A late-season surge helped the Mount Hebron boys win the region and state titles last fall. The No. 3 Vikings are hoping for more of the same this season, and they started their push with an impressive victory in Thursday's Howard County title meet at Centennial.
Mount Hebron was led by Constantine Matsakis (fourth) and Russell Buescher (sixth). Kevin Mertz (14th), Karthik Venkatraman (16th) and Stuart Russell (24th) also contributed as the Vikings' 64 points were enough to beat defending champion Atholton (90). Glenelg's Robby Creese won the race in 16 minutes, 56.15 seconds.
"All year long, they wanted to repeat what they did last year," said Mount Hebron coach Todd DeCrispino.
Matthew Pacheco led Atholton with a second-place finish, but no other Raider made the top 10. Pacheco was just 3.7 seconds behind Creese.
On the girls' side, No. 2 River Hill repeated as champion. Leanne Young (third), Payton Lawrence (sixth) and Anna Demaree (10th) led the way as the Hawks finished with 49 points to rout Mount Hebron (95).
Becky Yep of Mount Hebron won the race, as her time of 20:03.04 easily beat Alyse Gibson from Reservoir (20:41.24).
Anne Arundel County
Severna Park swept the Anne Arundel County championships at South River. The No. 5 Falcons (51) edged Broadneck by four on the boys' side. Chesapeake's Will Neal won the race. The top-ranked Falcon girls (31) won by 25 over South River. Hillary Lee of South River captured that race.
Baltimore City
The Edmondson boys and Western girls were the winners at the Baltimore City meet at Herring Run Park. Edmondson's Kenneth Johnson won the boys' race and Western's Brinae Robinson won the girls'.
Carroll County
Winters Mill won the boys' title and Westminster's Ryan Taylor took the individual crown. No. 4 Century won the team title for the girls, led by race winner Maura Linde.
Harford and Cecil County
Bel Air's boys and girls finished second in the UCBAC meet behind Bohemia Manor, which swept both races.
