The South Carroll Invite was the last invite in a busy two week period of racing for many teams. With Rosh Hashanah occurring this weekend, meet director Rob Pennington had to move the start time of the meet up a few hours.
"We needed to finish early", said Pennington, "so we needed to start at 2:00".
The meet was also a busy period for many of the teams running. Century ran Wednesday at the Mountain Run in Walkersville, Mt. Hebron had raced the past two weekends along with league meets so many of the runners were a bit leg weary.
Paul Ulrich, Mt. Hebron coach said of the log jam of events, "It's unavoidable at this point. We have to do what we have to do."
Jimmy Miller of Urbana was looking for his third win in as many weeks and had Howard County's best to contend with. The lead pack through the first two miles of the course were Miller, Constantine Matsakis of Mt. Hebron, Robby Creese of Glenelg and Eric Schuler of Reservoir.
Miller let Creese get away from him before they hit the top of the hill after the first lap and then surged to get a lead on Creese and Matsakis.
"We've been working on running hills once a week", said Miller. "The idea is to surge once we hit the top of the hill and that's where I pulled away."
Miller said he has not changed his strategy now that he has won his past three race. "I just go out and run hard", said Miller.
Matsakis passed Creese less than 100 meters from the finish and held off a late charge by the Glenelg runner to finish second.
"The team is still feeling good", said Matsakis when asked about whether the multiple races had left his team weary.
Ryan Taylor of Westminster was outleaned by Nick Pezza of century, but the Westminster senior was pleased with his performance.
"We didn't run the race at Walkersville on Wednesday and that gave us a little extra rest", said Taylor.
In the team race, River Hill won with 75 points by getting all their scores in by 21st place. Mt. Hebron was second with 98 despite having Matsakis in second. Their other scorers placed between 22nd and 27th. Another Howard County team, Glenelg was third with 137.
The girls race looked like a matchup between Maura Linde of Century and Becky Yep of Mt. Hebron, but Yep was sitting the race out.
"We're strategizing a bit this season", said Yep. "My first race is going to be Bull Run next weekend and I want to be fresh for the end of the season."
Samantha McElroy of Liberty took the early lead up the first big hill, but by the time the runners came out of the woods the first time, Linde had already built herself a sizeable lead.
By the end of the race, Linde had built a 40 second lead over Cody Mezebish of South Carroll winning in 20:14. Anna Demaree of River Hill who changed her race strategy from two weeks ago, started out slowly and moved her way through the pack to finish third in 20:12.
Linde said she was a little tired after the race.
"I was definitely feeling it today", said Linde. "All the girls were a little tired and I told them to focus on place and not on time."
Century still finished second to River Hill (65-97), despite placing Linde first and Kirsten McGovern fourth.
Bel Air on the strength of Hannah Stambaugh's twelveth place finish was third with 141 points.
Most teams return to action next Saturday at Bull Run in Hereford.
Miller Gets Third Win of Year and Linde Has Second Win in a Week
Linde said she was a little tired after the race.
