With a championship trophy for the boys and a third-place finish from the girls, the Yorktown Patriots enjoyed a successful afternoon at the Liberty District cross country championships.
The Yorktown boys won the event for the second straight high-school season, amassing a low team score of 31 points, and placing five runners in the top 10 in the Oct. 28 event at Burke Lake Park. The Yorktown girls were third with 78 points, just four from second place Langley, and did so without one of their top runners, who missed the meet because of injuries.
“The whole team raced well tactically, girls and boys,” Yorktown coach Jacob Dumford said. “You are always happy with a win.”
Leading the Yorktown boys was senior second-place finisher Owen McArdle in 15:31. The winner was McLean senior Xavier Jemison in 15:28. McArdle also was second to Jemison in last season’s district meet, as the two have dueled multiple times over two campaigns.
Yorktown senior Jack Levine placed third (15:54), senior Bennett Lamb seventh (16:25), senior Lucas Keith ninth (16:43) and senior Jack Blocher 10th (16:45). In addition, Roman Steis was 14th for Yorktown and Matthew Pedicano 15th.
For the sixth-place Washington-Liberty boys, Ryan Malatesta was 11th (16:49) and Joe Cordaro second (17:16).
For the seventh-place Wakefield boys team, Liam Keish was 16th (16:57).
The Yorktown boys figure to be one of the top contenders for the upcoming 6D North Region meet, also at Burke Lake Park. They were second last season.
“Today we ran for place, not time. At the region we will have to run faster to win,” Dumford said.
Leading the Yorktown girls was senior Anna Corcoran in third (17:43) and Sofia Sheldon in 10th (19:10). Lauren Fatouros was 19th (20:22), Eleanor Whitehouse 10th (20:26) and Ava Boston 26th (20:43). Sofie Keppler was the No. 3 runner for Yorktown who did not participate.
“I think if we had Sofie we might have finished higher as a team,” Dumford said.
The W-L girls placed fourth with 97 points and were led by Karenna Keane in seventh (18:57) and Kate Mulvaney in 15th (20:02).
The seventh-place Wakefield girls were led by Brianna Breyault in 17th (20:10) and Elizabeth Coe in 33rd (21:12).
McLean won the girls race with 46 points and had the individual champion in Thais Rolly in 17:23.