses…which Nick tried to use to his advantage. Nick, with only one hundred fifty meters to go made a strong move around the turn to take the lead, but Ben was ready for it and waited till the last thirty meters to come back and take the lead only for it to be squandered at the finish in a photo finish that had both of them finishing in a time of 16:45, with Nick taking the victory and course record over his teammate. Third place was Lorenzo Neil (Paint Branch) in 17:07, fourth was Harold Dorsey in 17:09 with Ryan Henderson (Einstein) in 5th in a time of 17:11.
For the varsity team title it was a literal run away with Albert Einstein taking home the “W” with a team total of 22 points. Second was Paint Branch (61) and third was Montgomery Blair (95).
In the other races it was Sean Sarvi of Farquhar Middle winning his race in 10:01. Gabriella Armonda winning her 2.5K in 11:32 representing Silver Spring Int. Winning the elementary 2.25K was Sean McCaffrey in a time of 11:26 at the age of ten.