On November 1st, Severn’s Varsity Men’s Cross Country Team won the MIAA B Conference Championship, completing their back-to-back season! The Admirals won with a final score of 54, beating out their rival, John Carol, by 5 points. Despite the dominating victory, earlier in the year there were questions about whether the Admirals could repeat last season’s success.
Thankfully, Coach Zmuda’s squad did not disappoint. Over the offseason, Severn lost one of its top runners and captain, JP Meyer. While this loss was felt at the beginning of the season, seniors Louis Lentz and Garrett Jay were more than ready to step up. Lentz, a captain this year, and Jay, a lead-by-example runner, both worked on their craft over the spring thanks to a rigorous season of track and field in which both were selected to the MIAA All-Conference Team for the 800-meter relay.
The improvement of these runners, in addition to an already strong core consisting of captain Jamison Wildt, seniors Fionn Kinsella and Jeffrey Huang, junior Erik Maltz, and sophomore Timmy Wright, set the Admirals up for a competitive season.
Severn’s biggest competition this season was their rival, John Carol. After narrowly losing to John Carol during the regular season, the Admirals kept their foot on the gas during practice, right up to championships, to surpass their rivals. Fortunately, the hard work paid off.
While John Carol runner Andrew Brown placed first at championships with a time of 17:06, Severn’s victory was assured thanks to their pack. In cross country, a pack of runners sticking together at a steady pace for as long as possible almost always guarantees a win. This year, that pack was made up of mostly seniors, with the exceptions of Maltz and Wright, who ended up leading the team, placing 5th and 7th overall, respectively. Thanks to those exceptional performances, along with the lowest spread time between runners—only a minute and nine seconds between the 1st and 5th runner—Severn was able to bring a championship back to 201 Water Street.
