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 Dave Wilson, Maura Linde post fastest times. Loyola and Severna Park make bids for number 1. Corrections Made in Results
Urbana's Jimmy Miller decided early on that he was going to try and follow Will Neal of Chespeake in the opening varsity race of the 2009 Bull Run Invitational. Miller kept up that notion through most of the first two miles, but started to falter on the back side of the course. This gave Ben Pershall of Severna Park and Shane O'Donnell of Annapolis a chance to work together to reel in the Urbana runner. They caught him on the second pass through the dip and the three of them stayed together until the final 100 meters. Pershall dropped his head and powered through the finish line for the second place finish in 17:10 behind Neal's winning 16:55. O'Donnell was able to hold off Miller for third.
The team race was extremely close with Broadneck winning over a surprising Leonardtown and Severna Park teams. The three teams were only seperated by nine points. Atholton held off Dulaney for fourth 165-168.
A very fit looking Stephanie Joson of Quince Orchard led Abby Spitler and Stephanie Crane of Broadneck through most of the course until Joson pulled away at the top of the dip. Josie Fillat of Chesapeake closed quickly to finish only three seconds behind Crane.
Leonardtown beat Dulaney by a single point 69-70 for the win. Each Leonardtown/Dulaney finisher was only seperated by a single placing. Leonardtown's win came because they had three scores finish ahead of their Dulaney counterpart, while the Lions only led with two of their runners. Jessica Gass led Leonardtown in seventh and Chelsey Bush was Dulaney's top finisher in eighth. Going into the boys elite race even though Loyola had won the Barnhart and Knights Invitational, fellow MIAA opponent, Calvert Hall still looked to be the favorite. But after a complete whitewash by the Dons of their opponents, it looks like Loyola will be making a run for the top spot in the state this week.
Loyola's top two of Matt Jablonski (4th, 16:54) and Matt Erford (9th, 17:09) were both expected to be in the top ten, but Brendan Tizard, Pat Finley and John Lobo all got in by 22nd for a convincing 72-118 win over Colonial Forge of Virginia. River Hill led by Scott Heydrick in 11th got the third place spot over Calvert Hall, who had Nick Rowe in third.
 Smithsburg's David Wilson won the race in the fastest time of the day with a 16:29. Luke Arbuckle of Elkton held onto Wilson's shoulder through most of the race, but lost him going up the dip the second time and settled for second in 16:40. The surprise finish of the day went to Hereford's mason Rivera who almost ran Jablonski down in the last stretch for fifth place at 16:56. Rivera set himself as the favorite in the Baltimore County Championships.
Jack Strabo from Landon who was a late entrant was sixth.
In the girls race, the diminuative Elizabeth Tauber of John Carroll took the race right to public school favorites, Maura Linde of Century and Becky Yep of Mt. Hebron. At the mile mark, Tauber had established a lead over Linde and coming off the dip the second time, Tauber still had a 10 meter lead over Tauber. But going into the trail behind the backstop before the final stretch, Linde turned on another gear and when emerging onto the final stretch, Linde had given herself a lead. Linde charged the final straightaway for the fastest girls time of the day in 19:20. Tauber finished seven seconds back.
Thomas Johnson was looking to extend their winning streak, but ran into the pack running Severna Park team from Anne Arundel County. The Patriots had Stephanie Bryan and Savanna Plombon in third and fifth places, respectively, but the rest of their team had succumbed to the hills of Hereford. Meanwhile, the Severna Park girls ran together for most of the race and while their first finisher was only in 8th place, Chris Patrick, her teammates Ashley Hayes and Jodie Clouser finished in 10th and 11th. That pack running gave Severna Park a three point win over TJ 78-81. River Hill and Century finished in fourth and fifth. The CM Wright girls dropped down th is year from the large school race to the medium race, but the outcome was still the same. Donnie Mickey's team had lost a number of their athletes to graduation, but Shannon Rafferty (3rd 20:50) and Whitney Hora (7th, 21:26) were able to lead the team to the title. The Mustangs were able to get all of their runners in by 30th place for an easy 78-112 win over Centennial. Centennial was led by Olivia Joseph in 11th place at 22:06.
Abbey Daley of Clarksburg went for the lead right from the start and dared anyone to stay with her. Megan Schott from North Harford started far back in the pack after the first mile, but closed strongly to finish only seven seconds back.
Ryan O'Connor of Northern ran away from favorites Stephen Keith of Walkersville and Noah Hutton of North Harford in the hills on the backside of the course and then used his 1:58 800 speed to hold them off in the final 800. O'Connor won in 17:08 , eight seconds in front of Hutton.
Walkersville won the team title by a mere 12 points over Northern. Contestoga Valley from Pa. finished third ahead of surprising Albert Einstein and Towson.
The Poolesville boys surprised the field by taking the boys small school title at Bull Run yesterday. Their coach took me on the side before the race and said, "We've been hiding, my boys are going to pull this out." Led by Eric Homstead's third place finish in 17:15, the southern Montgomery County team beat Winters Mill by four 84-88. Winters Mill was without their number two runner Ryan Spangler.
Ian MacFawn made short work out of the individual race by winning easily over Blake Stein of Pikesville in 16:52. MacFawn had finished second in a triathlon in Western Maryland less than a week before. Stein who spent much of the race running in the top ten, moved up as the race went along and was moving up on MacFawn at the end of the race.
Arcbishop Curley placed three runners in the top 11, Dave Ozarowski (6th), Alex Waldt (7th) and Jeremy Skarda (11th) to finish third in the team standings.
Bohemia Manor had the girls race in hand with Jen Cleary (2nd), Emily Krakowski (5th), Bailey Brooks (11th) and Jessica Peters (12th), but had to sweat out Emily Jeandell having a bad day (34th) before they could celebrate their win. South Carroll put a scare into them with a 1-3 finish by Cody Mezebish and Samantha Bingaman, but their 4-5 runners both finished in the 30's and they could not overcome a 30 point deficit.
Samantha McElroy of Liberty who led the early portions of the race finished fourth in 20:57.
The first finisher from the lower Easter Shore was Cambridge South Dorchester's Ashley Simmons in seventh in 21:11.
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