Beacon cross country sweeps Milford, Mariner

The Beacon boys’ and girls’ cross country teams swept host Milford and defeated district rival Mariner Sept. 27 at Browns Branch County Park. Eighth-graders Riley Stazzone and Lily Noonan conquered the 2.1-mile Harrington course, winning the boys’ and girls’ races in 13:35 and 15:24, respectively. The Beacon girls took spots one through four overall to defeat Milford 15-49 and Mariner 16-46. Meanwhile, the boys rode the one-two punch of Stazzone and Ethan Thompson to a 15-42 decision over Milford and a 21-40 win over Mariner.

The Mariner girls topped Milford 23-34 behind a fifth-place showing from sixth-grader Allison Ortiz, while the boys fell to the Bucs by a 25-35 tally despite a three-four finish from sixth-grader Asher Woods and eighth-grader Brayden Redd.

Beacon will be at home racing at Cape Henlopen High School Monday, Oct. 4, against Sussex Academy beginning at 4 p.m., while Mariner will head west to take on Seaford.

Baker finishes 17th in Carlisle Invitational

The Cape cross country team made the three-hour trip Sept. 25 to Carlisle High School in Carlisle, Pa., to take part in the Carlisle Invitational on the popular Travis Trail course. The challenge races had a number of the nation’s top individuals and a few of the nation’s top teams. It was advertised as a can’t-miss meet and definitely lived up to its reputation with some outstanding performances. Cape junior Ryan Baker was the local highlight, as he finished 17th among 310 of the best cross country runners on the East Coast with a time of 16:07 for the 5,000-meter course. Baker ran just inside the top 10 for the first two miles and lost a few places in the final mile as several runners closed that stretch at a sub-five-minute mile pace. Joey DeGregory was 108th in a good race of 17:25, while Alex Howarth was 18:01 for 174th place. Liam O’Donnell ran 18:45 for 223rd place, while Brian Sponaugle was 229th in 18:51. Jakob Hayes finished 264th in 19:36, while Andrew Wolak rounded out the Vikings in 19:45 for 272nd place. Declan Morrissey led the Vikings in the JV race in 20:24, good for 173rd. The Vikings were 28th of 43 teams in the boys’ race. Favorite Larry Josh Edwards, already committed to the Ducks of Oregon, running for University High School in West Virginia, won the individual race in 15:11. Last spring, Edwards broke 8:50 for the 3,200 meters.

For the Cape girls, Katie Kuhlman finished 81st in the race in a 5,000-meter time of 21:02 on what is considered by many on the Penn cross country scene a flat-and-fast course. Mia Nuebling was 205th in 23:16, while Kayla Droge was 225th in 23:51. Hailey Hassell was 238th in 24:33, while Lillian Fisher was 240th in 24:46. Allison Head finished 250th in 25:59, while Ava Dolan ran 26:00 to finish 197th to lead the Vikings in the junior varsity race. The Vikings girls were 35th in the 37-team field. Both the boys and girls were without some key members of the varsity seven, but those who competed gained some eye-opening big meet experience to bring back to the First State. The Vikings will travel to the popular Salesianum Invitational at hilly Brandywine Creek Saturday, Oct. 2, which should prep them for the upstate Delaware State Championships in November.

Hiba runs a 10K and raises $5K

Thousands of alumni and friends in 14 countries around the world ran and walked the second annual AUB 4 Beirut Run Sept. 17-19 to support the American University of Beirut. In the U.S. alone, Boston, Philadelphia, Raleigh, Los Angeles, NYC, Baltimore, Dallas and Lewes, to name a few places, were part of this amazing worldwide fundraiser to help the American University of Beirut. 

The first AUB 4 Beirut Run took place just over a year ago, six weeks after the terrible Aug. 4 explosion that obliterated half the city. A year later, with the city still in ruins, and the economic and financial collapse, AUB and AUB Medical Center have been struggling even more to care for their students and patients. 

About 30 alumni chapters and 590 individual participants mobilized their family and friends to raise funds for particular AUB initiatives, including student scholarships, the Emergency Fuel Fund, and the Needy Patient Fund at the AUB Medical Center. 

At total of 820 donations and 3,500 km later, AUB 4 Beirut Run 2021 has raised more than $115,000 worldwide, money that will support these very important initiatives. 

Hiba Stancofski, our local Delaware participant, came in as second overall individual, raising $5,215 from 44 donors. She ran 10 km Sept. 19 at an 11-minute mile pace along with her daughter Romy, friend Ava Cannon, and husband Erik, who was pacing them on his bike. Friends Monique Bamforth, Patty Carulli, Joy Sabbagh, and Jen and Kathleen Heffernan were walking along side to support Hiba. 

“I am so grateful for my village, from Seashore Striders for their incredibly generous support, to Leisa Berlin and the Station [on Kings] for feeding us all post-run that morning, to each and every one of my 43 other individual contributors who helped me exceed my goal (individual thank you messages are coming!). This run has been a very personal one for me, and I am so grateful for my beautiful community and generous friends for being there for me, supporting me and AUB, helping the beautiful Cedar land of Lebanon that is suffering so greatly. I could not have done this without you all. This run was deeply inspiring and uplifting. This worldwide effort shows once again how we are all connected on this big planet, and how compassion and kindness can go a long way and help so many; I chose to run to raise money for the Needy Patient Fund of AUB Medical Center. Thanks to you all and our collective effort, we have together saved a lot of lives. So grateful for my 302 village.”