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And so ends another high school cross country season. What a wild ride it was! The Quince Orchard boys were the number one team in the county and state from the very beginning until the very end. They won the MCPS Division I Title, Peter Geraghty Invitational at Mount St. Mary's, the Glory Days Grill Invitational, the Montgomery County Championship, the 4A West Region Championship, and the Maryland 4A State Championship. They represented our state by finishing 7th at the Nike Team Nationals Southeast Regional Meet.
The question in the county for the whole season was who would step up and be the 2nd best boys team? Walter Johnson looked good after a victory at the Woodward Relays and the first month of dual meets, only suffering a loss to QO. Gaithersburg also rolled through their dual meets, claiming the Division II crown by mid-September with a double win over Magruder and B-CC. It was B-CC that layed low for the entire month of September before suffering a dual meet loss to Gaithersburg that caused everyone to write them off as nothing special. Boy were we wrong! Despite very fast times from B-CC in all of their dual meets, they didn't gain much attention until they won the large race at the Bull Run Invitational.
The most telling and exciting moments of the season came at the Glory Days Grill Invitational. Quince Orchard won against a strong field with B-CC placing 6th, far in front of Gaithersburg and Good Counsel. Yet, B-CC still did not have the respect of the fans who picked Gaithersburg over B-CC in the mocorunning county championship poll. Glory Days also marked the rise of the Northwest boys, who won the B race without two of their varsity runners (freshman Chris Miller won the freshman race and led the team for the rest of the season).
All questions were answered when QO decisively won the county title and B-CC decisivley placed 2nd ahead of the rest. Whitman, Northwest, and Gaithersburg all finished within 4 points of each other for 3rd, 4th, and 5th respectively. B-CC went on to dominate the 3A West Regional Championship and barely beat out Wilde Lake by 1 point at the Maryland 3A State Championship.
All seven of the teams that qualified for the state championship out of the 4A West were Montgomery County teams and all seven finished in the top ten at the state meet. Northwest placed 2nd at the state meet and return all but one of their top seven runners next year.
The Churchill girls began the season hot with a 2nd place finish at the Great Meadows Invitational, but it was unclear if they could take on the powerful Northwest team who had won the 4 previous county titles and dominated the Peter Geraghty Invitational during opening weekend. A super-quad meet in September showed that Churchill was definitively better. At that same meet, Northwest began to show signs of injury while Whitman showed just how strong they were by taking down Northwest as well. There was no looking back for Churchill who never lost to a county team all season. They won the Montgomery County Championship, the 4A West Regional Championship, and placed a disappointing 4th at the Maryland 4A State Championship. They traveled to Alabama and placed 6th at the NTN Southeast Regional Championship Meet.
Individually, the title of best runner in the county exchanged hands a few times. The preseason chatter was around the defending county champions Chris Moen of Walter Johnson and Morgane Gay of Whitman.
Gay could not have been more dominant for the first month and a half of the season. Her only 2nd place performance in September came against nationally elite runner Hannah Davidson of Saratoga Springs, NY at the Oatlands Invitational. She then lost to several more elite runners at the Manhattan Invitational, but was considered the overwhelming favorite to defend her county title. She defended her county title in a record-breaking time of 18:09.
Freshman Britt Eckerstrom finished in the top 5 at the Peter Geraghty Invitational at Mount St. Mary's, but had a truly breakout race by placing 3rd at the Paul Short Invitational. She led her team for the rest of the season by placing 2nd at the Octoberfest Invitational, 5th at the Glory Days Invitational, and 3rd at the Montgomery County Championship. She shocked moco fans with a victory over 2nd place Gay at the 4A West Regional Championship. She went on to finish 2nd in the state, getting outkicked at the very end of the race. Morgane Gay had a fantastic season. Eckerstrom finished the strongest.
Defending county champion Chris Moen was unable to win any major races in the first month and fans began to lose confidence in him. Quince Orchard's Neal Darmody made a strong case for himself by winning every race that he ran by large margins. By the end of September, Moen and Darmody met in a dual meet with Darmody winning with ease. Darmody continued to roll right through the Glory Days Grill Invitational where he won a thrilling 5k race in 15:08. He proceeded to break the county record with a time of 15:41 at the county championship and also win the 4A West Regional Championship Meet.
Andrew Palmer had a target on Darmody's back all season. He lulled in the middle of the season with some races that he wishes he could take back. But by the time championship season rolled around, Palmer was in peak condition. He placed 2nd at the county championship, 2nd at the regional championship, and upset Darmody with a win at the state championship meet. Similar to the girls, Darmody dominated all season long. Palmer came up big when it counted the most.
| Girls Standings |
Churchill | 6-0 |
Whitman | 5-1 |
Northwest | 4-2 |
Quince Orchard | 3-3 |
Walter Johnson | 2-4 |
R. Montgomery | 1-5 |
Sherwood | 0-6 |
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Wootton | 5-0 |
Damascus | 4-1 |
Blair | 2-3 |
B-CC | 2-3 |
Magruder | 1-4 |
Gaithersburg | 1-4 |
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Clarksburg | 5-0 |
Paint Branch | 4-1 |
Einstein | 3-2 |
Springbrook | 2-3 |
Blake | 1-4 |
Seneca Valley | 0-5 |
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Poolesville | 5-0 |
Rockville | 4-1 |
Wheaton | 0-2 |
Kennedy | 0-2 |
Watkins Mill | 0-2 |
Northwood | 0-2 |
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| Boys Standings |
Quince Orchard | 6-0 |
Walter Johnson | 5-1 |
Whitman | 4-2 |
Northwest | 3-3 |
Churchill | 2-4 |
Sherwood | 2-4 |
R. Montgomery | 0-6 |
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Gaithersburg | 5-0 |
B-CC | 4-1 |
Damascus | 3-2 |
Magruder | 2-3 |
Blair | 1-4 |
Wootton | 0-5 |
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Clarksburg | 5-0 |
Einstein | 4-1 |
Paint Branch | 3-2 |
Springbrook | 2-3 |
Seneca Valley | 1-4 |
Blake | 0-5 |
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Watkins Mill | 5-0 |
Northwood | 4-1 |
Kennedy | 2-3 |
Wheaton | 2-3 |
Poolesville | 2-3 |
Rockville | 0-5 |
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All 2007 XC Rankings & Polls:
All 2007 XC Articles
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