Busy weekend with popular Corn to Run and Dogfish Dash 8K

The popular Corn to Run will take off from East Coast Garden Center in Millsboro at 9 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 24, kicking off the fall festival. The 5,000-meter Corn to Run will take runners and walkers through a 10-foot-wide path through the corn at East Coast. Age-group awards go to the top three in 10-year age groups from 9 and under to 80 and over. T-shirts to preregistered runners are guaranteed. Race-day registration will open at 7:30 a.m. The festival will follow the race through the lunchtime hour, ending at 2 p.m. Run and walk in the morning and then stay for a good fall festival time. Can you say “country line dancing?”

The Dogfish Dash will celebrate 11 years with 2,492 runners registered to run, walk and party their way through the streets of Milton for an 8K distance, beginning Sunday, Sept. 25, at 9:30 a.m. The race is sold out, and registered runners are encouraged to pick up their packet Saturday afternoon and carpool Sunday as much as they can. Parking will be at a premium. T-shirts, awards, costumes and Dogfish beer highlight the event that will bring thousands to Milton. For the 11th year, the Dogfish Dash will support nature in Delaware by working with The Nature Conservancy, and this year organizers are especially pumped to help them in their efforts to improve water quality and promote water conservation programs. The Dash since 2007 has raised $399,000 for The Nature Conservancy. Two of my favorite races back to back. For more information, go to seashorestriders.com or dogfishdash.dogfish.com

Seashore Striders win Holy Cross Invite

The Seashore Striders varsity girls won the Holy Cross Invite for the third year in a row over a tough Ursuline team 47-49 Sept. 17 in Camden. Ursuline amazingly went 1-2-5 in the race, which in most cases would be enough to win easily, but the Striders grabbed 6-7-10-11-13 for some nice pack running to push back Ursuline’s fourth and fifth runners in the race and put all their scorers in the top 13 overall. A total of 73 girls competed in the 2.1-mile race.

Striders finishers were as follows: 6 - Aya Daisey, 14:13; 7 - Emma Barthelmess, 14:16; 10 - Mia Nuebling, 15:15; 11 - Devin Hundley, 15:17; 13 - Emily Trout, 15:24; 22 - Amaya Daisey, 15:41; 40 - Brooke Jones, 17:22; 57 - Zoe Peters, 19:22.

Eighth-grade runner Roy Truitt finished 12th in 13:39 in the varsity boys’ race among 56 participants in the race.  Truitt is a student at Georgetown Middle School and is racing in his first year with the Striders.

Sixth-grader Katie K Kuhlman finished fourth in the junior varsity division in a time of 7:42 for the 1.1-mile course, while first-year runner Faith Mitchell was eighth in 7:54. Peyton Stanislav in her first year finished 52nd in 9:37, while Julie Daniello was 65th in 10:02. Allaire Burton was 76th in 10:25, while Regan Best was 79th in 10:43.

Sixth-grader Luke Burton finished fourth of 115 in 7:05 in the boys’ junior varsity leading his boys to the second-place trophy behind St. Elizabeth. Burton has been a top three national finisher in each of the last two years. First-year runner Justin Friscia finished 11th in 7:18, while Aiden Bowman finished 15th in 7:23. Rafael Perez-Rivera was 28th in 8:02, while Drew Barthelmess was 31st in 8:08. Stephen Hart was 59th in 9:06, while Bradyen Trout was 69th in 9:18. 

SAS over Cape in girls’ XC

The Vikings of Cape Henlopen traveled west to meet Sussex Academy Sept. 21 in Henlopen Conference Dual Meet action. When the dust had settled on the new campus of SAS, it was a close 25-32 win by Sussex Academy over the history-rich Vikings. Both teams are tough up front, with Olivia Brozefsky of Cape and Helena Helou of SAS, both talented freshmen, battling it out for 5,000 meters. Brozefsky, a 5:40 miler in eighth grade at Beacon Middle, kicked her way to the finish in a personal best of 21:11, followed closely by Helou in 21:15.  The two freshmen dominated the field, as the next finisher was over three minutes back in the race.  Freshman Lindsey Guida of SAS ran a solid race in third in 24:09, while sophomore Zoe Callard of Cape was fourth in 24:49. SAS grabbed fifth and went seventh, eighth and ninth to seal the deal and earn their first win over Cape. Both teams are young and will see each other plenty in the next few years of action. As for top runners Brozefsky and Helou, it has been a while since a few freshmen were named first-team all-conference, and though the season is young, these two look to be heading in that direction. 

On the boys’ side of the coin, the Vikings won easily 17-45, grabbing eight of the 10 top spots in the race, led by Greg Boyce in 17:57. Sam Nye was second in 18:47, while Ryan Shaffer was third in 20:11. Mason Hayes was the first finisher for SAS in 20:34, good for fourth overall.

Notes - Olivia Brozefsky led her Beacon track team last season, scoring the most points in the season and helping her team reach 62 straight dual meet wins. Brozefsky also competed at the Cross Country Nationals in Kentucky with her Seashore Striders Club Team along with Lindsey Guida and Zoe Callard. Helena Helou ran for the Striders two years ago and won the Run, White & Blue 5K in Georgetown in early September. The Striders recently won the varsity girls’ division at last week’s Holy Cross Invite in Camden, and putting all these talented girls together at a National Championship in November in Evansville, Ind., could really make some noise. Stay tuned.

Upcoming races

• Friday, Sept. 30 - Betty Gooch Dolphin Dash 5K, 5:30 p.m., Shields Elementary School, Lewes, www.seashorestriders.com

• Saturday, Oct. 1 - Harry K Foundation Backpack 5K at the Greene Turtle, 9 a.m., Rehoboth Beach, www.races2run.com

• Saturday, Oct. 1 - Paradise Grill 5K, 12 p.m., Long Neck, www.seashorestriders.com

• Sunday, Oct. 2 - Inaugural Taste of Sposato Wine Run 5K, 9 a.m., Milton, www.races2run.com.