WEEK IN REVIEW .... SEASON WRAP UP
This season was notable in a
number of ways, thankfully the great majority of which were
positive. Caesar Rodney's girls had terrific year from start to
finish, saving the best for last with a dominant State Meet
performance. Coach Charley Bell credits Jill Hajec with keeping
the team together mentally and physically. A philosophical change
in training tactics (less miles early) may have had an impact as well
...... Salesianum had a super year (not unusual) but did it with
no seniors in key positions (unusual) ..... four juniors on First Team
All State points to a potentially awesome 2002 ... Tommy Lord unique in
our experience for two reasons ..... can't remember a state individual
champ ever employing come-from-behind tactics to the extent this guy did
..... barely in top 30 at the mile in both Counties and States and
winning both races easily with some serious negative splits ..... How
good can he be? ... second reason for uniqueness too obvious to mention
(smile!) .... Lake Forest girls won the hotly contested Div 2 title and
the Spartans had to be proud of their effort. Veteran coach Jim
Blades knows that there's no substitute for great senior leadership
which Lena Ewing and Holly Wilson provided. .... Cape Henlopen boys ran
a determined team race and gained a hard-fought win over Archmere .....
season leader Matt Jackson's teammates came up huge when they had to
with an outstanding 24 second spread from 1 to 6
RANDOM THOUGHTS
For the second year in a row hot weather dominated all the way up to
States ...... almost rain-free Fall led to very hard ground and dusty
conditions which certainly effected times at Bellevue and may have made
it difficult for runners with breathing problems ...... the overall
times were not as good as were the times at the Bellevue Invitational
three weeks earlier ...... that Friday was perfect, too bad we can't
bottle that kind of weather ...... second best weather day all year
might have been Lake Forest Invitational ..... Maybe the time is here
for DSSAA Cross Country Committee to consider basing Division breakdowns
on previous year's attendance figures as opposed to using current year
Sept 30 numbers .... think all concerned would prefer to know where they
stood at start of season and not be in limbo waiting on last minute
changes ..... Many thanks to Rick Schuder for sharing his
photos with us ...... great job documenting both the Counties and States
.... Hope to see everybody at the banquet .....
WEEK IN REVIEW .... WEEK 9
10/29 to 11/3
Mon 10/29 ..... Catholic Conference at Bellevue ....
the Padua Pandas looked great in sweeping both the race and the
Conference crown, their first since 1990 ..... frosh Jessica Walsh was
2nd to lead the 2-3-4-6-8 ( 50 second) onslaught .. Beth Meany and Erin
Lord were 3-4 ...... St. Mark's Jacki Justison individual win and
Michelle Spadaro's 5th led the runner-up Spartans.....
Tues 10/30 ..... Kent County Champs at Milford HS .... Dover Boys
won this meet for the first time as their fine season continues....
Senator Charles Gibson won the title, edging out Chad Carpenter of the
home team .... no surprises on the girls side as CR won easily going
1-2-4-5-10 with Jill Hajec ahead by almost a minute ...... Sussex
County Meet at Redden State Forest near Georgetown .....
ever-improving Cape Henlopen boys, led by Matt Jackson, threw a shutout
with an 18 second pack ...... Caitlin McGroerty led Seaford girls to
victory with a solid win over consistent Rebecca Singh of Sussex Tech
.... Independent Conference Meet at Westtown School ..... home
team won both but Meredith Lambert and Kyle Kershner won both individual
titles for the Tatnall Hornets
Sat 11/3 ..... Henlopen Conference Meet At Killen's .... Cape
boys made it official as they knocked off top rival Dover to claim the
Conference title .... Matt Jackson won his 2nd title of the week as the
Vikings used 30 second spread effectively ..... top ranked Caesar Rodney
romped in the girls race as Jill Hajec also won her 2nd big race of the
week .....
New Castle County Championships at White Clay ..... Brandywine
Girls put 4 runners in the top 20 to edge out upstart Padua in a highly
competitive meet .... Meredith Lambert (Tat) weathered a strong early
push from Jessica Leitsch (Bry) to claim her 2nd straight title ......
