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Republished with permission granted by The Washington Newspaper Publishing Co. LLC d/b/a MediaDC. Back to Montgomery Journal articles
Churchill wins meet in tie-breaker
By PAT DALTON
Journal staff writer
Going into Friday's county high school cross country meet at Watkins Mill, everyone broke out their cliche books to describe the expected tight competition between the Churchill and Whitman girls teams.
Hard-fought, tightly contested and nip and tuck were among the descriptions used to characterize the expected clash between the meet's two evenly matched co-favorites.
As it turned out, those seemingly apt descriptions proved to be somewhat inadequate.
After the race, when all of the county's 109 girl varsity runners crossed the finish line, the Bulldogs and Vikings found themselves locked in an extraordinary, if unlikely, tie.
Churchill's first five runners - Sarah Leshner, Tina Brown, Liz Field, Jill Cesari and Karen Sun - racked up 57 points, while Whitman's first five - Carol Bartosiewicz, Christine Gallagher, Rachel Peyser, Anne Perkins and Irene Log - accumulated the same exact total.
That sent the race to a tie-breaker, which was the result of each team's sixth runner. Race officials combed through the results and found that Heather Greenbaum of Churchill finished 30th, five places ahead of Whitman's sixth runner, Margarita Correa (35th).
The Bulldog girls' triumph snapped Whitman's four-year winning streak at the county meet, and marked a coming-of-age for Coach Ron McGaw's team.
"They worked hard, they ran hard, and they reaped the benefits," McGaw said.
McGaw explained that one of the keys to victory was the gutty running of Field.
Field, the 13th-place finisher, passed Whitman's Peyser, the No. 14 finisher, with a later sprint during the race's home stretch to garner a single point that proved to be crucial for the tie.
"You talk to them over and over and say, 'Every point counts,' but how many times does it come down to it, when it really does count?" McGaw said.
Whitman Coach Kerry Ward was pleased with the performance of his girls, and complimented Churchill's effort.
"I'm very pleased. They ran real well," Ward said. "It's [the competition] probably the closest it's ever been in the county. Churchill did really well. They were ready to run, but we were too. It was just a close race. Congratulations to them."
Quince Orchard finished third in the team standings with 86 points, followed by Watkins Mill (105) and Wootton (107).
In the individual competition, Rebeccah Wassner of Watkins Mill dueled with Tonya Watson of Kennedy during the final mile before breaking away and winning the race in 19:52.
Watson finished second in 20:11, followed by Erin Gorely of Gaithersburg (20:23), Bartosiewicz of Whitman (20:25) and Christina Stallings of Quince Orchard (20:38).
Wassner said she passed Watson, the early leader, with about a mile to go, but the Kennedy runner surged back ahead before Wassner went into her final winning kick.
"When I caught up with her [Watson] I didn't want to waste all my energy there, so I tried to stay with her for awhile," Wassner said. "Then it seemed like she was going too slow, so I just went ahead."
Watson said she tried her best to respond to Wassner.
On the boys side, there was far less drama.
Whitman, which had been ranked No. 21 nationally by Harrier magazine before a subpar fourth-place finish in the previous week's Georgetown Prep Classic, ran away with the ream competition.
The Vikings had a winning total of 49 points to top runner-up Quince Orchard (69 points). Walter Johnson was third (103), followed by Richard Montgomery (145) and Wheaton (201).
Pascal Dobert of Whitman won the individual competition with a clocking of 16:03. Balazs Koranyi of Walter Johnson was second with 16:29, followed by Troy Harry of Quince Orchard (16:40), Mark Engberg of Whitman (16:41) and Darren Berstein of Churchill (16:56).
Dobert, who finished a disappointing seventh at the Georgetown Prep Classic, said he and his teammates concentrated better at the county meet.
"I wasn't as focused as I should have been [at Georgetown Prep]," Dobert said. "Today, that's what I wanted to do - be focused. We were ranked by the Harrier and grew a little cocky."
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