Most Montgomery County teams are waiting until after Labor Day to run their first race, but Clarksburg Coach Rob Burke did not want to wait for four weeks after the first practice to run their first race. The Clarksburg runners proved that they were ready to start the season at the South River Seahawk Invitational on Saturday.

Will Bertrand attacked his first high school 5k race from the gun and never let up. He broke away from the field before the first mile. He came through the first mile in approximately 4:30 according to Coach Rob Burke.

The runners described the first mile as mostly downhill. The second mile had two challenging uphills and one long downhill, and the third mile was the first mile in reverse, so it was net uphill.

Bertrand completed the course solo without another runner in striking distance. After the race, he said that the winning time of 16:17 was a good starting point.

Clarksburg took third place in the boys standings with four out of seven runners new to cross country. When asked if he thought cross country was much different from track, Bertrand said that it was very different.

"We just wanted to run the race and figure it out."

Abbey Daley kicked off her senior season with an eleven second victory in 19:56. Julie Koeffler of Severna Park paced off of Daley for the first half of the race, but Daley said that she broke away around the midway point of the race following the two challenging uphills in the second mile.

Daley was one day removed from surgery in which she had a cystic nevus removed from the upper chest. The procedure did not require general anaesthesia and she returned to school after lunch on Friday and participated in practice. She had a bandage on her chest and was experiencing some soreness during the race.