Eagles’ Hengst, Gaels win ‘A’ titles
Park wins in B Conference; Friends repeats in ‘C’
The Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association’s title meet Tuesday was filled with plenty of repeat championship performances.
Dalton Hengst of McDonogh won his second straight A Conference title in the race at Stevenson, and No. 10 Mount Saint Joseph took its second consecutive team conference championship.
Tim Barrick of Park took the B Conference title and led the Bruins to a team crown while Joshua Rosemore of Beth Tfiloh repeated as C Conference individual champion and Friends repeated as C team champ.
The event was run as one race, with the finishers separated by conferences, not into a single overall pool.
In the A race, Hengst jumped out in front early and eventually pulled away to finish in 15 minutes, 29.3 seconds.
Hengst, whohasperformed well all season long, beat teammate Lucas Wright by 37.4 seconds. Last year, Hengst won in 16:06.30 while Wright took third.
“The plan was to take the lead early,” Hengst said. “I took the lead [about] 200 meters in. I felt pretty good.”
Hengst said he knew the other runners would be shooting for him, but it’s something he understood as the defending champion.
“It’s easy when there’s no pressure on you,” he said. “[But] there’s always a target on my back. I was confident that I could win the race.”
Last year, Mount Saint Joseph beat Loyola Blakefield by only two points and got a break when a runner fell. However, this time the deep, talented Gaels left no doubts.
They finished with 38 points, beating Calvert Hall (84) and Loyola (98). Mount Saint Joseph put five runners in the top 12, and that proved to be more than enough.
Coach Phil Turner said he liked the way his team prepared for this race.
“The kids were focused,” Turner said. “They finished what we were here to accomplish.”
Alex Whittaker led the way (third), followed by Hunter Petrik (fourth), Carter Williams (ninth), Andrew Brinker (10th) and Gabe Antone (12th). The five runners came in just 49.5 seconds apart.
Whittaker said the Gaels were the team everyone was watching, and they were just fine with that.
“We knew we were going in as the favorite,” Whittaker said. “But anything can happen. We ran our own race, and I’m glad it worked out.”
Turner and Whittaker said the pack strategy is something Mount Saint Joseph planned, and the Gaels executed to perfection. “We all wanted to win,” Whittaker said. In the BConference, Barrick got first place in a time of 16:38.4 for Park, which put five runners in the top 11 for its division. Brian Malone (fourth), Matthew Hudes (sixth), Finn Council (10th) and Peter Luljak (11th) rounded out the top from Park.
The Bruins finished with 32 points while John Carroll took second with 60.
Rosemore’s winning time among C Conference runners was16:50.2. But Friends used a similar strategy to the A and B team winners, getting five runners in the top 12 to take the team title again with 38 points, beating out Beth Tfiloh (71).
For Friends, Dakota Allis (third) led the way, followed by Henry Griffith (fourth), Alex Prichett (eighth), Ben Sherbakov (11th) and Sam Little (12th).