ESIAC cross country meet held at Delmarva Christian

Delmarva Christian hosted an ESIAC cross country meet at its partially wooded course Sept. 25, pitting the Royals against runners from Salisbury Christian, Salisbury School, Worcester Prep and Gunston.

Although Delmarva Christian finished fourth in both races as a team, the Royals did have two second-place finishes. Junior Tyler Hutt held a lead in the boys' race, pacing himself at 5:55/mile, but was barely edged out by Salisbury School’s Diego Padilla, who had a 5:54 pace. The latter crossed at 18:21.01, while the former did so at 18:22.72.

On the girls' side, it was senior Breanna Perry taking silver with a personal record of 22:01.59. 

“I would have really liked to beat the girl in first, but after the second loop, that did not seem very possible,” Perry said. “It was about keeping my mindset good and pushing myself even when I thought that my legs couldn't carry me anymore.”

Salisbury Christian’s Brooke Golba outpaced the pack throughout and grabbed first with a time of 21:10.65. While Perry could not catch Golba, she was able to win the internal mental battle.

“It's all a mindset; if you feel like you can't do it anymore, your body is so much more capable than you think it is,” Perry said. “I just kept telling myself, ‘I can do it. I'm doing this for the Lord – God got me.’ I have a Bible verse in my arm every single time, and I'm just reminding myself who I'm doing it for, that the Lord's got me, and that I can do this.”

Royals coach Kim Royster was proud of her runners’ efforts in the meet.

“I had one runner a little bit under the weather but still pushed really hard and another girl kind of lost her shoes on the way,” Royster said. “We still pushed hard, we learned a lot from today, and then we have another home meet on Monday, so we're going to take what we learned from today and then build on that and even do better Monday.”

Royster noted that the ESIAC teams face off against one another quite a bit during the season, and her runners can learn through the experience of facing good runners or those close in skill level.

“They know what to work toward. Even today, my top runner came in second, but he was right behind, and there's been days where he [can] beat that child,” Royster said.

Delmarva Christian will host a tri-meet with Delmar and Laurel at 4 p.m., Monday, Sept. 30, kicking off a week that will end with the Tidewater Classic and Salesianum Invitational.