Shreya Nalubola of Centennial Provides the Only Surprise With Her Win

Boys

After the heat at the Howard County Invitational in September took its' toll on the runners, the pace of the first mile and a half on Tuesday looked like a post workout cooldown.

There was a pack of nearly 15 runners as they approached the short steep hill on the course for the second time.  As they made the U turn and came down the hill, Danny Rau of Reservoir and Tim Virostek of Wilde Lake quickly seperated themselves from the field.

Rau said afterwards, "It just didn't feel like a championship meet with the race being on a Tuesday and no one really wanting to push the pace."

Virostek who was the main victim of the heat at the HoCo Invitational as he passed out as he came down the final hill said, "Everyone remembered how bad it was in September and we just did not want to take it out as hard."

In the girls race, Rachel Yep of Mt. Hebron, Allison Kreim from River Hill took the pace out fast and both paid for it later in the race.

The eventual winner, Shreya Nalubola of Centennial, planned her race well and took the lead after the two mile mark and extended it over the last mile.  Britt Lang of Oakland Mills, who abandoned her usual plan of pushing the pace from the start, bided her time early to take second easily.

The Centennial boys and Reservoir girls took home the team titles.