Cross country finishes season at regional championships, one senior advances to states on November 14
Regional championship on November 5
November 9, 2015
Watkins Mill’s cross country team prepared themselves well to soar through the course as they competed in the 3A South Region Championships on Thursday. In order to compete in the 3A State Championship they had to have three runners in the top 20 for the whole meet.
Boys cross country fought hard on the wet and slippery course yesterday, but sadly, they came up short and will not be running in the 3A State Championship this year. Junior Rasheed Gaal finished first out of all Watkins Mill runners, finishing twenty-ninth overall with a time of 19:03. Sophomores Harris Malik, Joseph Clark, Saul Flores and Kelvin Quacoe all finished in under 23 minutes. Freshman Sabastian Batanera and junior Nathaniel Vault both finished in under 21:15.
After the meet, Malik was very optimistic about the team’s future, saying, ”we are a developing team and we are still young… we have no seniors.” The cross country team still had a very productive season because, Malik said, “We got our first win in a long time.”
The Lady ‘Rines battled as well, with senior Lisa Franco finishing first out of all Watkins Mill girls runners, and finishing tenth overall for the whole meet. Franco will be the only representative for Watkins Mill at the Maryland State Championship meet on November 14. The rest of the girls still contended, all finishing in under 27:00.
Going into the meet, Clark was very enthusiastic, saying, “I think we are going to do well.” He believed that in order to perform well, the team needed to run competitively. “We need to run hard and run smart,” Clark added.
Senior Marian Sankoh felt the same coming into the race. She believed that they would do well because “[The team] has been practicing hard.” To win, Sankoh said that “[They need to] run like our life depends on it.”
Orange Nation will all be cheering on Franco as she runs the last cross country race of her cross country career at the Maryland State Championship meet on November 14 in Parkton, Maryland.
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