The high school cross country season will wrap up this Saturday at Killens Pond with the DIAA State Championships. We will then move to post-season national championships spanning from North Carolina to Indiana to Texas with athletes all throughout the United States taking part.
East Regional XC
The Seashore Striders hosted the East Coast Regional Championships at Sandhill Fields over the weekend with just under 400 youth runners from all over the surrounding states descending on Georgetown for nine races spread over three hours, ranging from the 5-and-under Mighty Mites to the 13-14 Youth Division.
Here is how members of the Seashore Striders fared:
Mighty Mites Girls’ 5U Division - 1. Sophia Stevenson, 3:45.
Sub-Bantam Girls’ Division - 2. Ruby Leps, 8:42; 5. Chloe Cawthern, 9:20; 7. Anika Kane, 9:39; 11. Nora Furlong, 9:57; 22. Layla Stevenson, 11:00; 26. Mary Bowe, 11:42; 29. Piper Matta, 12:51.
Sub-Bantam Boys’ 6-8 Division - 9. Quinn Peacock, 9:06; 14. Dane Cawthern, 9:36.
Bantam Boys’ 9-10 Division - 6. Nolan Furlong, 12:39; 12. Henry Neufeld, 13:36; 19. Lucca Tobias, 13:52; 21. Bennett Curry, 13:58; 22. Grant Sherman, 13:59; 25. Finley Sherman, 14:26; 29. Whit Leps, 15:24; 37. Nico Capobianco, 17:58; 38. Carsyn Uszenski, 18:22.
Midget 11-12 Boys’ Division - 18. Ryder Uszenski, 13:01; 22. Jude Peacock, 13:06; 46. Cody Kuhlman, 16:28.
Midget Girls’ 11-12 Division - 11. Allison Ortiz-Rivera, 13:33; 30. Grace Barthelmess, 15:54; 41. Destina Karaman, 25:39.
Youth Girls’ 13-14 Division - 9. Shiloh O’Grady, 16:32.
The Striders will take part in the Cross Country Coaches National Youth Championships to be held in Shelbyville, Ind., Saturday, Nov. 19, at Blue River Memorial Park.
The Big Apple 26.2
The New York City Marathon attracted more than 47,000 runners this past weekend with a small group of downstate runners in the mix. Susan Dunn of Laurel ran 3:55:38, which placed her in the top 300 in her age group, while Steve Spieker of Bethany Beach ran 4:41:05. Lauren Baker of Lewes ran 4:44:04, while Ryan Brown of Seaford ran 4:45:02.
Evans Chebet of Kenya averaged 4:55 per mile (insane) to cross the finish in 2:08:41 to win by 13 seconds. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at his back-to-back 5K splits just to show how crazy impressive his performance was. These are his 5K splits in order: 15:02, 15:09, 14:47, 15:12, 15:31, 14:36, 15:29, 15:58. Every split under 16 minutes, which very few high school boys can run.
In comparison, Vikings standout Ryan Baker would be able to hang with this Kenyan for only his eighth 5K. Chebet ran his opening half-marathon in 1:03:36 and came back in 1:05:05.