Brooks third at state meet
By Chuck Durante, Special to the Delaware State News

MONTCHANIN — With a gallant burst up the final hill of Brandywine Creek State Park, Caesar Rodney junior Jesse Brooks snared third place in the Division One cross country state championships Saturday, possibly earning a position on the all-state team.

On a brilliant, 60-degree day when Tatnall cemented its position as the state’s leading cross country power — winning Division Two boys and girls a week after sweeping their rivals in the one-division New Castle County meet — upstate schools ruled.

Salesianum and Padua repeated as Division One titlists. Several Downstate schools led the second tier. In Division One, Caesar Rodney’s boys were fourth, the girls sixth. In Division Two, Cape’s girls were fifth, St. Andrew’s boys fourth and Milford sixth.

If life is unfair, Brandywine Creek’s cross country course is a perfect metaphor. The course heads uphill more than downhill, ending perhaps 50 feet higher than the starting line. Downstate runners have conquered it — Steve Dunham, Jay Reed, Lance White, Mark Tozer, Cindy Price, Michelle Gale, Taiwan Savage, Kristie Hertz, Dana Young, Matt Wright, Jill Hajec and Charles Gibson won state championships there — but face extra challenges, since no similar hills exist on Delmarva.

Subtract at least 30 seconds to figure what a runner would have done at Killens Pond.

Brooks, a sinewy junior, has blossomed this fall, winning the Henlopen (by 38 seconds) and Kent County titles, and finishing in the top seven in all four major statewide meets — Lake Forest, Salesianum, University of Delaware and Bellevue.

“This is the first time I’ve been tired after a race,” said Brooks. “I relaxed the first mile. I held on during the second mile. The last mile is when I starting pushing it.”

Brooks is another example why Charles Bell remains an irreplaceable resource in his 26th year as Rider coach after a decade coaching Dover Air High School. Bell invited Brooks, as he does many ninth-graders, to try cross country. Brooks, whose family moved to Dover in part because of CR’s academic reputation, had never considered the sport. “Are you sure?” Bell recalls Brooks reaction.

Brooks was Caesar Rodney’s 10th runner as a freshman, the captain as a sophomore. After winning the Henlopen Conference mile (4:37) and finishing fourth at the state meet, he undertook a summer workout regimen that made him the scourge of the conference.

“He’s a very hard worker, a quiet leader, very focused and a good student,” says Bell.

Brooks’ remaining challenge: Salesianum junior Dominic DellaPelle, who won Division One in 16:45, some 42 seconds ahead of Brooks, and three seconds ahead of Division Two winner and New Castle County champion Brian Sklodowski of Tatnall.

Danielle Riley of Lake Forest (7th) and Cape Henlopen’s Jennifer Betts (9th) were the only runners outside the Independent Conference to crack the top 12 in Division Two girls. The race’s top six mirrored the results at last week’s Independent Conference meet.

Riley, the Henlopen Conference and Kent County champion, led for the first half-mile, stayed near the leaders through the first two miles, and finished strong, her 21:21.11 the top Downstate time.

“The hills are so different from the courses downstate,” said Riley. “It doesn’t even feel like you are in Delaware.”

Betts was “very, very surprised” with her top-10 finish.

“I tried to roll on the downhills,” said the Cape junior. “It was such good weather, brisk, not too windy, just perfect.”

The record books will say that Katie Kershner of Tatnall won the race, but she crossed the finish contemporaneously with her teammates Annie Castagno and Juliet Bottorff. The only senior in the top 10 was a first-year runner, Sydney Scott of Tower Hill (4th).

St. Andrew’s finished fourth, with four runners in the top 25, including Jess Siprelle (10th).

Anna Brousell of Brandywine, perhaps the most dominant runner in Delaware history, lapped the field for her third straight Division One championship. Her 19:03, fastest ever by a Delawarean, was a full minute ahead of runner-up Jen Watunya of Padua.

The coaches’ award panel will undoubtedly make Brousell the first runner to be voted the state’s runner of the year three times.

Caesar Rodney’s Melina Schlecht finished ninth, climbing from 18th, despite bronchitis, leaving behind her frustrations at the Kent (4th) and Henlopen (7th) races.

“I really wanted to get into the top 15, so from the bottom of the hill [Maintenance Hill, the course’s sternest test], I just started picking people off,” including Dover’s Sarah Taylor (15th).

Lake Forest’s Teddy Bobola (11th) and Milford’s Elizabeth Butterly (14th) also cracked the top 15 in their races.