9th graders ran 2-3-4 (Leitsch 2nd, Lisa Klein (TH) 3rd, Jackie
Reifschneider (AI) 4th ...... remarkable Jenn Kutney was 5th for the
Bulldogs while Leslie Wason (11), Hilary Taylor (13) and Dana
Stoltenborg (24) made it happen .... Padua, with no top 5 type runners,
ran very well and also placed 4 in the top 20 to narrow the gap between
themselves and Brandywine ..... Charter School had possibly the best day
in their short history, edging out St. Mark's for the 3rd spot, despite
having nobody in the top 20 ..... strong pack got it done .... if there
was an award for "Most Improved" Dickinson's Brittany Turner
would be a shoo-in .... Ashley Kelso of Mt Pleasant had a great day
...... Salesianum got another fine performance from their
junior-dominated squad, going 1-3-4-8-16 with a 34 second spread
...Tommy Lord's racing tactics may be unorthodox but he runs with
amazing confidence .... finally caught Peter McBride (Arch) and teammate
Ryan Hamill with about an 800 to go and pulled away easily .....
consistent Mike Zeberkiewicz 4th for Sals .... Archmere got 2nd in their
best County finish ever ..... AI DuPont had their best race of the year
as their "Big 3" made All County
WEEK IN REVIEW .... WEEK 8
10/22 to 10/27
Last week for dual meets was busy ..... St. Andrew's Invitational last
Saturday drew a number of Independent/ First State teams .... Nick
Kinney of the host school led his team to 3 dual wins while Carl Smith
of Tower Hill was an easy individual winner ..... Tues 10/23 ....
Good news, Bad news day for Hodgson's girls team ...... made it into NJ
Top 10 for first time ever off fine showing at Bellevue Inv, then got
knocked off by unranked McKean at Lum's .... Dependable Ashley Whitesell
won it but Highlanders depth (Stille, Frangakis, Smathers, Keszeta,
Fokas) too much .... McKean follows "path less taken" and are
underrated ..... Lisa Klein (TH) sizzled a 19:40 at Bellevue ..... Chris
Lucernoni appears to be regaining form at the right time as he led WCS
to win over Hillers at Bellevue ...... Marco Cabrera of Red Lion had
super win in tight loss to TH boys ..... McKean boys edged Hodgson
behind Matt Orensky at Lum's ...... The mini-heat wave peaked on Wed
10/24 with 85 degree temps around the state ...... The Big Focus was
on Blackbird State Forest outside Smyrna, site of Henlopen Conference
title deciding clash between Dover and Cape .... neutral site race saw
Cape come out on top 23-32 .... Matt Jackson edged Charles Gibson for
the win as Vikings went 1-3-4-7-8 with 49 second spread to nail it down
...Senators tough in defeat .... Caesar Rodney girls wrapped up
undefeated conference title with 19-38 win over previously undefeated
Lake Forest .... No.1 Sallies turned back rival St. Mark's at BCSP
with 27 sec 1 to 5 spread .... Tommy Lord passed Chad Darlington in the
last 800 to record the win .... Fri 10/26 .... Bellevue the site
for first official Diamond State Conference Meet ..... Archmere boys won
as expected but Chris Lucernoni surprised Peter McBride 16:53 to 16:55
..... cool weather returned and the times reflected it ...... Auks 53
second spread impressive ... Congrats to Thomas More girls who notched
first conference title .... results
...... Sat 10/27 ..... BLUE HEN CONFERENCE MEET at White Clay .....
Consistent Matt Ayars came up big as Cavs won the boys race on a cool
and windy day over improving Newark and Flight A Champ AI Dupont ....
good to see Jeff Wilber back in action for Middletown ...... longshots
Peter Roth (AI) and Pat Wilcox (New) ran 2-3 ..... girls race more
formful as Brandywine won for 8th consecutive year .... Leitsch, Kutney,
Hillary Taylor (20:28 !) 1-2-4 ..... Middletown a solid 2nd behind Fose,
Billings and resurgent Sammi Nimmerichter (21:23) ...
WEEK IN REVIEW .... WEEK 7
10/15 TO 10/20
Mon 10/15 ..... Delcastle girls won their first of the season at
Bellevue over WP despite Rebekah Arwine-Lind's first place finish ....
Dickinson also won their 1st conference meet, defeating Concord at home
(did the Rams have 5 finishers in this one?....hope so..) .... Tues
10/16 ...interesting triangular at Rockford as Tower Hill took on
Archmere and Tatnall .... Kyle Kershner began a very solid week with
wins over Hiller's Carl Smith and the Archmere guys .....Tower Hill
girls won both led by Lisa Klein and Julie Pike and a solid top 5 ....
