Photos: Caroline Oppenheimer

Words: Michael Moore

On Tuesday, Oct. 22, the Howard County cross-country championships were held at Centennial. Runners representing each school in the county gathered to compete in the races.

The first race that took place was the boys’ varsity race, where the Centennial boys came in second place, behind Mt. Hebron. The boys were led by senior Hutson Baumann, who came in fifth place overall. Cross-country boys coach Alan Dodds was happy with his team’s performance. “I thought it was good. Hebron is a very good team,” he said. “They put three runners in the top ten, which is really hard to overcome. We were fighting for second place.” The Eagles edged out the River Hill Hawks by one point to take second in the county, which was propelled by having five out of seven varsity runners place in the top 25.

It was also a productive afternoon for the girls’ team, who took home the county title this year after coming in second last year. Junior Shreya Nalubola won the race for a second straight year, beating her time of last year by almost 30 seconds. Sophomores Devin McIntyre and Ally Driscoll came in fourth and sixth place respectively, and freshman Kara Taylor rounded out the top ten.

It has been a strong season for the girls, with wins at the Spiked Shoe Invitational, Barnhart Invitational, and the Georgetown Prep Invitational; the team seemed ready for the big race on Tuesday. With six out of seven runners in the top 15, their performance was no match for the rest of the county, and they prevailed by a large point margin of 34.

Both the boys and girls’ teams are now preparing for the regional meet held at Centennial next week.