2016 White Clay Creek Classic (Review)

NOTE: For the purpose of this review, the graduation years for the runners have been omitted as they are implied given the race in which they competed.

Full race results and times can be found here.

Round Two of Red Lion's 2016 Cross-Country season brought the team to White Clay Creek State Park in Newark, Delaware for the running of the 2016 WCC Classic. The meet was different from a traditional high school race in that the field was divided by grade due to the high number of students and teams competing. Scoring was also different; rather than each runner receiving one point per finishing position, the top 20 runners in each race scored points for their teams, with the winner scoring 20 and each successive runner scoring one fewer, ending with 20th scoring one point.

Race One featured the Freshman Girls and Boys, with Sarah Donaldson and Connor Hessler (both St. Mark's) winning with times of 21:11.22 and 18:06.85 respectively. Mae Willis finished the Girls' race in 29th for Red Lion, with Katie Rippon in 41st and Sarah Zhu just behind in 43rd. In the Boys' race, Weston Marshall just missed out on scoring points, finishing in 21st with a time of 20:29.69. Ryan Silver, Jesse (Boyang) Ma, and Marc Sherman followed in 68th, 78th, and 82nd.

Joshua Deitrich was the lone Boys runner to score 
points for the team (Photo: RLCA Facebook)

The Sophomores ran Race Two, which was won by Naomi Dawkins (Newark) and Connor Nisbet (Wilmington Friends) with respective times of 20:00.58 and 16:30.66. Katelyn Walker finished the Girls' race in 72nd, while Zoe Wilcox followed in 89th. Joshua Deitrich was Red Lion's only Boys runner to finish in the points among all four grades, placing 18th in 18:32.27 and claiming three valuable points for the team. Spencer Armstrong and Micah Pope followed in 64th and 94th respectively.

Josita Marshall and Jessie Silver both finished
in the points (Photo: RLCA Facebook)

Race Three saw the Juniors take to the course and Red Lion's Girls team did not disappoint. Lydia Olivere (Padua) won the race (17:54.24), while Josita Marshall and Jessica Silver ran times of 22:57.84 and 23:04.47, good enough for 12th and 14th and 16 total points for Red Lion. Varsity Girls' Captain Naomi Mengel followed in 37th in only the second race of her career, while Alternate Girls' Captain Anna Teather placed 56th. In the Boys' race, Jonah Lane (Severna Park) finished in 16:33.93 to take the victory, while Luke Sherman, Nick Yu, and Brandan Leauby represented the Lions in 85th, 107th, 110th respectively.

Race Four featured the Senior Girls and Boys, with Padua's Maddie Olivere (20:00.63) and Smyrna's Tosin Ibironke (16:53.55) picking up the victories. The Girls' Race did not feature any Red Lion runners; Alternate Boys' Captain Noah Pfenninger led the way for the Senior Boys' team, finishing 43rd with a time of 20:06.90. Following Pfenninger were Varsity Boys' Captain Benjamin Schneider, Calvin Pozsonyi, and Jonathan Huey, placing 53rd, 59th, and 108th. Huey's time of 28:47.80 is also notable as it marked his fastest ever time for a 5K race.

Of the 23 Girls teams that scored, Red Lion's 16 points earned the team 14th place in the Girls' team rankings, while Deitrich's three points for the Boys put Red Lion in a tie for 19th in the Boys' team rankings.

2016 Maryland Track and Trail (Review)

Bohemia Manor High School, Perryview High School, and Elkton High School hosted the 2016 Maryland Track and Trail Invitational at Fair Hill Race Track this past Saturday. The race marked Red Lion Christian Academy's first official Varsity meet of the season, with both the Girls' and Boys' teams running in the Small School division.

The Girls' race was won by Julien Webster ('17) of Catoctin High School, who blew away the rest of the field, winning by over a minute and a half with a time of 19:16.3. Her teammate, Lillie Perella, finished in second coming in at 20:48.3.

Red Lion's Cross Country team after their first meet of the 
season (Photo: RLCA Facebook)

Jessie Silver ('18) performed the best among Red Lion's Varsity Girls team, finishing in 29th (only four spots shy of a top 25 medal) with a time of 25:10.9. Josita Marshall ('18) and Mae Willis ('20) followed with respective times of 26:16.9 and 26:22.8. Team Captain Naomi Mengel ('18) finished 74th in her debut race (28:33.4), while Alternate Captain Anna Teather ('18) finished 83rd (29:09.7). A total of 108 runners entered the race.

Sarah Zhu ('20) finished the race in 88th in just over 30 minutes; however, she collapsed after the race due to heat exhaustion and was taken to a local hospital for precautionary measures. Zhu was released later that same evening and returned to practice today as a full participant.

On the Boys' side, Devon Caples of Winters Mill High School won the race with a time of 17:19.4. Red Lion's top male runner, Joshua Deitrich ('19), finished eighth in 18:19.7, earning the only top 25 medal for the team. Weston Marshall ('20) followed Deitrich in 40th (20:00.6); Alternate Captain Noah Pfenninger ('17) finished 57th with a time of 20:56.7, while Captain Benjamin Schneider ('17) came in 74th at 21:59.2. A total of 137 runners comprised the field for the race.

As teams, Red Lion's Girls finished ninth of 14 teams with a score of 256, while the Boys finished tenth of 15 teams with a score of 266.

Links to full race results can be found here.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I apologize for the delay in getting this post up. The weekend was really busy for me and I had other tasks that took priority over this. 

Also, shoutout to everyone who reads this blog. It's not even the middle of September and we are already approaching 1,000 page views and even have our first official Google+ "follower" (thanks Mr. Finch!). I owe a big thank you to everyone who is making this project worthwhile for me and for the team, and I hope you will continue to check in to see how our season is going.

Thanks again!

Benjamin Schneider

Where are they now?: David Walczak

David Walczak (third from left) is currently running
collegiately for Gordon College.
(Photo: Instagram (dav.wal))

A former two-year captain of Tall Oaks Classical School's cross-country team, David Walczak ('16) is currently enjoying life as a freshman at Gordon College in Massachusetts. Walczak ran for Tall Oaks' Varsity Boys' team for five years, with his best season (statistically) coming in 2013, highlighted by a second-place finish in a home race against West Nottingham Academy at the team's then-home course, Iron Hill. He also holds the distinction of being the final Varsity Boys' team captain for Tall Oaks during the Titan era.

Walczak's experience in cross-country has suited him well in college so far, as he competed in his first collegiate race for Gordon yesterday. "I'm very thankful for a strong team that has pushed me this far," Walczak wrote in an Instagram post after the race yesterday. "I can't wait to see how much we can accomplish this season."

Several former Tall Oaks runners expressed their compliments to Walczak, including former captain Jaime Weber ('14), current Red Lion Varsity Boys' team captain Benjamin Schneider ('17), and Coach Paul Shirley, who noted that Walczak is the first Tall Oaks runner to go on to run collegiately since his tenure as coach began in 2012.