Meredith Lambert set another CR at Rockford .... are the Hillers Div 2
contenders? .... maybe.....Wed 10/17 ..... busy day.....Flight A
squads on M-W dual meet schedule ...... Brandywine girls racked up their
8th consecutive Conference title with a 6-way tie for first against
Glasgow at White Clay .... Downstate Lake Forest and CR both knocked off
Cape at the beach ..... Lena Ewing (having a fine year) and Jill Hajec
led their teams ...... on the boys side, a young Smyrna team celebrated
wins over Seaford and SC at Shuttie Park .... Cape boys really coming to
life .... 45 sec 1 to 5 split as they Slam Dunked Lake and CR at The
Beach ..... Dover-Cape showdown must be this week...When? Where?....
Peter Roth, emerging as top guy at AI, won his 2nd dual of the week
..... Concord boys defeated Glasgow in a battle of previously winless
squads ..... congrats to Concord's young coach who has his team hustling
and enthusiastic .... Fri 10/19 ... BELLEVUE
INVITATIONAL .... perfect conditions ...possibly the fastest race
ever at the course as at least 58 guys broke 18:00 and 25 girls got in
under 21:00 ...... Peter McBride's 16:37 led the Auks to a very nice win
over a 24 team field, drawn by the chance to run over the State meet
course .... Sals depth never more obvious as "B" team finished
2nd ahead of instant Division 2 contender Cape Henlopen ..... St Mark's
had two guys in top 10 but couldn't threaten the top 3 .... Kyle
Kershner of Tatnall led a long way before grudgingly giving way to
fellow soph McBride ... Pat Lampkin rebounded from 16th place finish at
UD to finish 3rd, helping Charter to fine 5th place .... Dover 6th led
by emerging leader Charles Gibson ..... Liam Corey's 16:59 led Sallies
...... Heavyweight Contenders Caesar Rodney and Brandywine went after
each other again with CR coming out on top by 7 points.... both
ran very well but 8-9-10 finish by Kashante Codner, Liz Paul and Kasheka
Codner too much for Bulldogs to overcome ...CR's 5th runner was 27th,
close to 21:00 ..... B'wine (running 3rd time in 5 days) had plenty of
reason for optimism though as 9th grader Jessica Leitsch (19:13) won
individual honors, stunning previously unbeaten Meredith Lambert with a
big kick in the last 100 yards .... Jenn Kutney had a rough week but grabbed 5th ..... consistent Jill Hajec (CR) a fine third (19:27)
.... AI Frosh Jackie Reifschneider outstanding 4th(19:49)... Lydia
Singer broke 20:00 minute barrier for WCS .... Padua 3rd and
still in the picture, led by stalwart senior Erin Lord ..... St. Mark's
was 4th and got fine performances from Michelle Spadaro and Nora Miller
.... Middletown (no Ealer or Billings) a very respectable 5th, led by
dependable Jen Fose ...... hope to have full results very soon
Sat 10/20 ..... Sallies 5th at Eastern States meet in NYC ......
How will the switch of Charter and Cape effect the championships this year? The biggest impact could be in division 2 Boys where Cape, led by Matt Jackson (16:49, 4th, Bellevue), is clearly a late blooming squad and could be a major threat to Archmere. However, the Auks show no signs of easing up at all and might welcome a serious challenge. The Charter School girls had a definite shot in wide open Division 2 race, especially if injured frosh standout Colleen McCarthy can return ....... will be in a tough spot in Div 1 ..... Cape girls were a long shot as Div 1 team but now become one of several possibles for Div 2 crown .... also put seldom seen Tower Hill in the mix ..... not running in either UD or Bellevue makes it difficult to judge but potential is there.
WEEK 6
10/8 -10/13
Monday's only action was at White Clay as the 3 Christina District
Schools took part in the annual Christina Cup Meet ..... Newark grabbed
the first 5 in boys led by Austin Knight's 17:46 ..... Chris Simpson
paced Christiana over Glasgow ..... The Girls match was much closer as
The Vikings edged the Jackets 26-29 ...Enya Spence won it but Amberlie
Wheeler led a deeper Christiana team to victory ...... Great
weather continued on Tues 10/9 ...... Brandywine hosted St.
