County Cross Country Championships
By: Lindy Stetson
GAITHERSBURG, MD - The frost advisory and coldest temperatures since May hardly slowed down Anna Ryba, the junior from Walt Whitman High School, or the rest of the Walt Whitman team on Saturday morning in the Montgomery Country Cross Country Championships at Gaithersburg High School. Walt Whitman voted first in the Coach's poll this week according to mocorunning.com, won the meet with forty-five points, Northwest placed second (71 points), and Thomas Wootten High School finished third (128 points) respectively.
Ryba, set not only a personal record but also set a new time for the Mocorunning.com leader board with a finishing the mostly flat 5,000 meter course in 18 minutes, 27.16 seconds. She crossed the finish line, before teammate and runner-up junior Alex Phillips, by 27 seconds (18:54).
Vikings coach Steve Hays said, "she hasn't figured out her potential yet... She's used to running behind the frontrunners, but today, she was amazing." She will compete for another first place finish at the Class 4A West Region meet on November 4.
Ryba, Phillips, Caroline Guiot (19:51.59, ninth), Caroline Elmendorf (19:59.26, 11th) and Laura Elmendorf (20:27.08, 22nd) all placed in the top-22 to give the Vikings the team with (45 points).
Clarksburg's Abbey Daley (18:59), Walter Johnson's Anna Bosse (19:09) and Bethesda-Chevy Chase's Ava Farrell (19:15) finished out the top-5 individual performers.
The County Championship Boy's race was tightly bunched from beginning to end. After the first half mile before heading into the woods the top 20 runners were separated by only tenth's of seconds. But by the last 1,000 meters Northwest senior Chris Miller pulled away finishing in 15 minutes and 37 seconds.
"I relaxed in the beginning because I knew I'd probably have to kick it in gear at the end, and I didn't want to die before I finished," Miller said.
It was a good thing Miller had that extra "gear" in the end because Walter Johnson's Alex Willet (15:42.93) and Nick Regan (15:43.81) were strides behind and that the two mile mark were hot on his heals behind by less then a second.
Willet's and Regan's 2nd & 3rd finish led the Wildcats to their third consecutive county title scoring 74 points. Josh Ellis (16:29, 15th), Scott Sheehan (16:31, 16th), and Ben Crites (16:57, 28th) all scored in the Wildcats victory. Walter Johnson's victory came over county rivals Winston Churchill (111 points) and Sherwood High School (125 points).
The top-5 was rounded out by Sherwood's Kyle Tockman (15:52), Richard Montgomery's Sam Martin (15:58). Conor Spaulding of Quince Orchard also finished under 16 minutes (15:59).
