Great Mills’ Cooper Brotherton won the girls race at the 3A South Region cross country championships at Oak Ridge Park on Thursday afternoon with a time of 19 minutes 30.9 seconds.
Chopticon’s Zachary Wedding finished fourth in the boys race at the 3A South Region cross country championships at Oak Ridge Park on Thursday afternoon in 16 minutes 54.9 seconds.
Great Mills’ Cooper Brotherton runs ahead of Chopticon’s Blair Fowler during the middle portion of the girls race at the Class 3A South Region cross country championships at Oak Ridge Park on Thursday afternoon. Brotherton won the race in 19 minutes 30.9 seconds.
North Point’s DeVion Bryant heads for the finish line at the end of the boys race at the Class 3A South Region cross country championships at Oak Ridge Park on Oct. 31. Bryant finished first in a time of 16 minutes 25.7 seconds to lead the Eagles’ boys to the team championship.
North Point’s Josh Doughty finished second in the boys race at the 3A South Region cross country championships at Oak Ridge Park on Thursday afternoon in a time of 16 minutes 29.7 seconds.
Northern’s Oakley Olson finished second in the girls race at the 3A South Region cross country championships at Oak Ridge Park on Thursday afternoon in a time of 19 minutes 43.4 seconds.
Huntingtown’s Conor McGirr finished third in the boys race at the 3A South Region cross country championships at Oak Ridge Park on Thursday afternoon in a time of 16 minutes 35.9 seconds.
Great Mills’ Cooper Brotherton won the girls race at the 3A South Region cross country championships at Oak Ridge Park on Thursday afternoon with a time of 19 minutes 30.9 seconds.
Staff photo by ANDY STATES
Chopticon’s Zachary Wedding finished fourth in the boys race at the 3A South Region cross country championships at Oak Ridge Park on Thursday afternoon in 16 minutes 54.9 seconds.
Staff photo by ANDY STATES
Great Mills’ Cooper Brotherton runs ahead of Chopticon’s Blair Fowler during the middle portion of the girls race at the Class 3A South Region cross country championships at Oak Ridge Park on Thursday afternoon. Brotherton won the race in 19 minutes 30.9 seconds.
Staff photos by ANDY STATES
North Point’s DeVion Bryant heads for the finish line at the end of the boys race at the Class 3A South Region cross country championships at Oak Ridge Park on Oct. 31. Bryant finished first in a time of 16 minutes 25.7 seconds to lead the Eagles’ boys to the team championship.
Staff photo by ANDY STATES
North Point’s Josh Doughty finished second in the boys race at the 3A South Region cross country championships at Oak Ridge Park on Thursday afternoon in a time of 16 minutes 29.7 seconds.
Staff photo by ANDY STATES
Northern’s Oakley Olson finished second in the girls race at the 3A South Region cross country championships at Oak Ridge Park on Thursday afternoon in a time of 19 minutes 43.4 seconds.
Staff photo by ANDY STATES
Huntingtown’s Conor McGirr finished third in the boys race at the 3A South Region cross country championships at Oak Ridge Park on Thursday afternoon in a time of 16 minutes 35.9 seconds.
It would have been nice for his team to win a regional title, but given all the circumstances surrounding Thursday afternoon’s Class 3A South Region cross country championships at Oak Ridge Park in Hughesville, it didn’t appear very likely for North Point head coach Jimmy Ball and his squad.
The Eagles — who had narrowly won the SMAC boys championship the previous week, winning on a tiebreaker with a Chopticon team that was competing in the same regional meet — figured to be in the middle of a tight race to start with. And then with individual SMAC champion Josh Doughty competing in a marathon just a few days before, the idea of North Point being able to pull it off seemed to be a little farfetched.
Turned out it wasn’t.
North Point’s DeVion Bryant, who was fifth the week before at the SMAC championships, won the boys race in 16 minutes 25.7 seconds, while Doughty didn’t appear to be much the worse for wear as he finished in second just four seconds behind his teammate.
Bryant and Doughty led a group of five Eagles to finish in the top 16 as North Point claimed its first regional championship. The Eagles finished with 45 points, 10 clear of runner-up Chopticon. Northern (84) finished third, Huntingtown (101) fourth, while Chesapeake of Anne Arundel County (153) rounded out the top five.
“Josh has been training for a marathon since mid-spring, but I didn’t realize that the marathon was five days before the regional,” Ball said of Doughty, who ran in the Marine Corps Marathon for charity. “It’s for a great cause, but I had no idea. For him to finish in second place. ... And DeVion, I always kept telling DeVion that, ‘If you can keep close to the top guys and then you have to sprint, no one is going to beat you.’ It took him two years, but he did it. I’m so happy for him, for Josh, all those guys are all team players. Those guys have worked hard all year, and they’ve done something in 15 years that no one has ever done. They won their first regional today. We’ve never done that, and we’ve had some great teams.
“To get the opportunity to win a regional championship, their legacy is cemented.”
Bryant did not necessarily expect to be in the mix right at the front of the field. And as the race worked through its opening stages nothing happened to change that thought. But as the race wore on and he started to move towards the front, he realized he had the opportunity to win.
“In the beginning of the race I really wasn’t feeling it,” Bryant said. “I started progressing more during the race and started picking it up, started breathing better, using more of my form in the woods and really attacked the hills. I started picking them off one by one.”
Following the North Point tandem at the top, Huntingtown’s Conor McGirr finished third (16:35.9), and Chopticon’s Zachary Wedding (16:54.9) and Jeffrey Wedding (17:02.3) rounded out the top five.
Similar to the boys results, the girls race provided a surprise of sorts with Great Mills’ Cooper Brotherton crossing the finish line first, ahead of Northern’s Oakley Olson, who is the defending 3A state champion and won the SMAC meet the previous week. Brotherton finished in 19:30.9, with Olson coming in second in 19:43.4.
“I definitely was running consistently, trying to keep the same pace I did last week, just being prepared for states and not injure myself. I just paced myself throughout the race and it worked out,” Brotherton said. “I honestly was a little surprised by the distance I had. It was a fun race.”
Chopticon’s Blair Fowler (19:58.2) finished third, while Northern’s Hannah Mack (20:14.5) was fourth and Huntingtown’s Elise Wilcher (20:40.7) took fifth.
Teamwise, Northern cruised to the regional title. The Patriots’ 35 points were comfortably clear of runner-up Huntingtown (68). Great Mills finished third with 85 points, while Chesapeake (100) was fourth and Chopticon (121) came in fifth.
While the results would not necessarily make it glaringly apparent, Northern — the three-time and defending 3A girls state champion — has been forced to deal with its share of adversity this season.
“We’ve had stress fractures, we’ve had people coming back from surgery, we’ve had a possible iron deficiency, so there have been a lot of people just kind of fighting for everything,” Northern head coach Josh Dawson said. “It’s unfortunate it’s kind of culminating at the end of the year. Overall, though, I wasn’t disappointed. I thought the boys and girls ran very similar to what they ran last week or faster and in worse conditions. Today was very humid. It definitely affected the runners. I’m happy with both boys and girls today, and I’m always happy with winning a title. Again, I thought we collectively ran better than we did last week.”
Now it’s on to the state championships on Saturday at Hereford High School.