Mark's in a top 5 clash at BCSP ..... Kutney and Leitsch looked
great, running hard in a 20:40 tie ..... key to meet though was Hilary
Taylor's 21:49 4th place finish knocking 30 secs off Sals Inv time ...
frosh Dana Stoltenborg emerging for 'Dogs ..... Spartans ran well in a
very fast race .... top 10 times would have been All-County last year
.....Ashley Kelso led Mount over Concord at the Creek .... Kyle Kershner
back in action for Tatnall as Hornets turned back Westtown .....
Brandywine boys split defeating Wm Penn while losing to St. Mark's and
showed a solid top 3 .... Tyler Mayforth edged John Carter as Mt
Pleasant nipped Concord .... Wed 10/10 .... Big Downstate
individual matchup saw Matt Jackson of Cape edge Chad Carpenter of
Milford to pace a Cape win ..... Sals beat Middletown at Lum's but the
Cavs put 5 in top 10 in a very strong showing .... first 10 runners in
54 seconds .... Archmere had to hold their breath as B team edged
Caravel 27-29 at Bellevue..... Isbert and Juno went 1-2 for Bucs ....
Matt Orensky set course record at Brandywine Springs but McKean fell to
AI's greater depth .... Dover shut out both Smyrna and Sussex Tech at
Shuttie Park....on the girls side, in reverse of boys race, McKean's
depth too much for AI despite frosh Jackie Reifschneider's win ....
Charter's depth once again the key as Force edged Hodgson whose Ashley
Whitesell and Howell went 1-3 .... Cape and Dover girls both won 2 but
Rebecca Singh (ST) and Amy Mallamo (MLF) recorded the firsts
Fri 10/12 .... University of Delaware Invitational .....
hot weather returned for this one ..... Sallies 26 beat the rest of the
field if scored as a dual meet ..... Tom Lord beat teammates Meany and
Zeberkiewicz for the individual win ..... Archmere (no McBride) edged
St.Mark's by 1 point and on-rushing Dover by 6 for second .....
Brandywine girls rock solid winner over St. Mark's by 11 .... Padua
3rd.... wish I had more details on this meet (soon I hope) but do know
that Brittany Turner of Dickinson had sensational top 10 finish .....
guess who individual winner was? ... you got it! Meredith Lambert of
Tatnall ....The Perfect Season continues .....
RANDOM THOUGHTS
Division assignments should be out any week now for this year's
State Meet.....Don't blame DSSAA ..... some school districts take
far too long to supply the info.... Nice to see Dover boys enjoying best
season since 1972 .... WTG Coach Jim Solomon ...... Wish I liked new
course at White Clay better ..... old design was so much better for all
concerned .... change was at insistence of park officials who wanted
whole field to park cars on big meet days .... then tell us we can't
have as many big meets as we need.... Hello Bellevue for States this
year....Catch 22? .... wish I'd get more response to our essay questions
....c'mon you guys and girls ..... share those funny stories ...very
glad to see Chuck Durante back covering XC for papers ..... new Sals Inv
story with upstate angle ..... click
here
WEEK 5
Sallies Invitational Recap ...... Boys
"A" .... Sallies only DE team involved and they
ran very well ....PJ Meany had fastest DE time of day and
Tom Lord also broke 18:00 ..... 6th runner under 18:20
...clearly the team to beat .... losing to LaSalle High
from Philly and West Springfield no disgrace as these 2 have
been dominant programs forever ..... Boys "B"
..... lotsa home teams in action here but none in top 4 ....
Middletown solid 5th led by Ayars and a tight pack nosed out St
Mark's for teeshirts despite fine runs by Chad Darlington (1743,
2nd DE) and Zak Golladay ..... Matt Jackson's excellent run led
Cape to a fine 7th place finish ahead of Conference rivals Dover
and CR ..... Boys "C" ..... Archmere put 4 guys
in top 20 to grab 2nd place, one spot above main Div 2 rival
Wilmington Christian who also ran exceptionally well .... these
teams appear very closely matched through 3 runners with Auks
currently enjoying slight edge at 4 and 5 ..... 5 weeks to
go...!?! .... Chad Carpenter medaled for Milford and is enjoying
fine year so far
Girls "A" .... North Penn won here for the
umpteenth year in a row ... St Mark's lone DE school ran okay
but were in a tough spot here ...... Girls "B"
...... big race for the local teams .... Brandywine looked great
in winning led by Jenn Kutney who runs "The Creek"
with supreme confidence ..... Padua's pack came through as the
Pandas got 3rd led by Jessica Walsh in 15th ......
