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To win a cross-country state title last Saturday, Maryland teams had to overcome Hereford High School’s three-mile course with sharp turns, trails and the infamous “dip.”
Severna Park’s runners were up to the challenge.
In the Class 3A championships, the Severna Park girls were the runaway victors, finishing first with a score of 48, ahead of Towson with 101 and Thomas S. Wootton with 142. The win marked the program’s third consecutive championship and ninth overall.
Josie Kamas led the pack for the Falcons as she took third place with a time of 19:02.84.
“I’m honestly really happy and really proud, and honestly a little surprised, seeing everything pay off and everything we worked for come to us,” Kamas said after the race.
Lexi Fitzsimmons was not far behind her teammate. Her time of 19:23.03 was good for seventh.
“I think when you work hard with each other, it helps motivate each other so that even if you’re having a hard time, you know you don’t want to let the rest of your team down,” she said.
The Falcons also got great performances from Kathryn Murphy (11th place, 19:39.63) and Jocelyn DiAngelo (12th place, 19:41.12). Sydney Davis (24th place, 20:26.95), Valeria Saenz (30th place, 20:37.75) and Natalie Bowman (37th place, 21:05.93) rounded out the top 40.
Severna Park cross-country coach Josh Alcombright was thrilled with his team’s effort.
“I think Lexi had a fantastic race today. She really stepped up,” he said. “They all ran really strong. Josie, that’s what we were looking for. She started out in probably ninth place after the mile and she moved up, and all the girls attacked in the second half of the race and they all moved up, and that is exactly what we were asking them to do.”
Severna Park’s boys team took second place with a team score of 95, trailing only Thomas S. Wootton with 75. The Falcons had three top 25 runners: Caden Lazzor (sixth place, 16:16.72), Cooper Alahverdian (14th place, 16:32.24) and Stephen Nunn (19th place, 16:43.73).
Several other runners contributed to the second-place finish including Ty Maddox (29th place, 16:54.23), Brenden Woods (32nd place, 17:02.45) and Dylan Newhard (34th place, 17:04.99).
In the Class 4A championships, the Broadneck girls took 13th place and the boys earned 14th. Broadneck’s top boys finisher, Windsor Gwo, finished 37th with a time of 17:19.95. On the girls side, Elena Durkin and Julia Simmons finished in 83rd and 84th place, respectively.
Read the December edition of the Severna Park Voice for more details about the cross-country state championships.
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