Two weeks ago, Old Mill’s Tsedeke Jakovics ran his first race of the season at the Seahawk Invitational.
Coming off a long summer of high mileage training, Jakovics acknowledged his legs were hurting a bit and lost to St. Vincent Pallotti’s Caleb Tenney.
Saturday at the Bull Run Invitational, Jakovics got a quick rematch with Tenney and a field of Maryland’s top runners from public and private schools of all classes in the boys Elite Division race.
Jakovics knew the Hereford High course, had a plan and executed it to perfection. He ran the 3-mile race up and down the hilly terrain in 15 minutes, 49.3 seconds, more than 10 seconds better than second-place Tenney.
“I had to come out with a plan. I walked the course with my coach and we just went over everything we needed to get done today,” Jakovics said. “I felt really, really prepared going into this race. I had different strategies. One was, I know this guy has higher mileage than me, Caleb, so I had to go out there and be smart. On hills, I’d open up my stride on downhills and sort of make him work a little harder, and then for every other part of the race I’d sit on him. I could sense him getting tired; I could sense his breathing becoming more rapid.”
The Hereford course is notorious for the two trips up and down the step incline known as “The Dip.” It’s there and the back area in the woods where runners can separate from the competition.
“The back soccer field, my coaches said for 15 years he’s been coaching, every race is won back on that field,” Jakovics said. “I wanted to be smart and do the exact same thing. If there’s a method that’s already been tried and is true, you might as well do the same thing. Don’t fix what isn’t broken.
“We were coming back, second time up ‘The Dip,’ I could tell he was tiring and that’s when I started opening up the gap. At that point it’s more of a mental game than a physical one. You start opening up the gap and they start doubting it.”
Jakovics and Tenney (16:00.7) were followed by Southern-AA’s Eric Penkala, the reigning Class 2A state champion, in 16:07.8. Three other area runners finished top 10 in the Elite race: Howard’s Rayyan Dheini (sixth, 16:26.1), Dulaney’s Oliver Katz (seventh, 16:26.1) and Towson’s Theodore Brown (10th, 16:44.7).
Winston Churchill edged out Walt Whitman by a point, 125-126, for the team championship. Crofton finished third with 131.
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“We’ve been very lucky this season to have a good varsity group together today. It’s our first race where we’ve had four of our top five runners running,” Cardinals coach Adam McGuire said. “We had a really good summer workout plan. We’re finally healthy injury-wise, illness-wise. It’s really good to see our kids running as a group. That’s what we preach to them: Run together, finish together.”
Crofton’s strength comes from a strong pack of runners rather than one or two individual standouts. The top three Cardinals finished within seven places and 15 seconds of each other — Scott Cunningham (15th, 17:10.7), Noah Mazza-Bell (21st, 17:13.8) and Campbell Gelineau (24th, 17:25.4).
“A lot of our guys train with Tsedeke and Penkala, so there’s always around that extreme competitive level,” McGuire said. “It’s nice that we have such like-minded athletes that they’re all there for the same purpose of wanting to get better every single day. So giving them that image of run together, run as a pack, finish together, it motivates the first guy, it motivates the fifth guy, it motivates the 10th guy.”
With the state championship race being held on the same course in November, Saturday’s results serve as a measuring stick for where teams stand and knowing what they need to do when they all reconvene.
“It’s kind of like bulletin board material when the team getting first place is a team we’re going to see here in November,” Maguire said.
Thomas Wootton finished fourth as a team (137), followed by a string of area programs: Towson (147), Dulaney (160), Catonsville (189) and Howard (200).
Snider’s 5th-place finish leads local efforts in girls’ Elite Race
The girls’ portion of the event was ran a bit differently as the Elite Division ran with the large school division.
Amongst the field of more than 30 schools, a good portion from Class 4A, Sylvia Snider of host Hereford ran right with Maryland’s best. She finished fifth in 19:21, leading the reigning 2A state champs to a fourth-place team finish.
“It means so much. It’s so much fun for all of us getting out here and run, especially with injuries and everything,” Snider said. “I love the competition. It’s such a good atmosphere and everyone gives a lot of motivation.”
The senior acknowledged, though, that her final Bull Run was bittersweet.
“It was fun to be back out on the course. I love Bull Run, except for the hills obviously,” she said with a laugh. “It definitely wasn’t my best race, but it was still fun to be out here and be able to run.”
At the front of the pack, Winston Churchill’s Katherine Morey won in 18:47, five seconds clear of Walt Whitman’s Katherine Greenwald (18:52).
“Last year on this course during states, I did not have a good race. So today, I just wanted to win,” Morey said. “I hung on to the top girls and then the final, I’d say 400 meters, I kicked it in.
“My coaches wanted me to make a move after the second mile, but I just held off until after the second part of ‘The Dip’ to make my move.”
The team standings ended in controversy as chip errors shuffled around the final standings after awards were announced. At the end of the day, Frederick took first with 84 points and five runners finishing in the top 28. Walt Whitman was second (115) followed by Winston Churchill (117), Hereford (123) and Richard Montgomery (192).
Other results
In the boys’ large school race, several Anne Arundel County runners lined up behind winner Zachary Oh of James Hubert Blake (16:57). The next three finishers were Arundel’s Hudson Sangster (17:06.1), Annapolis’ Grady Roberts (17:07.6) and North County’s Cole Cosgrove (17:20.9).
Cosgrove’s North County Knights, however, had the best team showing, finishing second with 122 points behind Leonardstown’s 81.
“This is a great feeling. I’m so happy to see all the great runners out here and everyone perform so well and we really feel like we earned this and deserved this,” Cosgrove said. “This kind of shows us we have the potential to be top competitors in future meets and tell other people they have to look out for us.”
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