By BUDDY HURLOCK
Staff reporter
11/04/2001

NEWARK -- Meredith Lambert passed Jessica Leitsch a mile into the race and comfortably won the 19th annual New Castle County High School Girls Cross Country Championship on Saturday.

Lambert finished in 19 minutes, 25 seconds on the 3.1-mile course at White Clay Creek State Park to win the meet for the second straight year.

But Leitsch (19:56), a Brandywine freshman, had some consolation. The Bulldogs were team champs for a meet-record fourth straight time.

Brandywine fended off Padua 55-70 in team scoring.

Padua's five runners were just 44 seconds apart, but the Bulldogs had four in the top 13.

The Bulldog's first five were Leitsch, Jenn Kutney (fifth, 20:37), Leslie Wason (11th, 21:14), Hilary Taylor (13th, 21:21) and Dana Stoltenborg (24th, 22:15).

That beat the Padua group of Jessica Walsh (eighth, 21:08), Janet Cleary (10th, 21:10), Erin Lord (12th, 21:20), Beth Meany (18th, 21:37) and Annie Hastnett (22nd, 21:52).

Brandywine coach Michele Flanigan said this county title played out similarly to last year's, when Wason and Taylor started running their best in the postseason races.

"I can always feel when my running is starting to come on, and it always happens at the end of the season," Wason said. "I don't know where it comes from, but it's nice."

Lambert avenged her only loss to a Delaware runner the past two seasons. She lost to Leitsch in the Bellevue Invitational on Oct. 19.

"At Bellevue, I went out too fast. [Saturday] I wanted to use the hills, and I don't really like hills that much. But I feel I am stronger on them, so I use them to my advantage," said Lambert, the fifth to win back-to-back county titles.