Woodward Relay: Churchill Takes Yet Another Title

By Donna Niewiarowski


Journal Staff Photos by Linda White. Rockville's Cynthia Zich (above) teamed with Louise Mallett to win the individual pair honors at last week's Woodward Relays. Churchill's team won, however, with 10 points to 11 for Seneca Valley.

Churchill's boys cross country team likes to run at Woodward and last Thursday the Bulldogs captured their fifth straight title at the Woodward Relays. Only in the relay's first year did Churchill fail to win. And the Churchill girls team slipped in this year with a one-point victory over Seneca Valley.

Churchill's boys won with 33 points, as expected, but Peary came in second with 55 points, and that wasn't expected. Richard Montgomery and Seneca Valley tied for third with 56 points.

Churchill coach Andy White was understandably pleased with his team's performance although he didn't feel his boys ran as well individually. The first team of Jerry Gerstein and Kenny Short took fifth while the other two pairs came in among the top 15.

Peary coach Tom Nawrocki, meanwhile, was caught completely by surprise. He was aiming for individual, not overall, team honors and his top pair Duane Gaskins and Doug Halpin captured fourth place. The other two pairs were 24th and 29th, and all three ran consistantly with the second and third pair credited with the surprise team finish.

Richard Montgomery's strength lies in its depth, said a very satisfied coach Lowell Fritts, as his Rockets ran to the tie with Seneca. Confident all along that his boys could run as well as they did, Fritts feels that a good attitude will help them win some more. RM's top team of Tad Stepek and Richard Pomeroy placed ninth.

Seneca Valley's first team of Mike Hoppes and Doug Rohrer accomplished the biggest surprise of the meet by overpowering the heavily the favored team of John Schelp and Don Kerwin from Landon.

Landon, aiming for the meet record set in 1974 by Peter Kirk and Ed Boggess, went out slow, as predicted, and worked its way through the pack up to second place behind Seneca at the fifth leg of the race. Last year, Landon's anchor man passed Seneeca Valley in the final 50 yards for the come-from-behind victory but this year Seneca built a large lead which Landon could not overcome.

Rohrer passed Einstein in the second mile to give the Screaming Eagles a lead they never relinquished, gradually building a victory margin of 20 seconds over Kerwin and Schelp. Rohrer and Hoppes were as happily surprised as their coach, having figured that since both Landon runners were better three-milers, they'd blow everybody away like last year.

Seneca coach Randy Changuris had approached the meet as an interval workout and stressed the overall team performance but he had to admit that Hoppes and Rohrer pulled off the victory simply because they wanted to win.

Churchill may have won the girls title but Rockville's first team of Cynthia Zich and Louise Mallett won by a large margin over strong Blair and Churchill teams.

Rockville coach Tom Benfield was aiming for a team performance and so he ran his first runner, freshman Cindy Raley (winner of the Novice Meet held two days earlier) on his second team. But the Rams did place fifth in last year's state meet and all but one runner returned so Benfield knew that his top three runners - Zich, Mallett and Raley - could run somewhere in the top 15. Rockville placed fourth as a team.

Sherwood's girls, which has only five runners, caught everyone's attention beating out Rockville by a point to finish third behind runner-up Seneca Valley. Coach Robert Jasper, in his first year with the Warriors, was very impressed with his girls performance, especially since it was the first interval workout after a preseason of distance running.

The Warriors, too, were looking for a team performance and they ran runners one and four, Theresa Pack and Doreen Maraffa, together and runners two and three, Dollie Lee and Cindy Cooke. The strategy paid dividends as both teams placed in the top 10. Pack-Maraffa took fourth. Lee-Cooke locked up ninth.

Teamwise, the meet held few surprises as Churchill and Seneca Valley battled for the top honors. Churchill totalled 10 points to 11 for the Eagles with both teams placing both running pairs among the top 10. Marion Jacobson and Theresa deGozman ran third for the Bulldogs while Kim Kokulis and Joan Abrams ran seventh. For Seneca Valley, Diane Jordan and Mary Knight captured fifth while Theresa Brown and Hannah Rowe held on for sixth place.


Blair's Vicky King teammed with Marlene Moreno for second place at Woodward.