They came, they conquered and dominated, they won all of the big awards, and they gave their head coach a nice early wedding present.
In one of the most overwhelming performances in the long history of the annual girls and boys Arlington County high-school cross country meet, the Yorktown Patriots were the standouts of the Oct. 13 event at Bluemont Park. Yorktown won each team title by convincing margins and had the individual race championships, as well, with the seniors winning by 47 and 34 seconds.
Owen McArdle won the boys title in 15:26 with Anna Corcoran winning the girls in 18:29. Teammates Jack Levine (16:16) and Sofia Sheldon (19:03) were second in the boys and girls race, respectively.
In the team competition, the Yorktown boys won with 17 points with Washington-Liberty second with 59, and the Yorktown girls totaled 30 points with runner-up W-L having 41.
“We knew our boys had a chance to do this well, but I wasn’t as confident about our girls,” said Yorktown coach Jacob Dumford, who has nuptials planned Oct. 16. “We’ve been working hard to get a good team culture going here, and that’s fueling good performances.”
For McArdle, the county title was his second in as many seasons, with his time significantly faster than the 16:12 mark he ran as a junior. The win was his third of the current cross country season, to go with a second and a fourth.
“It’s always fun to run in the county meet against all of the other Arlington runners,” McArdle said. “I treated the race somewhere between a workout and a race. The first two miles I kept up my pace, than ran hard in the final mile.”
Corcoran led from start to finish for her first win of the fall season.
“I didn’t know how I was going to do, but I wanted to get out far ahead and win,” she said.
Also for the Yorktown boys in the county meet, Bennett Lamb finished third (16:34), Lucas Keith fifth (17:18), Roman Steis sixth (17:31), Jack Blocher seventh (17:34) and Matthew Pedicano ninth (17:37).
For the W-L boys, Ryan Malatesta was eighth (17:37) and Joey Cordaro 10th (17:41).
The Bishop O’Connell boys were third with 69 points and were led by Ryan Lindley in fourth (16:53) and Anthony Lenzini in 11th (17:45).
The Wakefield boys had 109 points and were fourth, with their top finishers Liam Keish in 19th (18:05) and Jose Hecker in 22nd (18:21).
Finishing behind Sheldon in the girls race for Yorktown was Sofie Keppler in sixth (20:01), Eleanor Whitehouse eighth (20:12), Ava Boston 13th (20:59) and Lauren Fatouros 14th (21:00).
Leading the Washington-Liberty girls was Karenna Keane in fourth (19:35), Rachel Mulvaney fifth (19:48), Kate Mulvaney ninth (20:24), Carmen Bunker 11th (20:55) and Sienna Williams 12th (20:57).
For the third-place O’Connell girls (73 points), Molly Weithman placed third (19:06) and Rowan Nolen was seventh (20:03).
Leading the fourth-place Wakefield girls (93 points) was Brianna Breyault in 10th (20:33) and Elizabeth Coe in 15th (21:03).