CHESAPEAKE CITY – Host Bohemia Manor and Perryville turned in dominating performances at the Cecil County Cross Country Invitational on Tuesday, claiming a share of the County Flowerpot trophy.
Freshman Ty Franks won his race to lift the Eagles to the boys’ title with 27 points, while the Panthers emerged with the girls’ crown after Kaylee Haberkam and Jordan Dodson finished first and second, respectively, helping their team to a 43-point finish.
“I’m very pleased with the girls’ performance today, and I think it was their best day of the season,” Perryville coach Jake Moore said. “I think the next step for the girls to take is to work on their team chemistry and truly become a team.”
Haberkam finished with a time of 19 minutes, 51.96 seconds, edging Dodson, who placed first last season, by 44 seconds.
“(The race) was pretty good,” Haberkam said. “Me and Jordan stayed at the front of the pack, and we set a pace. We kind of set a slower pace, so the girls in the back were kind of upset that their times were a little slower, but when a front pack runs, they set the pace.”
Moore, who coached Dodson to an individual 1A State Championship last fall, was pleased with the early season effort by his two best female runners.
“It’s always great to have what we call home-run hitters that go up front and are always in the Top 5 anywhere you go,” Moore said. “It is great. You can’t say enough about it. If you can get three runners in the Top 10 at the state meet, chances are – let’s add the scores – it’s going to come out pretty well. For them, though, they have a long way to go to be able to run in November, but today was a good start.”
Bo Manor’s Diana Curtis took third (20:45.64), followed by a trio of North East runners in Kaitlyn Henderson (21:07.45), Erin Palmer (22:21.62) and Morgan Shipley (22:21.79).
Franks, who completed the boys’ race in 16:47.23, rebounded nicely after failing to finish the Bull Run Invitational on Saturday at Hereford, host site of the MPSSAA State Championships.
“(Franks) has a lot of natural ability but still a long way to go,” Eagles coach Steve Pizzulli said. “We found that out at Bull Run, that the world doesn’t go perfect, and if you have talent, you’re still going to come up against stuff. He just didn’t have the best race there, and this is a good race to come back on.”
Franks’ Bo Manor teammates, Stan Higham (17:28.80) and Chandler Brooks (17:33.12), joined him in the Top 5, taking third and fourth, respectively, behind the Panthers’ Eric Barton (16:58.79). Perryville’s Adam Thornton garnered fifth in 17:36.29.
“There is still a long way to go until November,” Pizzulli said. “We’re just entering the meat of our training here, so we’ve got hopefully a lot of improvement in front of us, even though they’re already a pretty solid team.”
Cecil County Cross Country Invitational
Tuesday at Bohemia Manor
Team Scores
Boys: 1. Bo Manor 27 points; 2. Perryville 32; 3. Rising Sun 74; 4. Elkton 117; 5. Tome 127; 6. North East 194; 7. West Nottingham 204.
Girls: 1. Perryville 43 points; 2. North East 51; 3. Bo Manor 69; 4. Tome 91; 5. Elkton 108; 6. Rising Sun 131.
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