(See the All-County Cross Country Team.)

"I ran a 7-minute mile in the eight grade, which isn't that great," Spalding junior Zach Sullivan said. "There were plenty of kids that beat me."

Sullivan couldn't prevail in his P.E. class four years ago but he conquered the MIAA A Conference earlier this month.

The Capital-Gazette Newspapers' boys cross country Runner of the Year ran a time of 16 minutes, 1 second and took home top honors at the Oregon Ridge course Nov. 7. His first-place finish lifted the Cavaliers to a second place showing in the highly-competitive A Conference.

South River sophomore Hillary Lee took first place in the county championship in a time of 19:36 and is the Capital-Gazette Newspapers' girls cross country Runner of the Year.

"A lot of people didn't think Zach could pull it off," Spalding coach Andy Witte said. "But he is remarkably strong for a young kid and he snuck up on everybody, which is the way we like to do it. You never want them to see you coming and that's what Zach did."

Witte compared Sullivan to Rob Wetzel, last year's MIAA champion. Before Wetzel graduated from Spalding last year, he re-wrote the record books for the Cavaliers.

"Zach and Rob have a similar style because they both like to be in the back and come up in the end," Witte said. "We took that approach into the MIAA race and it worked perfectly. We knew there were kids there that had a better kick so we wanted Zach's overall strength to be the prevailing factor. He attacked the hills. That race was won on the hills."

Sullivan took first in every regular-season race this year and finished fifth (16:37) at the Maryland/DC Private Schools Cross Country Championships at Glenelg Country School. He didn't compete at the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships Northeast Regional at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, N.Y. because his running partner and teammate, J.R. Spencer, re-injured his ankle.

"We'll go next year," Sullivan said. "No big deal."

Sullivan said his only bad performance this year came at the Doc Jones Invitational because he had to deal with his own unique injury. While running with Spencer on a new trail the day before the race, a dog bit his right leg twice. The owner of the dog was near by and the dog was off its leash.

"I guess he wasn't used to people because we were on his turf," said Sullivan, who had minor cuts near his knee but had to go to the emergency room afterwards for a precautionary shot. "J.R. and I were running together and he bit me only because I was the one closest to him. I sort of took one for the team, you could say."

The 5-foot-10 Pasadena resident will be running indoor track for the first time this winter - the team's first meet is today at Loyola - and is a big contributor for the outdoor track team. When he's not racking up miles during an exhausting workout regiment, he's traveling across the country and to Europe for Tae Kwan Do tournaments.

"You wouldn't think so but there's a lot of similarities between martial arts and cross country," said Sullivan, who competes in the under-137 pound division and earned a black belt in 2003. "We do plyometrics twice a week and that improves strength. Tae Kwan Do is mainly kicking and that helps with running. They complement each other well."

Lee, only a sophomore, made a name for herself this season and has endless potential. She headlined a Seahawks crew that finished second at the county championship, which was its best finish to date.

"Hillary established herself as a top tier runner in the state of Maryland this year," South River coach Patrick Kiley said. "Winning the county championship and defeating the defending champ on a tough course are monumental accomplishments for a sophomore."

The Seahawks hosted the county championship this year, which gave Lee valuable opportunities to study the course and plan out a strategy to overtake defending champ, senior Liya Kasimova, of Severna Park.

At the region meet, Lee took second behind Kasimova and then was the best county performer at the state meet in Hereford. There she ran a time of 19:53, good enough for 11th pacing her team's 10th-place finish.