Jill Hajec continues her remarkable return from injuries,
winning easily in 20:42 .... Freshman Paul also ran well to lead
CR to 4th place ..... Codner sisters chose soccer this weekend
..... Middletown was 5th and got good efforts from Ealer and
Fose ...individually Caitlin McGroerty (Seaf) and Jaclyn
Reifschneider (AI) won medals ...... Girls "C"
..... Tatnall's Meredith Lambert 's 19:54 2nd best time of day
and easily DE best ..... a shame she couldn't have run
against "A" winner Kelly Swain from VA ....
Merion Mercy crushed the field here .... Ursuline notched a very
competitive 3rd place
Earlier in the Week: ..... Biggest action of
the week was in Salisbury MD on Wed at the Tidewater Classic
..... Big Congrats to Milford's Boys who won the 24 team
event led by individual winner Chad Carpenter
(17:24)...Mike Hazeltine (17:27) of Lake Forest runner-up ....
Lake girls ran second of 22 teams and saw Lena Ewing record a
big win in 20:43... Amy Mallamo of Mlf was 4th and Amberlie
Wheeler of Christiana 7th ...... in dual meet action .... St
Thomas More celebrated a victory over Polytech as Galligher,
Hall and Letneuchyn went 1-2-3 .....Padua vitually clinched the
Catholic Conference title with victory over Ursuline at the
Creek .... nice to see Red Lion Christian getting underway under
coach Joe Feeley (former Claymont standout) who's assisted by
his brother Jim who ran 4th in state meet as senior at St Mark's
WEEK 4
9/25 ... Sallies started off what would be an excellent
week with whitewash of Brandywine at The Creek ....38 seconds 1
thru 7 ..... Carl Smith emerging as top guy at Tower Hill won at
White Clay as Hillers and Wm Penn defeated out-manned Glasgow
....Newark beat McKean at very rough and hilly Brandywine
Springs despite Matt Orensky's 18:06 win ..... a strong
pack along with Mandy Stille's win led McKean girls over Newark
..... Brandywine had solid top 5 in win over Christiana ....
Glasgow girls celebrated a win over WP paced by Alicia Wilson's
fine run while Tower Hill frosh Lisa Klein zoomed 21:12 at White
Clay
9/26 .....nice cool day for a change .....
St. Mark's held off Wilm Christian in a tight meet at White Clay
...Darlington and Golladay led the Spartans .... first-ever dual
meet between the two teams ... Dentil-Post and Lampkin strong
1-2 for Charter while Joe Barry led Middletown as both racked up
some more dual meet wins .....Flight B showdown coming Friday
between the 2... Auks jogged over Sanford At BCSP ..... Dover
continued winning ways with big victory over Lake Forest .....
Ursuline, led by Julie Taylor, recorded a Catholic Conf win over
Archmere ...... Senior Colleen Reid led the way as Padua beat
St. Eliz at Bellevue
9/28 ..... Three big meets with Conference championship
implications .... In Boys Flight B ...Middletown's depth proved
the difference as Lambert, Bramwell and Carlson went 5-6-7 to
seal win over main rival Charter... nice 51 second spread for
Cavs ..... Jen Fose (20:09) edged teammate Katelyn Ealer (20:12)
to lead M'town girls to relatively easy 20- 35 over CSW at
friendly Lum's Pond .... at Bellevue Padua defeated St. Mark's
by virtue of tiebreaker as 6th runner Sarah McCartan made the
crucial difference .... very fast race with top 5 under 21, top
8 in 21:10 and top 12 under 22.... Jacki Justison led Spartans
... Jessica Walsh and Erin Lord spearheaded strong team effort
for Pandas ...congrats to Caravel Bucs who recorded win over Mt
Pleasant and to the Smyrna Eagles won notched 2 wins in boys
action Blackbird State Forest .... Meredith set course
record (another!) at St Andrew's ... Tower Hill girls had big
win vs conference rival Westtown at Rockford
9/29 .... a number of DE teams raced at the Bulldog
Invitational at Rose Creek Park near Media ....
