A pair of Frederick County high school runners claimed individual titles in the state cross country championship meet Saturday at Hereford High School in Parkton.
In the 3A' boys race, Linganore's Braden Bruning edged Hassan Omar of Gov. Thomas Johnson in a rematch of the Frederick County championship. Bruning's 1.9-second margin of victory was the smallest of the day between the top two finishers.
"The whole year my goal was to take counties and states," Bruning said. "Those were the two most important races to me. It means a lot to me to win both of them for the first time in my senior year."
The two senior runners maintained a similar pace throughout the race, and Omar held the lead near the end, only to be passed by the finishing kick of Bruning on the final straightaway.
"I knew that he has a better kick than me, I just wanted to see if I could make it a good race and maybe hang on," Omar said. "It was really close, and I am happy with the result."
Patrick Duboyce of Linganore claimed the third spot, followed by Austin Hayslett of Urbana in fourth. Ben Freed's seventh-place finish for Thomas Johnson was the only other top-10 performance for a Frederick County runner in that race.
Urbana freshman Emily Mulhern won the 3A girls' event. She was joined by teammates Sarah Askine (third) and Kelly Winklbauer (ninth) in the top 10.
"This is awesome because it puts Urbana back on the map," Mulhern said. "We had some years where we haven't really amounted to our goals, but with me and my teammates, we really established Urbana as a power in the state again."
Despite the individual honors by county runners in both 3A races, neither the Linganore boys nor the Urbana girls could manage to unseat defending champion Hereford. The Bulls repeated as both boys' and girls' champion, with scores of 72 and 48 points respectively. The Lancers finished second in the boys' team race with a score of 75, while the Hawks claimed third in the girls' event with 120 points.
The South Carroll girls' took second place in the 2A race, paced by Samantha Bingaman (ninth) and Olivia Lowman (10th). Century's 112 points were good enough to clip the Cavaliers by a single point. Walkersville claimed third behind strong performances from Megan Kaczor (14th) and Annie Frasier (16th), while Middletown's Natalie Smith finished 13th racing as an individual.
On the boys' side in 2A, Catoctin (147 points) and Walkersville (181 points) finished in sixth and seventh places, respectively. David Dorsey finished seventh as the top individual racer from the Cougars, and Jacob Myers (21st) paced the Lions.
Frederick County results
3A Girls
1. Emily Mulhern (Urbana) 19:53.3
3. Sarah Askine (Urbana) 20:08.5
9. Kelly Winklbauer (Urbana) 20:56.8
Teams
3. Urbana (120)
14. Linganore (374)
15. TJ (388)
17. Frederick (433)
3A Boys
1. Braden Bruning (Linganore) 16:20.8
2. Hassan Omar (TJ) 16:22.7
3. Patrick Duboyce (Linganore) 16:32.5
4. Austin Hayslett (Urbana) 16:44.6
7. Ben Freed (TJ) 16:58.7
11. Logan Jones (Tuscarora) 17:11.6
13. Dan Beck (Linganore) 17:13.9
21. Neil Rasband (Linganore) 17:32.7
Teams
2. Linganore (75)
4. TJ (158)
13. Urbana (345)
17. Tuscarora (406)
2A Girls
10. Samantha Bingaman (South Carroll) 20:54.8
11. Olivia Lowman (South Carroll) 21:05.1
13. Natalie Smith (Middletown) 21:15.6
16. Megan Kaczor (Walkersville) 21:24.6
18. Annie Frasier (Walkersville) 21:28.9
21. Sydney Ryan (Oakdale) 21:35.0
22. Leigh Caulfield (Walkersville) 21:36.9
23. Erin Hub (Walkersville) 21:42.3
Teams
2. South Carrolll (113)
3. Walkersville (117)
9. Oakdale (178)
2A Boys
8. David Dorsey (Catoctin) 17:21.6
15. Kevin Dorsey (Catoctin) 17:52.6
19. Jacob Staley (Oakdale) 17:54.6
21. Jacob Myers (Walkersville) 17:58.3
23. Connor Good (Oakdale) 18:01.2
Teams
6. Catoctin (147)
7. Walkersville (181)
Copyright © 2012 Post-Newsweek Media, Inc./Gazette.Net