Photo by Craig Amoss
Who was the top boys runner of the second week of the 2019 cross country season? Vote below!
The Seahawk Invitational rematch didn't quite materialize at Saturday's Howard County Invitational as neither Anish Nanjappa nor Sam Keeny ran, but Arundel's Tanner Piotrowski didn't mind. Piotrowski won a showdown against Oakdale's Kyle Lund, clocking a 15:25 three-mile effort that was only a couple seconds off the time he clocked in his season opening race at South River. He will look to pick up his second straight win in the large school race at next weekend's Bull Run Invitational.
Montgomery Blair junior (and MileSplit contributor) Joel Simpson kicked off his 2019 season with two wins this week, the second coming at the Hood College Invitational. His 16:26 effort was more than a minute faster than his previous personal best, and led the Blazers to a commanding team victory (46 points, five boys 17:07 or faster).
John Carroll's Nick Singleakis made his name known after finishing fifth at Saturday's Barnhart Invitational. (Photo by John Roemer)
Two freshmen made this week's list after impressive performances this past weekend. John Carroll's Nick Singleakis was a surprise top--five finisher at the Barnhart Invitational on Saturday, and one of two freshmen to finish in the top ten. His 16:13 time is currently the 12th-fastest time in the country by a freshman and the second-fastest by a Maryland freshman since 2014 (only Severna Park's Nick Benedict ran faster as a freshman).
Speaking of Severna Park, freshman Brad Dulin picked up the first win of his cross country career on Friday evening out in Delaware at the White Clay Creek Classic. His 17:29 effort to win the freshman race was impressive - but perhaps even more impressive was the fact that the Falcons arrived to the park only a few minutes before the start of the race.
Finally, Bullis' Nick Karayianis continued his hot start to the 2019 cross country season at the Barnhart Invitational. Karayianis went virtually unchallenged throughout the race, shaving off a few tenths of a second off his 5K personal best. His 15:41 time was the eighth-fastest time of the decade on Dulaney's home course.