The Marshall boys and girls teams put together their second consecutive solid team performances en route to a pair of tri-meet victories over Lee and McLean on Wednesday, October 3 at Lewinsville Park in McLean.
Both the boys and girls squads struggled to a third-place finish at this meet a year ago. But this time around, both teams earned double-digit wins with an identical low score of 29 points.
The boys used a strong second-place performance by sophomore Doug Shapiro and a close-knit pack not far behind him to outdistance Lee (second with 45 points) and McLean (52 points). Sophomore Beth Stein won the girls race to pace Marshall past Lee (40) and McLean (56).
Shapiro used a strong closing kick to finish with a time of 16:53, nearly a minute faster than the time he ran on the Lewinsville course last year. Then came a solid Marshall pack of senior Jorge Mendoza (5th, 17:26), freshman Justin Harper (6th, 17:28), senior Tim Eckard (7th, 17:29) and junior Charlie Palen (9th, 17:39) to clinch the victory.
Senior David Wadley (13th, 18:19), sophomores Irving Duncan (17th, 18:30) and Matt Belcher (18th, 18:32) and junior Robert Misleh (22nd, 18:46) were the other top Marshall finishers in the boys race, which had 72 runners competing.
On the girls side, Stein, who tied for first last year, made sure none of the other 34 runners in the race were with her at the finish line this time, using an impressive surge over the final 100 yards to win with a time of 20:04.
Junior Liz Tran (3rd, 20:47) turned in the fastest cross country race time of her career and junior Jessica Lee (5th, 21:08) stepped up with another critical performance. Sophomore Jacqui Yahn provided some of the most valuable points in the victory by passing a pair of runners in the final 200 yards to move up and finish eighth in 21:55. Junior Christy Friend (12th, 22:40) rounded out the scoring for the Statesmen, and freshman Zoe Van Gelder (14th, 22:43) provided key depth with her best performance so far this season.
Girls Team Results
Marshall 29, Lee 40, McLean 56.
Marshall Girls Results
1. Beth Stein 20:04
3. Liz Tran 20:47
5. Jessica Lee 21:08
8. Jacqui Yahn 21:55
12. Christy Friend 22:40
14. Zoe Van Gelder 22:43
15. Laura Colello 22:56
16. Lexi Witman 23:02
17. Theresa Kattula 23:04
22. Sara Hoffmann 23:47
24. Samantha Belcher 23:55
26. Jesica Nunez 24:09
27. Melissa Menke 24:16
29. Daniella Urrutia 26:36
33. Kim Tran 30:33
(35 total runners)
Boys Team Results
Marshall 29, Lee 45, McLean 52.
Marshall Boys Results
2. Doug Shapiro 16:53
5. Jorge Mendoza 17:26
6. Justin Harper 17:28
7. Tim Eckard 17:29
9. Charlie Palen 17:39
13. David Wadley 18:19
17. Irving Duncan 18:30
18. Matt Belcher 18:32
22. Robert Misleh 18:46
23. Sharif Sabur 18:54
25. Brad Mader 18:57
27. Jesse Bradford 19:02
29. Jeff Barnes 19:06
30. Red Daly 19:11
34. Carlos Poza 19:31
37. Andrew Campos 19:49
42. Michael Eckard 20:03
47. Ryan McElveen 20:26
51. Keith Born 20:59
54. Kevin Davis 21:07
58. Alex Finnell 21:15
59. Ryan Tumulty 21:16
61. Juan Nunez 21:21
64. Stephen Somers 21:46
66. A.J. Frank 21:53
70. Dennis Witowski 22:40
(72 total runners)