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.

It Feels Good to Be Back

We've had a great first two days of practice as we get the XC season underway. I've seen many old friends and new faces alike. The preseason, in a weird way, is almost my favorite part of the season. There's no pressure; everyone is just getting back into shape or learning the ropes, depending on each runner's level of experience.

Despite the transition to Red Lion athletics, longtime Tall Oaks coach Paul Shirley is back, and we are thrilled to have him on board for another season. At the same time, Red Lion's coach, Nikki Pizzulli, is still with the team as well. I had heard nothing but good things about her leading up to the season, and I myself have nothing but good things to say about her as we start the season. She is clearly experienced and knows what we need to be doing, and I have no doubt she will work well alongside Coach Shirley this season.

Message received, Mike. We won't let you down this season.
(Photo: Noah Pfenninger ('17))

It has been hot these past few days. But really, even though school starts next week, we're technically still in the middle third of "summer" judging by the calendar seasons, so should we expect anything different? To all our new runners, I promise you, it will cool off. Every degree of heat makes a difference in how hard the human body can push itself.

I also want to thank former Red Lion XC great Michael Collins ('16) for his kind note yesterday. I already sent out a short message via Instagram, Facebook, and Google+, but I wanted to include something about it here in case you have not gotten a chance to see it yet.

I am looking forward to a great season. More to come.

P. S. The sixth and final Laws Series 5K is tonight. Joshua Deitrich ('19) and I were the only runners even considering attending the race; however, we decided it was more important to benefit the team by attending practice instead (Coach Shirley vetoed any attempts to do "The Double"). Given that my "non"-review was basically pointless and did not receive very many page hits, I will not be writing any posts about the final race in the series. Instead, I can only be thankful for your support during the summer runs and for those runners who came out and did the runs with me.

P. P. S. To all my teammates: if you want to contribute to this blog, I have no problem with that. Just let me know and I'll send you an invitation to do so.

Howard M. Laws Summer Cross Country 5K Series: Race 5 ("Non"-review)

The fifth Laws 5K race was held yesterday evening, meaning the reader might expect OTLXC to do a traditional review of the race, reveal how each runner fared, etc. But for once, OTLXC is doing something a bit different: a "non"-review, because no notable TOCS or RLCA runners, to our knowledge, were at the race due to various circumstances.

That concludes this "non"-review. We will resume our traditional reviews with the season finale of the Laws Series in two weeks.

Howard M. Laws Summer Cross Country 5K Series: Race 4 (TEAM RACE) (Review)

Left to right: J. Deitrich, Collins, Leauby, B. Deitrich,
Rippon, Coach Paul Shirley, Schneider, Pozsonyi

The fourth Laws 5K race was held yesterday evening and was the series' annual team race. The Red Lion and Tall Oaks runners formed a joint team in representation of the upcoming season's partnership; Michael Collins ('16) represented Red Lion, while Joshua Deitrich ('19), Benjamin Schneider ('17), Calvin Pozsonyi ('17), Brandan Leauby ('18), Katie Rippon ('20), and Bryan Deitrich represented Tall Oaks. 

Collins ran the fastest time of the team and finished sixth overall; J. Deitrich finished 13th, the highest finisher among TOCS. Schneider, who ran a personal best time for the series at 22:11, finished 27th, with Pozsonyi 25 seconds behind in 35th. B. Deitrich edged out Leauby; the former finished 63rd, two spots ahead of the latter. Finally, Rippon finished 73rd overall in her series debut.

Given the team-focus of the event, the fourth race also saw the highest overall attendance for the series so far this season. Nine teams competed in the event, with the Red Lion/Tall Oaks "superteam" finishing sixth.

Collins (via Instagram): "Passing the Red Lion XC mantle to this group of guys (and one girl). Excited to see them carry on the tradition!"

Howard M. Laws Summer Cross Country 5K Series: Race 4 (TEAM RACE) (Preview)

First of all, thank you to Calvin for joining me on a nice, easy run this morning. I will try to give a more advanced notice for the next captain's run, which will hopefully be sometime next week.

As for tomorrow, this is the series' annual team race. Red Lion's Michael Collins ('16) has graciously offered to help recruit some RLCA runners and form a Red Lion/Tall Oaks "superteam" for the race (which is appropriate given our partnership). With that, we need to put out a call to you all to add as many participants to the team as we can. If you are interested in running tomorrow and your schedule allows it, we would love for you to come out and join us for this race.

Thanks,
Benjamin Schneider

Howard M. Laws Summer Cross Country 5K Series: Race 3 (Review)

Joshua Deitrich (pictured in 2014)
led the way for the TOCS, albeit with
a slower pace than he ran in Race 1.
(Photo: TOCS Facebook)

EDITOR'S NOTE: I apologize for the delay and brevity of this post. Due to time constraints, I was unable to write a preview and was also unable to get an official copy of the results before we left, but I will do my best to fill you all in on the race.


The third Laws 5K race was held yesterday evening, with Joshua Deitrich ('19), Benjamin Schneider ('17), Spencer Armstrong ('19), and Brandan Leauby ('18) competing in the male HS division. Joshua's father, Bryan Deitrich, returned to participate in the open division. J. Deitrich returned from injury to claim the fastest time of the race among TOCS runners. The heat and humidity, however, provided tough conditions once again for the entire field of runners; Leauby commented, "I'm not sure anyone met their goal today."

Schneider (via Instagram): "Very disappointing race today. Really wasn't expecting the heat to affect me this much. Maybe something else was slowing me down; I don't know. Congrats to Josh, Brandan, and [Spencer] on their finishes as well."