Salesianum was outstanding, winning the Large school race with
73 points, going 7-9-13-14-30 with Meany, Lord, Hamill and
Zeberkiewicz seperated by only 17 secs .... Jessica Leitsch 3rd
in 19:27 to spark Brandywine to 6th place finish in a strong
that included North Penn and O'Hara .... Jenn Kutney also good
in 20:25 on a course that's comparable to Bellevue timewise ....Ursuline
and AI also involved but no details yet
WEEK 3
Actually week and a half
..... WED 9/12 .... Big 4 way at White Clay ..... AI boys
got major grip on Flight A title, winning 28-29 squeaker over
Newark with Hakes and Lanigan looking very strong and Roth and
Koellhoffer getting the job done ..... St. Mark's boys ran well
and notched wins over these 2 plus Flight B favorite Middletown
.... Chad Darlington and Zak Golladay led the Spartans while
Steve Blanco and Matt Ayars sparked the Cavs ..... On the Girls
side ....Spartans won all duals including very close match with
Middletown decided by 6th runner Michelle Spadaro ...... Katelyn
Ealer's sensational 20:38 for Mid smoked everybody ....
Downstate big news was Dover boys 23-32 win over perennial
Henlopen power CR ..... Gibson, Worley and Boyle went 1-2-3 to
lead Coach Solomon's Senators ..... been a while since this
happened ..... anybody know when? ..... Wilm Christian went
downstate and beat Milford and Smyrna despite fine run by Chad
Carpenter of Mlf ....... MON 9/17 ..... Sallies
impressive at Creek in win over AI with 18 sec spread 1 to 5
.... Meany emerging as leader .... Julie Taylor led Ursuline
over AI ..... TUES 9/18 .... Big doings at Bellevue
in meet involving Charter, Mt Pleasant, Archmere, Tatnall and
Padua ... Archmere Girls scored against everybody, winning
3 but lost Catholic Conference match with Padua ... Frosh
Walsh(21:00) and Cleary (21:02) led Pandas who's top 6
under 22:00 ..2 other 9th graders in top 7 .... Lambert 19:35
day's top time .... WED 9/19 .... Nice win at Killens for
Milford boys over host Lake ... Christiana looked good in shut
out of Delcastle .... Middletown knocked off Dickinson at
Carousal but Rams showing signs of improvement ..... St Eliz
transfer Brittany Turner running very well for Dkn ....
Dickinson girls 18 - 27 over Caravel ...??? hmmm ....... THURS
9/20 ...pouring rainy day.... only action at White Clay
where Brandywine and Newark split .... Rob Netta led NHS boys to
victory while Leitsch and Kutney ran 21:13 in bad conditions for
BRY ...... FRI 9/21 ..... Middletown Invitational
at Lum's Pond ..... Cavs defeated main Flight B rival Charter in
both and nosed out AI by 2 points in tight boys race
...... Pat Lampkin emerging as star at Charter won on a very hot
and humid day ....Pete Roth key guy for AI ..... Meredith
Lambert continued undefeated, breezing to win in excellent 19:17
.... Ealer off to fine XC start second .... Lambert and Kyle
Kershner of Tatnall won Twosome Trophy ..... Archmere boys
looked like men on a mission at White Clay, routing St Mark's
19-36 ... Heffron actually ran faster that at LFI ..... Auks
seem tough and focused ..... Jacki Justison 21:06 led Spartan
girls .....
Leftover from 9/22 ....BULL RUN at Hereford MD saw several DE teams in action...
Four Divisions...Elite, Large, Medium, Small....Newark boys
impressive in large school division finishing 2nd of 25 teams
led by Austin Knight 18:04 over very tough and hilly 3.0 mile
course that people in MD think is toughest course around .....
we know better .... still tough though .... Enya Spence's 15th
led 'Jacket girls to 16th place finish in big field .....
Caitlyn McGroerty was 4th in Small Div and led Seaford to 6th
place... Seaford boys and Christiana also took part
RANDOM THOUGHTS
State Park Woes ...... daily admission charges through September
???? what next? Hope everybody puts money in box when they
don't feel like paying somebody to collect fees at gate ....
