STATE CROSS COUNTRY: With one race to go, it’s all uphill from here

Competitors begin with a more than quarter-mile incline that sets the tone for a day of suffering. In addition to navigating the hilly terrain that always seems to feature another climb just around the corner, runners must control the most important distance of all – the space between their ears.

“It’s definitely a mental thing,” Perryville senior and 1A North Region champion Kaylee Haberkam said. “My coach (Jake Moore) says I’m physically ready for it, but in my head, I’m just not ready for it.

“It just scares me, mentally. I think every time I’ve sat down and cried. I’ve run it eight times, and every time I’ve sat down and cried.”

That includes the 2011 1A State Meet, when Haberkam stopped during a second trip through The Dip – the course’s most infamous and punishing valley – and still managed to finish seventh overall.

Even state champions can come unnerved by the undulating terrain. Following his victory in the 1A boys’ race last fall, Bohemia Manor’s Ryan Pfarr referred to the Hereford hills as “malevolent menaces.”

Panthers junior Jordan Dodson won the 1A girls’ race last year, completing the three-mile trek in 19 minutes, 55.8 seconds. The performance marked the second-fastest winning time for 1A girls since the course switched to its current routing in 1995.

When asked what made Hereford so daunting, Dodson gave an answer that left no doubt about a certain geographical feature that dominates the minds of all competitors.

“Definitely the hills,” she said. “Even from the beginning, you go up a hill, and every downhill is followed by a steeper uphill. That just scares people, the hills. Especially if you don’t train on hills, because for schools that don’t have any hills, it’s completely new territory for them. Hills.”

Fear can be a powerful motivator when it comes to preparation, and no course in the state causes as much stress as Hereford. The value of seeing the course at least once beforehand shows in the Bull Run Invitational, an early season meet held in Parkton. In 2012, Bull Run drew more than 100 schools, including four of the five Cecil County teams.

For those with state-title aspirations, however, one race doesn’t begin to cover the necessary experience. Haberkam said she’s been back to the course every other weekend since Bull Run, trying to find any advantage she can in taming its most brutal ascent.

“I’ve run the course whole four different times, so I feel pretty accomplished,” she said. “The Dip comes at an awkward time. You have to know how to pace yourself.”

The Dip, a steep ravine famous for dishing out punishment and making runners quit, comes into play near the midpoint of the race and again with just a half mile to go. If the first trip through doesn’t break a runner’s spirit, the second often finishes off the job.

Just ask Eagles freshman Ty Franks, a state-title favorite who has finished first or second in every major meet this season except one – Bull Run, when he dropped out.

“It’s horrible,” Franks said. “I honestly hate it. I didn’t finish it. It got the best of me there. I went out way too fast. Usually, I go out fast and set the pace, but I did horrible. I’m definitely going to be smarter about it this time.”

Franks’ ability to successfully finish the course could hold the key to Bo Manor’s quest for a fourth boys’ championship in the last five years. Coming off a 1A North Region crown last week at Pikesville, the Eagles enter as the prohibitive favorite to claim the team title.

The Bo Manor girls head into Saturday as the four-time defending state champions, but the graduation of three core runners from that time span has made a fifth straight title unlikely.

The success of the program comes in spite of an inability to simulate the topography of rural Baltimore County, leaving the Cecil County runners with almost no choice but to visit the real thing when training for the state meet.

“It is one of the hilliest courses in the state, and I don’t have a hill in my area to run kids on,” Eagles coach Steve Pizzulli said. “That’s why I’d like to see it change between different terrains year in and year out, but Maryland has its traditions, so…”

Ultimately, Saturday’s races will come down to who can rise to meet the mental demands of the course as thoroughly as they can the physical aspects.

When it comes to tackling The Dip after already logging 2.5 brutal miles, the best advice may be to forget about it altogether.

Dodson prevailed last fall by chasing down Boonsboro’s Sarah Zielinski in the final mile, ultimately winning by more than half a minute.

“I just wanted it,” she said. “I just saw Sarah ahead of me. I didn’t think about the hills, so they weren’t intimidating. I was just thinking that someone was ahead of me, and I needed to catch her.”

Follow Ryan Ginn on Twitter: @Ryan_CecilWhig