O'Connell, Yorktown win county team titles

With a little more "want to" than in previous races this season, the Bishop O'Connell Knights defended their girls team title at the annual Arlington County cross country meet Oct. 11, while the two individual champions and boys team winners were different from last year.

The four team high school varsity meets were held at Bluemont Park.

The O'Connell girls won with 39 points, winning its third straight title. The Washington-Lee Generals were second with 45, the Yorktown Patriots (53) third and the Wakefield Warriors (104) fourth.

Two days prior to the girls race, O'Connell head coach Cindy Walls had a talk with the team. She told the runners they were training fine and running so much faster in practice, then under performing in races. Walls then told the runners they needed to have the "want to" during races.

O'Connell responded with its best race of the season.

"I think that meeting got them more serious," Walls said. "They wanted it today. This should give them so much more confidence."

O'Connell was led in the race by freshman Tess Brinkmann's second-place in 20:12. Senior Ryley Howard was fourth (21:03), junior Maggie Flood 10th (22:19), senior Grace Pulliam 11th (22:22) and senior Ginny Brough 12th (22:23).

"The seniors led us, they wanted to win," Walls said.

Washington-Lee junior Eva Smith-Perry won the girls race in 19:56. She was third a year ago. Defending champion Catherine Whitehouse, a Yorktown junior, was third in 20:19.

"I had a good start and my strategy was to stay with the lead pack until about a mile, then try to pull away," Smith-Perry said. "That's when I got the lead and I was able to stay ahead. I was excited about having the chance to win."

Washington-Lee sophomore Anna Harpel was fifth in the girls race (21:18) and her freshman teammate Kate Ford was seventh (22:01). Wakefield was led by Kareena Stowers. The freshman was sixth in 21:45. Yorktown senior Cate Spirgel was eighth (22:09) and her classmate Leah Kappel was ninth (22:18).

Yorktown won the boys race with 38 points to win for the first time since 2012. Four-time defending champion W-L was second with 48 points, followed by O'Connell (67) and Wakefield (73).

Yorktown's top seven runners were all sophomores, led by Bowen Shuttleworth in fourth (17:33), Gavin Middleton in fifth (17:40) and Reece Shuttleworth sixth (17:44). Also, George Karamitsis was 11th (18:09) and Charlie Finn 12th (18:09).

"There are a bunch of sophomores and that was their best race of the season," Yorktown coach Andrew Prantner said. "They all ran well, trusted their workouts and it was a breakthrough for them."

The Washington-Lee boys were led by junior and defending champion Jonny Jackson in second-place in 17:15. That was a minute faster than he ran a year ago. Senior Brendan Dunn was ninth (17:58) for W-L and junior Luke Anzaldi 10th (18:03).

Jackson finished behind champion and first-year cross country runner Max Greczyn of O'Connell, also a junior. He won in 17:04, pulling ahead of Jackson with about a mile left. Until then, the two had run stride for stride.

"He had more the last mile," said Jackson, who was second in 2015. "I'm proud of myself for running well on a tough course with a lot of twists and turns, but he's the real deal."

Greczyn ran outdoor track for O'Connell during the spring, then was told by friends they were making him run cross country for the first time in the fall. Greczyn has been a notable runner from his first race this fall.

"I really like it," Greczyn said. "In this race I wanted to run with the lead pack - and that was Jonny Jackson - for the first two miles, then pull away if I could. I really ran hard the last mile."

Said Jackson: "It was a good race. I like to run against him again."

Will Becht, a junior, was seventh for O'Connell (17:52).

For Wakefield, senior Amanuel Haileselassie was third (17:32) and junior Jackson Ringer eighth (17:56).