Middle school cross country is underway

One of the best events of the year was held Sept. 3 to finish up the summer for the Seashore Striders, as the Last Blast Prediction 5K attracted 130 to the starting line. The race is one of the favorites on the circuit because it’s unique and nontraditional. There are no correct mile markers, no splits, no correct times on the clock, no watches or GPS devices worn and no luck involved. With all that uniqueness thrown at the runners, I am always amazed at how close they come to their predicted times.

This year the top 20 were all under 10 seconds and the top 10 under 5 seconds.

Martin Rodriguez won the overall title in 18:38, while Cindy Conant won the overall female title in 20:21.

The highlight of the day was the top 20 predictors. Georgette O’Cone, a regular with the Striders, won the title with a difference of .33 off her predicted time. It does not get much closer than that!

The rest of the top 20 included: Amanda Lohss, 1.26 seconds; Tim Young, 1.39 seconds; Jamie Wollard, 1.39 seconds; Jim Marvin, 2.31 seconds; Christopher Otwell, 2.44 seconds; Russ Melrath, 3.03 seconds; Caitlin Jessup, 3.22 seconds; Joy Biser, 3.55 seconds; Kirk Alderdice, 4.56 seconds; Eileen Wimsatt, 4.57 seconds; Susan Dunn, 4.58 seconds; Mary Andrisani, 4.70 seconds; Laurie Yanacek, 5.99 seconds; Deborah Rementer, 6.09 seconds; Karen Johnston, 8.64 seconds; Laurene Johnson, 8.90 seconds; Martin Rodriguez, 8.95 seconds; Peter Chiarelli, 10.24 seconds; Jackie Quigley, 10.31 seconds; Jose Lukecart, 10.34 seconds; and Kathy Tipton, 10.38 seconds. 

Middle school XC

Cape Henlopen middle school cross country is in its second year at Beacon and Mariner. Coach Kenny Reidel leads the Mariner team with more than 20 boys out and a handful of girls. Paul Eckert leads the Beacon team with some talented runners from last spring’s track team coming out.

Mariner’s Fallon Moore, an eighth-grader, will lead the way with Seashore Striders national qualifier Katie Kuhlman, just a sixth-grader, hoping to make some noise at the middle school level. Eighth-grade tracksters Jordan Jefferson and Shamar Snead will lead the Mariner boys, both with varsity experience last fall. Jefferson ran 24.0 and 57.2 last spring, and all he has to do is stay close and his speed will take over. Snead went 5:50 in the 1,600 meters last spring. Last year’s No. 1 girl, eighth-grader Lindsey Rambo, is out for the field hockey team.

On the other side of town, the Beacon team is returning the Daisey twins, Aya and Amaya, both talented runners who were a huge part of last year’s undefeated track team. Aya ran a few 800-meter races and they both dominated in the 400-meter dash. Mia Neubing also returns and ran a 2:48 800-meter split on a nationally ranked 3,200-meter relay last spring as a sixth-grader.

Other Beacon runners hoping to make some noise are Brendan Groll and Elizabeth Melson. Kuhlman, the Daiseys and Neubling will also compete for the Seashore Striders this fall.  Good luck to both teams as the season gets underway.  

Championship Series wrap

In addition to the top five finishers in 16 age groups and all the qualifiers receiving awards, the Seashore Striders presented special awards to the following:

Consecutive years - Richard Tikiob was honored for qualifying for the series for 20 years straight, while Alan Quillen, James Roe and Ed Green were honored with 10 consecutive years.

The All 13 - 20 runners completed all 13 of the Summer Series events, a new record. The All 13 list includes Martin Rodriguez, Breck Vanderwende, Chris Stanley, Paul Montini, Peter Tracey, David Landis, Rich Tikiob, Brian Logan, Jack Noel, Paul Kiefer, Dr. Lee Masser, Alberto Castillo, Jen Murray, Roxy Castillo, Becky Montini, Nina Smeltzer, Louis Holt, Deborah Rementer, Stella Castillo and Race Director Tim Bamforth. 

Performance of the Year - This was presented to Joanne Szczepkowski, Marge Warshauer and Stella Castillo for breaking the Delaware age group record in the Seashore 5-Miler. 

Runner of the Year - This award was presented to Alan Quillen and Joanne Szczepkowski for their dominating performances in their age group. 

DSU Hall of Fame

This Friday evening at the Dover Downs banquet hall, the Delaware State University Athletic Hall of Fame Banquet will be held. It will be my first time attending. I was contacted a few weeks back, with someone inviting me to the banquet and informing me that the Hornets cross country teams that won the MEAC four times in a row from 1984 to 1987 will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. No team in the MEAC has won four in a row. Fred Sowerby, an Olympian himself, was the coach of the team, and Delaware State was the first team to bring international runners into the picture. I chased a few Kenyans every race we ran, and though I struggled to remain in the top 7, the training and experience paid off in 1989 during my senior year when we won again in a close MEAC championship over Morgan State by one point. I ran 33:08 on a hilly course in Baltimore that day and dove across the line with eventual individual champion Chris Bayless of Morgan State in a photo finish after 6.2 miles of racing. I was all about the team, and winning the championship was so much more important than the individual accomplishments. Friday night will be nice to see the guys who accepted me for four years and treated me as part of the cross country family in a school that gave me two scholarships, one for cross country and one that was based on the color of my skin.

One of my fondest memories of the team was the 6-by-1-mile killer workout with a two-minute rest of coach Sowerby, in which he challenged me week in and week out to run with the leaders and hit the 4:45 goal for each mile.  

In addition, every Monday we loaded into my Nissan pickup with a cap on the back and I drove my teammates to Brandywine Creek State Park, where we would run the course three times and race the hills until dark. On the way home every week, we would stop and get seven happy meals for the team, which the international runners thought was really cool.  

My team trained three times a day, 6 a.m., 3 p.m., and after study hall at 9 p.m., and averaged 80 to 100 miles per week during the season, which back then was what distance runners did.

My friend Bill Collick, one of the main reasons I accepted a scholarship from DSU, was a firm believer that if you apply yourself and do the best job you can do, then it matters little where you went to school. Whether it is Delaware State, East Carolina, or Penn, if the interview committee feels that you will be an asset to their school and coaching staff, then you will be offered the job. That is exactly what happened at Cape Henlopen, and here I am 26 years later still teaching and coaching as I was in 1990, my first year in the district. It should be an interesting night at Dover Downs.

Upcoming Races

• Saturday, Sept. 10, 40th Gary P. Lister Bottle & Cork 10-Miler/5K, 8 a.m., Dewey Beach, www.races2run.com

• Sunday, Sept. 11, 13th Cannonball 5K, 8:30 a.m., Lewes, www.seashorestriders.com

• Saturday, Sept. 17, Second Zombie 5K Run, 5 p.m., Milford, www.races2run.com.