Here are The Baltimore Sun’s All-Metro girls cross country teams for the 2024 season:
Runner of the Year
Claire Sivitz, Howard, sophomore
Coming off a freshman season in which Sivitz won the Howard County championship and finished second at the 3A state meet, expectations were high for what she could accomplish in her second year.
However, illness struck and put her behind the curve early in the season. Once healthy, she was back to her dominant self, repeating as county champion and earning her second consecutive state silver medal. Her time of 18 minutes, 47.2 seconds was the fastest among any area girls runner — and would’ve won any other classification.
“I started off the year with pneumonia, so it was pretty rough at the start,” Sivitz said. “Luckily I had a lot of support with my team. I ended up winning counties and regions. At states, it was all my mentality, bust being there and running, I was grateful. I was really impressed with what I was able to achieve with a PR and second place.”
Sivitz’s coach, Tammy Hermstein, said she was proud of the work Sivitz put in to overcome adversity.
“Claire had a great start to her season but then had a setback when she was out with pneumonia for over a week. It can be frustrating returning to running from a lengthy illness, because mentally you want to run but your body needs time to return to the same fitness level,” Hermstein said. “Claire was patient and persevered through the weeks of training following her illness. She missed a couple of races but rallied back in time for a strong postseason. We wanted her to work on the mental toughness aspect of running this season, and I think her performances showed that she made strides in that area.”
Only two years into her high school career, Sivitz has become one of Maryland’s best. While she knew she could be successful in the sport, she didn’t think it would come so quickly.
“No I did not. I had no idea,” she said. “I ran in middle school, so I had some experience beforehand, but my expectations were not to win counties my first year.”
She began running in fourth grade at the urging of her father.
“I had no sport going on in third or fourth grade, so my dad threw me into bullseye running, and I just absolutely love the running community,” she said.
But Sivitz admits that love didn’t come right off the starting line.
“I had to take time to love it. My first mile, it was terrible. It was 30 minutes, maybe worse. I hated the sport when I started,” she said. “But the more I practice, the more I got involved and began competing, the more I began to love it.”
While she’s already accomplished a lot in the first two years of a promising career, the ultimate goal — a state championship — is still out there to take. But she’s putting in the work to make it happen.
“I’m doing a lot of what our team calls ‘after run,’ a lot of arm strengthening, leg strengthening,” she said. “It helps me get faster. I have a good mentality and a good mantra inside my head, just saying, ‘I got this.’ All of that builds up.”
Coach of the Year
Kevin McCoy, Centennial
A year ago, Centennial lost out on a 2A state championship. This year, the Eagles made sure it wouldn’t be close.
McCoy’s team had two of the top three individuals and five of the top 17 as they won the championship with 39 points, 28 better than second-place Hereford.
“For them, it was something they had definitely worked very hard to accomplish,” McCoy said. “It wasn’t just accomplishing that, but getting better every single day and progressing and really just pushing forward to see and strive to be the best team they could be.”
Knowing he had a talented lineup coming back this year, McCoy took his team all over the Mid-Atlantic region, from Pennsylvania to North Carolina and points in between. They ran against the best in the country and it made the Eagles better.
“We definitely go out of our way to do that; we have the luxury to do so. It makes those moments later on in the year seem more palpable, more conquerable,” he said. “We were down at the Great American Race in North Carolina, you’re racing three nationally ranked teams. You go into that and then you come back home to Centennial and you have 13 teams on the line. It makes it seem more controllable.”
Most coaches are only as good as their runners and McCoy will argue the same thing. He had four seniors in his top five this year and their leadership was invaluable in the championship pursuit.
“I can not put together enough accolades for them in a sentence or paragraph for how amazing that collection of girls is,” he said. “I’m grateful I get to share this journey with them. They’re the heart and soul of all this. I’m just a bystander.”
First team
Kaylee Beal, Centennial, sophomore
Beal was a key reason the Eagles won the 2A state championship. She finished third individually (19:36.56) and was fourth at the Howard County meet.
Taylor Colson, Century, sophomore
The 2023 Runner of the Year followed up her stellar freshman season with a second straight Carroll County title. At states this year, she finished fifth in 2A (19:41.57).
Isabel DeVos, Harford Tech, senior
DeVos won the 1A state championship (19:32.3) to help lead her Cobras to the team title. She was second in the Upper Chesapeake Bay Athletic Conference.
Riley Herdson, Centennial, senior
Herdson surged to the finish line and won the 2A state championship (19:41.57), leading the Eagles’ team state title efforts. She was also Howard County runner-up.
Josephine Kamas, Severna Park, sophomore
Kamas won Anne Arundel County and 3A East Region championships. She led the Falcons’ run to a state team championship with a third-place individual finish (19:02.9)
Alexandra Lohse, Towson, senior
Lohse was a consistently strong runner all season. She finished as Baltimore County runner-up and 3A North Region runner-up. Her best time was 19:05.9 at the Maryland XC Invitational.
Alyssa Mattes, River Hill, junior
Mattes finished top five in every meet she ran in this season, including fourth at the 3A state meet (19:03.43). She was third in Howard County and 3A South Region champion.
Emma Patrick, Severn, junior
Patrick didn’t run much scholastically in the fall, but when she did, she won. She claimed the IAAM championship with the best time out of all the conferences and ran 18:04.2 to win the Maryland Private School title.
Sylvia Snider, Herford, senior
Snider won her third straight Baltimore County championship this fall and followed up with a 2A state runner-up finish (19:16.7). She also won the Seahawk Invitational at South River.
Maddie Wassin, John Carroll, senior
Wassin was second in the IAAM behind Patrick (19:22.24). She won the Thomas Johnson Patriot Invitational and the Centennial Eagle Invitational (18:56.7).
Brielle Whitworth, Edgewood, senior
The University of Pittsburgh commit won seven races, including the UCBAC championship, the 3A North Region championship and the Bull Run Medium School Division.
Second team
Charlotte Bunting, South River, senior
Jocelyn DiAngelo, Severna Park, junior
Lexi Fitzsimmons, Severna Park, freshman
Abigail Horsmon, Patterson Mill, junior
Isabel Meadows-Soto, Old Mill, senior
Kathryn Murphy, Severna Park, junior
Lucy Myers, Notre Dame Prep, junior
Ella Navario, Notre Dame Prep, senior
Olivia Sobkowicz, Notre Dame Prep, senior
Elizabeth Szybalski, Manchester Valley, senior
Cecilia Van Lierop, Towson, senior
Have a news tip? Contact Anthony Maluso at [email protected], 567-230-6024, x.com/TonySunSports and instagram.com/TonySunSports.
