Severna Park sweeps region cross country

Both the Severna Park cross country teams reigned supreme yesterday at the Class 4A East Region championship held at Baybrook Park.

The girls, paced by Chris Patrick and runner-up Jodie Clouser, took home the region plaque with 27 points, outdistancing Leonardtown (55) and South River (85).

"Having five in the top 12 was very good for us. I was really happy at how strongly they moved up throughout the race," Severna Park girls coach Ed Purpura said. "We didn't start out really fast, but we moved up real strong, eventually catching up with the leaders with a little less than a mile to go."

Patrick, who was beaten by South River's Hillary Lee in the last two county championships, stayed with the lead pack for most of the race and kicked it in high gear over the final half-mile to avenge the disappointment from a week ago.

"I really didn't have any expectations. I just went out there to run," Patrick said. "Going up the last little hill is when I knew I had to go, and I went for it."

Clouser, who finished third in the county championship, was ecstatic with her performance, outrunning Lee for the first time.

"I had never beaten her before, so it was really exciting," Clouser said. "I was expecting it to be close between us. I thought I could get her on the hills."

Will Neal repeated his performance from the county race by again taking first for the region title. Neal came in seconds ahead of Annapolis' Shane O'Donnell and Severna Park's Shawn Greenspan.

"It was a tough race. I took it out really hard and tried to keep it up," Neal said. "It was a fast race. It helps out a lot when I went out real fast because I knew that most of the other people in the race couldn't keep up that pace and keep their endurance going."

The boys, behind a third from Greenspan, fourth from Ben Pershall and fifth by Brendan Cooley, finished with 59 points, beating Leonardtown's 86 and Chesapeake's 94.

"We've been trying to get our four and five guys to close the gap more, and they did that today," Severna Park boys coach Josh Alcombright said. "Our goal was to come in this year and repeat as county and regions champs, and we did. We wanted to keep the momentum going from the county meet, through the regions and onto states.

Along with the Severna Park teams, both the Chesapeake boys and girls qualified for states, as did South River teams. Joining then will be both Broadneck's and Annapolis' squads. Old Mill garnered the final spot from the region on the boys' side.

The top 19 girls and the top 22 boys in the region meet automatically advance to the state meet to be held next Saturday at Hereford High School in Parkton. Joining Patrick and Clouser from Severna Park are Ashley Hayes, Michelle Nelson and Laura Patterson, while accompanying Lee from South River are Katelyn McDonough and Liz Simmons. Stephanie Crane and Ellie Smith will represent Broadneck and Lindsay Holland from North County will participate as well. Josie Fillat and Kortnie Walker from Chesapeake will join along, as will Devin Brooks from Meade.

Neal will be joined by Alex Love and Dane Pegg from Chesapeake, while Greenspan, Pershall and Cooley qualified for Severna Park. O'Donnell and Nickolas Korbelak will represent Annapolis, as will the group of Luke Gilman, Ryan Cleaver, Alec Zajicek and Avery Wentworth from Broadneck. Lone participants will be Richard Pineda (South River), Cody Vernon (Old Mill), Scott Eliot (Arundel) and Demetrius Anderson (Meade).

TEAM STANDINGS

BOYS: 1, Severna Park 59; 2, Leonardtown, 86; 3, Chesapeake, 94; 4, Broadneck, 97; 5, Annapolis, 156; 6, South River, 161; 7, Old Mill, 197; 8, Great Mills, 198; 9, Arundel, 227; 10, Meade, 242; 11, North Point, 244; 12, North County, 326; 13, Glen Burnie, INC.

GIRLS: 1, Severna Park, 27; 2, Leonardtown, 55; 3, South River, 85; 4, Broadneck, 108; 5, Chesapeake, 156; 6, Annapolis, 158; 7, North Point, 177; 8, Meade, 217; 9, Arundel, 229; 10, Great Mills, 296; 11, Old Mill, 312; 12, North County, INC.

INDIVIDUAL STANDINGS

BOYS: 1, Neal (CH), 15:38.9; 2, O'Donnell (ANN), 16:10.6; 3, Greenspan (SP), 16:13.1; 4, Pershall (SP), 16:14.7; 5, Cooley (SP), 16:15.9; 6, Pineda (SR), 16:18.9; 7, Vernon (OM), 16:19.6; 8, Hageman (LT), 16:22.8; 9, Gilman (BN), 16:29.2; 10, Smith (GM), 16:33.6.

GIRLS: 1, Patrick (SP), 18:51.2; 2, Clouser (SP), 19:00.0; 3, Lee (SR), 19:04.2; 4, Crane (BN), 19:11.6; 5, Holland (NC), 19:13.0; 6, Gass (LT), 19:14.9; 7, Hayes (SP), 19:19.4; 8, Nelson (SP), 19:20.5; 9, McDonough (SR), 19:21.3; 10, Frowein (LT), 19:41.3.

MIAA CHAMPIONSHIPS: George Yates finished the trail at Oregon Ridge Park in 17:27, good for 25th, to lead Annapolis Area Christian School to an eighth-place finish at the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference cross country finals yesterday. David Crout (17:57) finished 32nd, and Jeff Toeneboehn (18:23) placed 43rd. Will Kang (18:31) and David Sandacz (18:31) took 46th and 47th, respectively, and Garrett Zinck (18:39; 50) and Mason Reed (18:48) rounded out the Eagles, who finished with 226 points.

Archbishop Spalding, which took eighth place with 245 points, received finishes from Dean Mertz (17:57; 38), Matt Hedin (18:05); Donnie Macary (18:18), Jeff Corrigan (18:22) and Foster Rankin (18:50).

Loyola, paced by overall winner Matt Jablonski (16:14), edged Calvert Hall, 38-39, for the conference title.

St. Mary's fell short of St. Paul's in the B Conference, despite a sixth-place finish from Charlie Howe and Joe Vogel's 11th, Brad Beard's 14th, Sam Vaughters' 17th and Mitch Ryback's 31.

Baltimore Lutheran's Cory Ames took the top spot in 17:23.