Stone shines in tri-meet
Cougars have top finishes versus Calvert, Chopticon
The Calvert boys cross country team has been on a mission during the Southern Maryland Athletic Conference dual meet season.
And after Wednesday’s tri-meet that included Thomas Stone and host Chopticon the Cavaliers remain undefeated in 2017.
Calvert (10-0 overall) swept the meet, outlasting Chopticon 24-35 and defeating Stone 15-50. The Braves (8-3) picked up a 16-47 victory over the Cougars (3-7).
With one more conference regular season meet remaining at La Plata that includes McDonough and St. Charles at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Calvert can clinch the SMAC regular season crown with an undefeated record.
Calvert (8-2) also swept on the girls side, cruising to 19-41 and 15-50 wins over Chopticon and Stone. The Braves (7-4) earned a split with an 1839 win over the Cougars (4-6).
“We have a lot of young kids that are starting to emerge and run personal bests,” Calvert head John Major said. “We expect our top guys to do well, but it is a joy to watch other kids see their hard work paying off. Watching them break a time that they haven’t broke all year is good to see. This was a good meet and everyone performed well.”
The Cavaliers boys had seven runners finish in the top 10, including three in the top four. Justin Diehl won the boys race with a time of 17 minutes 44.31 seconds and John Dodsworth took second overall in 17:50.79.
“I was happy to have a big pack out there. It was three Chopticon runners in there, so it made the race very competitive and go by quick,” Diehl said. “We are training for a big meet this weekend in North Carolina, so we were running on tired legs today. But we finished strong like we have all season. We still have some work to do.”
Chopticon had three runners finish in the top-5 as Jeff Wedding (17:55.72), Tyle Modrzejewski (18:14.00) and Zack Wedding (18:16.76) came third
Xavion Jones was Stone’s top runner on the day, coming in the 12th overall spot with a time of 20:42.36.
“I was trying to keep up with Justin during the race, he is a very tough runner,” said Jeff Wedding, whose twin brother Zack is 26 minutes younger than him. “I’ve never been that exhausted in a to fifth, respectively. race before, but overall we had a good day.”
In the girls race, Calvert finished with seven runners in the top 10 as it was led by Dana Miller, who won the race with a time of 23:08.88. Miller’s teammates Emily Mutchler (23:11.10) and Sydney Friedel (23:18.22) finished in the second and third spots, respectively.
Bethany Prettyman (24:44.50) and Julia Brown (24:51.75) finished in the fourth and fifth spots for the Braves.
“The pace was pretty even during the race,” said Miller, whose older sister Lauren graduated from Calvert last year and was a former standout cross county runner. “My mindset was to stay ahead of the pack and have a good time.
Kerry Ward took 13th overall for the Cougars with a time of 27:29.71.
“We knew Calvert was going to be a tough team, but our boys are up and coming and we had three in the top five for boys and two in the top five for girls,” Chopticon head coach Kelly Schmidt said. “Our strengths is running hills and we want to continue to get stronger.”