St. Albans Cross-Country hosted what is rapidly becoming one of the most popular cross-country meets in the area Saturday. Named in honor of the legendary St. Albans coach and athletic director, the 2024 Skip Grant meet attracted 31 teams including 21 in the Varsity Boys division. The challenging course at Maryland’s Agricultural History Farm Park in upper Montgomery County was made even trickier by the past week’s rain. But that did not bother STA’s William Strong, Sebi Hume, Liam Quinn and Laszlo Wolfe. The quartet of senior Bulldogs finished in the top four positions to help STA to a first-place overall finish in the Boys Varsity race with 21 team points, well ahead of second place Crofton High School (100 points) and third place Bethesda-Chevy Chase (105 points). Strong won the race in 16:37 with Hume close behind (16:40) followed by Quinn (16:44) and Wolfe (16:50). Junior Charlie Palmore rounded out STA’s scoring with an 11^th place finish in 17:44. Sophomores Thomas Power (18^th, 18:02) and Declan Hamilton (36^th, 18:52), junior William Cantrell (69^th, 19:39) and senior James Denney (91^st, 20:14) also posted excellent times in the 146-runner field.

 

Junior Henry Barnett led St. Albans to a sweep, finishing second overall in the Boys JV race with a time of 19:29. He was followed by juniors Humphrey Wolfe (4^th, 19:33), Willem Cohn (5^th, 19:38), sophomore Evan Campbell (11^th, 20:07) and freshman Gavin Tang (20^th, 20:20) for 42 team points, narrowly topping The Heights which finished second with 48 points.

 

The Bulldogs varsity is three for three on the season with three first place finishes in three meets. They return to the Maryland XC Invitational Saturday, October 5 at Shawan Downs in Northern Baltimore County (Cockeysville, MD). Sebi Hume will attempt to defend his 2023 first-place individual finish. The team placed second at the meet a year ago, just 18 points behind overall winner Towson High School. St. Albans' varsity team is scheduled to race at 9:00am in the Black & Gold Varsity race. Onsite parking is sold out. Remote parking is available at 215 Schilling Circle, Hunt Valley, MD 21031 (Map). Spectators will be shuttled via bus directly to the spectator viewing area at Shawan Downs. Remote parking is $10 and can be purchased online (https://runsignup.com/TicketEvent/MDXCRemoteParking)  or onsite (card only). Please be prepared to show your confirmation QR Code upon arrival if you purchase online. Buses will leave on a rolling basis starting at 7:05AM. The last bus will depart Shawan Downs at 1:45 PM.