Maybe we can use as deduction on DE taxes ??? ... LOL
..... not just XC either ..... won't let soccer be played at
Baynard anymore ..... huge increase in insurance related
red tape to use Baynard for football and track too
LAKE
FOREST INVITATIONAL
Saturday 9/15 ....Great
day to run.... Things got off to fine start with outstanding
rendition of National Anthem and Moment of Silence..... sunny,
cool, no humidity......times significantly faster than
last year... all varsity races highly competitive .... Meredith
Lambert knocked 10 secs off course record and, based on first 2
weeks, appears headed for sensational year.... Div B girls
team title to first year team from Maryvale Prep (MD) but Lake
Forest (110), Seaford (115) and Charter (117) went 2-3-4 .......
Division 2 Race will be HOT this year ....... Lydia Singer
(WCS), Caitlyn McGroerty (Sea) and Frosh Lisa Klein (TH) all
broke 21:00.....Div A Girls ...Last year's CYO champ
Jessica Leitsch of Brandywine got off to outstanding start in
her first big HS race edging out Jill Hajec of CR 19:47 to 19:48
..... the two covered the last mile side by side until they they
turned for home with 400 to go at which point Leitsch surged and
appeared a sure winner ..... however she went sailing off to the
left for at least 50 yards and had to straighten out but still
had enough to prevail ....an impressive debut ..... Division 1
team race should be fun also..... CR nipped Brandywine 71 to 72
while St Mark's, Padua and Middletown remain within sight ....
Full results not available yet but it appears CR went
2-10-13-15-31 while the Bulldogs finished 1-6-12- ?-? (comb 53)
...At least 30 girls broke 22:00 in this race including all St
Mark's and Paduas top 5's... Jacki Justison (StM) and Katelyn
Ealer (Mid) had excellent
days ......top 12 under 21:00 ..... Wow ! 12th place last
year 22:08
As anticipated Div B Boys race came
down to Archmere and Wilm Christian with the Auks coming out on
top this time...... Peter McBride's individual championship set
the tone as team went 1-5-13-14-22 .... WCS
went 7-8-11-20-21 ... These two teams are very
close and time will tell...Charter appears to be only other Div
2 close enough to mount challenge but it's very early
Out of State schools dominated Div A Boys race with Good
Counsel (MD) ranked 4th Northeast by Harrier magazine edging
Salesianum by 12 points ..... PJ Meany had fastest Delaware time
of day 16:53 to lead Sals who went 5-9-11-?? (comb 41) in solid
team showing with at least top 4 under 17:20 ....Chad
Darlington, 2nd fastest Delaware guy (16:56), led St. Mark's to
6th place finish ..... Matt Jackson of Cape posted fastest
Downstate time while Dover showed major improvement with 7th
place finish overall, 3rd among Delaware schools
AND THEY'RE OFF !!!
Opening Weekend
Friday 9/7
...... Hot and steamy, (What else?) The first dual meets are in
the book even if they didn't all make the NJ ..... At White Clay
Charter defeated Christiana ..Pat Lampkin was impressive for the
Force as was frosh Colleen McCarthy (22:02) ...Charter girls are
deep ..... Track star Mandy Stille led McKean over Dickinson in
her first xc meet .... Enya Spence won battle of all county
prospects over Ashley Whitesell as Newark edged Hodgson ....
Austin Knight opened his senior year with win in boys race .....
Delcastle and Glasgow split in battle of teams hoping to move
back into contention... Hakes and Lanigan led AI to
victory at The Creek
Saturday 9/8 ...... Very hot weather and early
competition ...... Goucher Invitational in Baltimore ....
revised course, legit 3.1 now....... Meredith Lambert 2nd in
sizzling 19:40 ..... CR girls outstanding 3rd place (Hajec 9,
20:45, Ke. Codner 20, 21:26, frosh Elizabeth Paul 22, 21:40, Ka.
Codner 29, 22:07, frosh Natalie Robbins 55, 23:26) average 21:53
.....Padua 7th with solid pack that included freshmen Cleary and
McCartan ...... St Mark's 8th led by frosh Liz Rohrbach ......
Julie Taylor led Ursuline to 13 th place ...Tatnall 14th .....
Uh oh...frosh popping up everywhere!
St. Mark's boys respectable 4th led by Chad Darlington 12th,
17:49 ...... CR 9th and Dover 10th with Patrick Boyle showing
promise (23rd) ...23 teams in boys race...20 in girls