Last year it was an individual from the Potomac School and this year a full team of runners from the squad that were late entries and made big impacts at the boys varsity races of the annual Monroe Parker Invitation cross country meet.
Led by race runner-up Sasha Minsky in 15:32, the Potomac School Panthers finished fourth in the team standings of the Sept. 9 event. The squad was permitted entry into the meet only two days earlier.
Minsky finished strong, trying hard but falling a second short of passing winner James Cicero of West Potomac (15:31) in the final yards of a down-hill sprint to the finish on the 2.9-mile Burke Lake Park course.
Minsky and the Panthers participated in the meet for the first time.
“My individual goal was to finish in the top five and that was a good time for me,” said Minsky, who was a top runner on last season’s conference and state champion Potomac School team on the private-school ranks. “As a team we had a chance to finish well in this meet.”
Potomac School graduate and now college runner Charlie Ortmans won the 2022 Monroe Parker boys varsity race as the lone individual entry from the team.
“He gave me a lot of tips about the course of last year about loose gravel and to always stay with the top pack,” Minsky said. “I followed that.”
Potomac School’s other top runners in the Monroe Parker meet were Alex Mathews in 24th (16:51), Zach Dalva-Baird (34th, 17:04), Eli Levine (39th, 17:11), Trip Moser (50th (17:19) and Max Zeldes (52nd (17:24).
For Minsky, the runner-up finish was his second of the young season. The first came at the Trials of Miles Opening Night meet at Morven Park in Leesburg, when the Panthers were fifth as a team.
“I want to break the tape first at one of these meets this season,” said Minsky, who finished fourth in last season’s Division I private-school state meet.
The Langley Saxons boys were sixth at Monroe Parker, with Aiden Raoufinia finishing 19th (16:30), Wes Knaggs 27th (16:53), Charles Gavin 41st (17:12), Zachary Cardenas 51st (17:20) and Tyler Swint 53rd (17:24).
In the Monroe Parker girls varsity race, defending 6D North Region champion Langley was fifth, led individually by Hazel Calway’s eighth in 18:32, a 12th by Madeleine Spanner (18:58) and Lila Pesavento 19th (18:58).
Those three Langley runners are returners from last season’s region-title team. Langley’s other top two finishers at the Monroe Parker meet were Paige Paulos (48th, 21:05) and Lily Zavrel (69th, 21.38).
The Madison girls were ninth at Monroe Parker, with Lydia Mikhin 14th (19:11) and Kiki Van Der Weide 21st (19:42).
The Potomac School girls were 11th. Audrey Rentzepis led the way individually in 23rd (19:50), Kate Tuttle was 32nd (20:05) and Arielle Kouyoumdjian 40th (20:23).
The Potomac School girls were a strong team last fall finishing high in its conference and state meets, with Tuttle among the Panthers’ top runners a year ago.
The Potomac School team also was a late entry into the Sept. 9 meet.
For the Marshall girls at the Monroe Parker meet, Amelia Shoemaker was 35th (20:10) and Sydney Parish 54th (21:10), with the team placing 14th in the final of 25 teams.
The Oakton Cougars, who are annual among the top girls and boys teams in the state, did not compete in the Monroe Parker meet this season.
An upcoming big meet that many of the local teams will be participating is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 23, with races beginning at 9 a.m. at Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg.
