Cape’s Jason Baker claims Division I cross country title

Leading wire-to-wire and finishing almost 14 seconds ahead of second place, Cape junior Jason Baker won the individual title in the cross country state championships Division I race.

“I've been working so hard for this for so long, and it's great to see every mile I put in come to fruition,” Baker said.

The junior said he didn’t know what to expect but felt ready to handle whoever wanted to give him a run for his money. 

“He was dominant from the mile and two-mile [marks], but he's worked hard all season,” Cape coach Matt Lindell said. “I mean, he put the work in during the summer.”

Baker believes the work done during the hottest months of the year allowed his team to heat up at the right time. Not only did the girls finish fourth in Division I, but the boys took second place and finished just three points behind powerhouse Salesienum.

“We have a really strong community; I've grown up with these kids and I've known a lot of them my whole life,” Baker said. “We train together – every day together – all over the summer. In the summer, running is crucial and so is working together.”

“Jason not only gets the individual part, but he also brings up all the other kids around him and gets them out for the summer runs and working out,” Lindell said. “We talked about building a foundation of a house, and today was kind of the open house; kind of showing it off. He put on a good performance today and was our first state champ in cross country and Division I in a long time.”

The boys grabbed second behind top 25 finishes from Baker, Andrew Radka (fourth), Cardin Benjamin (13th), Brayden Redd (19th) and Nick Petito (22nd). For good measure, Josh Cohen and Ethan Thompson both finished under 20 minutes.

“We have two freshmen in our top seven and a freshman was our fifth runner today; that's a lot of pressure to put on an individual and every one of these guys has a story,” Lindell said. “Kids that were beating them in middle school, they're beating now in high school.”

A key to the girls’ top five finish was having all seven finish in the top 50, led by two freshmen. Allison Ortiz-Rivera (14th) and Claudia Stazzone (22nd) provided plenty of reasons for optimism while Hailey Hassell wrapped up her high school cross-country career by finishing 25th. Natalie Schneider (28th), Lindsay Hassell (31st), Maya Yngve (32nd) and Emma Thompson (41st) rounded out the times.

“Each of those girls has a great story behind them coming out of nowhere; some of them running like 29 minutes, just a year or two ago for a 5K and now they're running like in a 20- to 21-minute range,” Lindell said. “It's wonderful to watch those kids improve.”

Sussex Academy’s teams both finished in the top 10 – the girls in fifth and the boys in 10th. Katya Geyer’s 13th-place finish was the watermark for both squads. Ryan Moody topped the boys’ team, finishing 27th.

A former Sussex Academy middle school student, Padua freshman Paige Ballinger’s 18:01.40 was good for second in Division I and was part of an impressive 1-6 finish from the state champion Pandas. All six finished in under 20 minutes.

Senior Breanna Perry was the first Delmarva Christian girl to finish, while freshman Teddy Gonzalez led the boys rocking the Royal’s purple.