By Chuck Durante
 Since he was turning eighth and ninth graders into all-conference varsity runners at Dover Air 30 years ago, Charlie Bell has focused on developing his youngest athletes.
 So when his Caesar Rodney girls won their first state championship Saturday at Bellevue State Park, it was unsurprising that the six runners behind state titlist Jill Hajec (19:12.4) are underclassmen.  The Riders' supporting cast was so strong that even had Hajec driven to Killen's Pond by mistake, CR would still have finished second, ahead of defending champion Brandywine, behind only Padua.
 "If you get them as ninth graders, you've got three or four years with them, and there goes your program," says Bell.
 Forecasting the future of young runners is inherently uncertain – four former state champions ran Saturday – but Caesar Rodney has the foundation to be a contender as long as Bell coaches.  With two frosh – Elizabeth Paul (7th at Bellevue), Natalie Robbins (22) and Ashlee Miller (35) – in their top six, plus the Codner sisters, Kashante (6) and Kasheka (8), CR will be well-equipped for Brandywine's inevitably spirited challenge in 2002.
 Padua established itself as the early favorite in next year's County meet. Freshmen Jessica Walsh and Janet Cleary, and sophomores Beth Meany and Annie Hartnett, with seniors Colleen Reed and Erin Lord, led Padua to second place, its top finish since 1995.  St. Mark's, led by Catholic meet winner Jackie Justison (9th), edged Charter by a point for fourth place.
 In four years, Brandywine's girls have gone from upstarts to perennials.  Their victory in the 1998 county meet was considered a huge upset.  Now the Bulldogs are the target that Ursuline was then, the running haven with up to a dozen runners capable of bettering 23 minutes.  With the obvious exception of coach Michelle Flanagan, no one has been more important in that streak than Jenn Kutney, who completed a glittering fall career by finishing second to Hajec.  The composed, popular two-time state champion dyed her hair Brandywine blue for the race, a striking fashion statement but not enough of an inspiration for her team.  Other than freshman Jess Leitsch (3rd), no other Bulldog finished in the top 30.
 Rebecca Singh, a junior from Sussex Tech, and A.I. du Pont freshman Jaclyn Reifschneider, rounded out the top five.  In all, nine ninth-graders finished in the top 25.
 DIVISION TWO GIRLS – For the fifth time in six years, a ninth-grader won a state championship, as Tower Hill's Lisa Klein sprinted past flagging defending champion Meredith Lambert of Tatnall to the astonishment of the crowd that watched Lambert take a seemingly insurmountable lead into the woods of Willy du Pont's estate.
 Lambert's early lead proved her undoing.  Her first mile was gauged in the 5:30's – fast enough for a medal next spring in the county track meet – but like Mariano Rivera's throw to second base, it proved the undoing of an unbeatable athlete.
 "I was just trying to get second.  I had no idea that I could catch up to her," said Klein.  "During the race, I kept thinking, ‘why is she that close?'," said Klein, who caught a gasping Lambert in the last quarter-mile to win in 19:37.
 "We had one strategy," said Tower Hill coach Bob Rutkowski.  "This is what happened with Leitsch, when she beat Meredith out here.  Meredith seems to run just one pace, and that's fast.  We thought if she could just stay with her the first mile and push her, we might break her rhythm down a little bit and apparently that's what happened."
 Lake Forest edged Seaford by five points for its first girls title since 1993, thanks to top-ten finishes by Lena Ewing and 1998 state champ Holly Wilson, her sister Allyson Wilson (11th), field hockey player Lauren Jumper (19th) and Monica Thomas.  Sophomore Caitlin McGroerty (3rd) paced Seaford.  Young Ursuline was third.
 DIVISION ONE BOYS – How long has it been since a team took 1-2-3?  How often does a runner have as much hair as his six teammates together?  Juniors Tom Lord, Ryan Hamill and Mike Zeberkiewicz, with P. J. Meany in seventh, led Salesianum to a 50-point margin in its 28th state title in 33 years.
 Lord, whose brilliant yellow leonine mane is as striking as his pace, blossomed from the junior varsity to the state's best in one year.  Fifth in the state last spring in the 800, second on his team for much of this fall, he has dominated on hilly and flat courses in winning the county and state meets.   Liam Corey, Sean Dececchis and Joe Donnelly also finished in the top 20 for Salesianum.  None are seniors.
 "They run the way they do because of how they do their workouts.  They push each other to be very strong.  They match against each other in races very well," said coach Ralph Heiss.  "You never know what's going to happen the day of the meet.  You have to perform."
 Jeremy Lambert (5th), Jeff Wilber (9) and Matt Ayers (14) led Middletown, the 1998 small-schools champion, to second in Division One.  Zak Golladay (8) led third-place St. Mark's.  Austin Knight (4) paced Newark to fourth.
 DIVISION TWO BOYS – Tatnall sophomore Kyle Kershner won his state championship by conserving his energy.  "I decided to go out slower in this race than I had before, because usually I burn myself out at the end and I get passed.
 "So I went out slow.  I had a point on the course where I was going to make my move, and when I made it, nobody came with me," said Kershner, who finished 20 seconds ahead (16:27) of Tower Hill's Carl Smith, who beat Kershner at the county meet. 
 New coaches have led to state champion runners at Tatnall (Patrick Castagno) and Tower Hill's girls (Bob Rutkowski, in his second season, after a successful run at St. Elizabeth).
 Cape Henlopen won its second team title in three years behind Nick Adams, who over the past two weeks progressed from fifth on his team to fourth in the state meet.  Peter McBride (3rd) and Rich Heffron (9) paced dethroned Archmere.  Luke Holbrook and defending state champion Chris Lucernoni (8) led third-place Wilmington Christian.
 "I figured it was going to be a one-point meet, literally, between first and third," said Cape coach Pat Pollock.   So he instructed his athletes to gun for Archmere.  "We were supposed to look for green uniforms and pass them," said Cape's Andrew Freeman.
 MISCELLANY – There was once a team that swept 1-2-3-4 at the state meet.  Bob King, Melvin Perry, Marvin Hackett, and Calvin Perry swept the top four for Howard in the single-division 1958 meet at Rockford Park.  Art Collins finished seventh for a team score of 17.  They will be honored later this month at the Delaware Track and Field Hall of Fame's annual induction banquet November 20 at the Brandywine Terrace.