Cerrito, Coelho tops at SMAC

Northern duo wins respective races; Raiders claim team titles

Friday, Oct. 24, 2008

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The Leonardtown cross country team has built itself into somewhat of a dynasty and that trend will continue for at least another season.

While Northern runners Andrew Cerrito and Karina Coelho placed first in the boys and girls races, respectively, the Raiders won the team titles at the SMAC cross country championships Wednesday at Oak Ridge Park in Hughesville.

Leonardtown had won the previous three boys and girls SMAC championships and it extended that to four in convincing fashion.

Leonardtown finished the boys meet with just 33 points after placing five runners in the top 12. Northern was back in second place with 61 points.

On the girls side, Leonardtown finished with 44 points by placing seven runners in the top 19. The biggest gap between teammates over that span was four. La Plata won a tiebreaker over the Patriots and was second with 80 points.

"We've just been fortunate the last few years to have some good athletes come through here," Leonardtown head coach Jamie Copsey said when asked why his team has fared so well over the last few years. "I was really pleased with my runners, I really can't single any of them out. Is winning getting old? Absolutely not."

Coelho settled into fifth place, within sight of the lead pack, but made her move in the hills and slowed widened the gap. The Northern senior finished in 19:56.39, almost more than 11 seconds ahead of Gass.

"It feels unbelievable; I was hoping to get top three, so I'm just so happy with how I did," said Coelho, who placed fourth last year. "I was trying to pace behind the top girls, but once I saw they were slowing down I wanted to try and take more control of the race. I knew I needed to get up the hills quickly and if I could get over that last hill, I needed to push myself to stay in front."

Coelho eventually passed Jessica Gass of Leonardtown, who was the leader at the time, at about the 1.5-mile mark.

"I just knew I had to keep going, I couldn't slow down," she said. "It felt really good [to enter the last straightaway], but I wanted to stop, because I was so tired, but I also knew that if I could just keep sprinting that I had it."

"I knew there were five runners who could win this thing, so it was a real crap shoot," Northern coach Geoff Ogden said. "To be honest with you, I saw her at the 2 1/4 [mile] point and when I first saw the red jersey I thought it was [Danielle Pedersen] from North Point and when I saw it was her I was just jumping for joy."

Gass, who placed fifth last year, added: "This whole week I've been thinking about winning, because it's a big race, but that Northern girl just goes. She kept going and I was trying to catch up. I started closing the gap, but I didn't kick early enough to catch up to her. Just before the two-mile mark she passed me. I was hoping I could stick with her but she just kept leading the way."

Calvert coach John Major said, "Nobody was catching Karina today."

Pedersen placed third in 20:24.46. La Plata's Sophie Dent was fourth and Calvert sophomore Caroline Parris, who was passed by Dent with 800 meters remaining, was fifth. Parris said the fact that Calvert's course has so many hills helped her at Oak Ridge, which has four hills in the second mile and three on the last mile.

"I knew I'd definitely have to use the hills to my advantage and just try to power up them and just keep my pace on the flats," Parris said. "I definitely think I would have been more hesitant toward the hills if I didn't run them all the time. My goal was to get out in front so I wouldn't get stuck behind when we went into the woods. After that, I just tried to maintain my pace and tried to pick people off."

"There were some kids out in front that didn't belong in front and that just blocked everybody when they got to the narrows," Major said. "So, [Parris] had to get out fast, probably faster than I would have liked her to, but she had to get herself in good position."

Cerrito is tops... again

Cerrito won last year's event at Kings Landing Park in Huntingtown and he defended his title with a dominating run at Oak Ridge.

Cerrito led from start to finish and crossed the finish line in 16:26.55, almost 12 seconds ahead of Michael Hageman.

"Yeah, it's a bit risky [to lead right away], but last year I barely won and this year I wanted to win with some confidence," he said. "It feels good. I think maybe this one [feels better], because it's my senior year and I think our team did a lot better than last year."

Though he jumped out to a quick lead and slowly increased his lead throughout, Cerrito said he never felt safe until he broke the tape.

"You never know," he said. "You can tell yourself, ‘You've got a big lead,' but you never know, because Hageman's a very strong runner and [teammate] Ryan O'Conor was right there, so you can never be too sure. When you're out in the lead you're always picked on."

Hageman, who was second last year, said his strategy was to excel in the hills.

"I just used my hill abilities to make up ground on Cerrito and put some distance on some other guys," Hageman said. "He was consistently a good distance ahead. I'm very happy, [but] Cerrito's a real good runner."

O'Conor finished third in 16:40.2.

Randal McKissack (17:07.48) of North Point and Andrew McLean (17:09.95) of Huntingtown were seventh and eighth, respectively.

"I knew I needed to follow the right path and there's parts where the course splits around trees, so I knew I had to pick the right line," McLean said. "I was hurting but I told myself, ‘Keep going, keep running.'"

mreid@somdnews.com