There will be nearly double the number of high school participants in this year's MCPS Consortia Championship as compared to last year, and for the first time, a truly competitive team battle.

Vying for the Consortia Cups will be teams from Northwood, Paint Branch, Einstein, Blair, Kennedy, Wheaton, Springbrook, and Blake. Northwood hosts the meet with a full schedule of races for middle school, high school, and community participants.

Three out of six consortia coaches polled selected Blair to win the girls team title for the fourth consecutive year while the other three coaches predicted the Einstein girls for the win. Nearly all coaches felt that it could go one way or the other between the two teams.

What to expect:
Springbrook's Sydney Almeida has had a number of great runs this year including the Bull Run Invitational when she rocketed up Mocorunning's individual rankings due to a 7th place time of 20:48. More recently, Almeida ran away from two-time Consortium Champion Morgana D'Ottavi and the Blair girls with a dominating 68 second win on a challenging Springbrook course in 19:32.

Einstein's Victoria Cabellos had an equally head-turning performance this week in running away from the entire Northwest High School roster by 17 seconds for a win in 20:14.

Watch for the freshman Cabellos to match the pace of the senior Almeida for as long as she can. Almeida's racing experience and track speed will be to her advantage when the runners return for the final loop around Northwood's playing fields.

Einstein has a leg up in the team competition with a strong front runner, but also unfortunately a major handicap due to losing a top four varsity runner for the remainder of the season due to illness. The advantage of having a frontrunner is further diminished by the fact that there will not be many runners from other teams filling the gap between Einstein's #1 and Blair's #1.

Despite these things, Einstein stepped up this week for a competitive race with Northwest and nearly came away with a win. The Blair girls had their most complete team performance to date in a dominating win over Springbrook. Since the consortia coaches were split down the middle, 3-3, let's say that the three-time defending Blair girls are the favorites until knocked off.

The boys race is not expected to be nearly so dramatic. Five out of six consortia coaches selected the Einstein boys to win its fourth Consortia Cup in dominant fashion. Even the dissenting voter acknowledged Einstein's strength.

Nick Simpson and Ben Withbroe of Einstein should lead the race. It might be Déjà vu watching the chase pack of Lorenzo Neil, Harold Dorsey, Binyam Tedesse, and Morgan Rivers racing the Northwood course as they did in a quad meet several weeks ago.

New this year is the addition of a junior varsity race for the boys only.

7:30 - Course Opens for course walk
8:00 -Race Day Registration & Packet Pick-Up Opens in Auxiliary Gym if wet, behind stadium ticket booth if dry
8:00 -High School Coaches Meeting @ finish in stadium.
8:45 -High School Junior Varsity Boys' Consortia Championship 5K (Medals - top 3 given at finish)
9:20-High School Girls' Consortia Championship 5K (Medals to top 15, Consortia Cup to 1st team)
9:20 - Race Day Registration ends for middle school races
9:55 -High School Varsity Boys' Consortia Championship 5K (Medals to top 15, Consortia Cup to 1st team)
10:00 - Race Day Registration ends for elementary and open races
10:20 -Middle School Boys' Consortia Championship 2.5K (Medal - 10, Ribbon - 15, Brag - 1 team)
10:40 -Middle School Girls' Consortia Championship 2.5K (Medal - 10, Ribbon - 15, Brag - 1 team)
11:00 - Elementary School Championship 2.25K (Ribbons given at finish)
11:25 -Awards for High School and Middle School medal winners and Champion Teams
11:45 -Open Championship 5K (Medal -top 3 M and F given at finish)