Nestled in the rolling hills of Maryland’s historic Hunt Valley, Shawan Downs is a premiere equestrian venue that hosts prestigious steeplechase events throughout the year.  Every October the facility converts to a stage for the top high school cross country runners and teams in Maryland and beyond. On a muddy course Saturday, St. Albans cross country continued to prevail over any terrain and any competition the 2024 season has put before them with a dominating first-place finish over 34 other teams at the Maryland XC Invitational. Bulldog runners Sebi Hume, William Strong and Liam Quinn finished first, second and third in the field of 237 runners. Laszlo Wolfe was close behind in sixth and Charlie Palmore was fourteenth for a team score of 26 points, 127 more than second-place finisher Mountain Brook High School, the Alabama Class 6A defending state champions. Hume’s winning time of 15:47 was one second off his 2023 first-place time at this meet. At 15:51, Strong bettered his time from a year ago by 24 seconds and Quin improved by 43 seconds from 2023 to post a 15:54. Wolf (16:04, 45 seconds ahead of 2023), and Palmore (16:17, 1:02 improvement) followed suit. Thomas Power (16:27, 18^th place) and Rafi Hume (16:38, 24^th) also turned in strong performances to put all 7 STA runners in the top 25, which is a stellar accomplishment in such a large and competitive field.

 

Declan Hamilton led STA to an impressive third place finish in the Boys JV race, which had a huge field of 567 runners and 50 teams. Hamilton finished 12^th at 18:05 followed by Sammy Miller (18:18, 20^th), William Cantrell (18:23, 21^st), Humphrey Wolfe (18:35, 29^th), and Henry Barnett (18:42, 32^nd).  Capping off a tremendous day for the entire program, the Bulldogs took second place in the 27-team open division. Lincoln Eyer led the way with a 10^th place finish at 19:28. Henry Hall (20:10) was 17^th in the 353-runner field with Alex Acosta (20:21, 21^st), Matthew Karrels (20:24, 23^rd), and Grant Davis (20:29, 27^th) putting all of STA’s scorers in the top 30.

 

The Bulldogs travel to Mechanicsburg, VA just outside of Richmond Saturday, October 19 to compete in the VA XC Showcase. STA Placed second at the meet last year, just 22 points behind Calvert Hall. The course at Pole Green Park is billed as the fastest in the nation and is the host of the Atlantic-10 conference championship meet. This will be the Dogs’ final tune-up before the IAC championship meet October 26.