CAMBRIDGE — When a coach throws out superlatives like “phenomenal” and his team isn’t the winner, that’s an indication something special is going on.
That’s the story with Kent County High School’s cross country runners, who almost across the board — 13 of 18 — achieved their very best times Oct. 22 at the Bayside Conference championships for all schools of all enrollment sizes on the Eastern Shore.
Sydney Bortz seriously cut a lot of time from her previous best.
In other firsts, Pacome Mennetrier broke 18 minutes and Ashton Dean broke 20 minutes, Andrew Buckel and Lynden Saunders both PR’d, and Dalton Smith stepped up as a “pusher” after illness kept one of the Trojans’ stalwarts at home.
Also worth noting, rookie Beckett Vivier, sidelined since preseason with an injury, ran his first-ever race in the junior varsity competition.
All these accomplishments, and more, led second-year head coach Patrick McColigan [KCHS Class of 2018] to tell The Evening Enterprise, “Baysides was phenomenal.”
In the girls race, Kent County had the best finish for small schools on the Shore and placed fifth overall among nine schools that had full teams. Leading the way for the locals were junior Janey Depp (fifth in a PR of 20 minutes, 2.89 seconds) and senior Alden Swanson (sixth in 20:57.40).
Stephen Decatur junior Lily Norman was the winner, completing the 3-mile course at Snows Turn Park in 19:37.30.
Parkside senior Logan Newton, the two-time defending champion, was the runner-up in 19:43.91.
Snow Hill senior Allie Suarezapecheche was third in 19:50.62, and was the only runner from a Class 1A school to finish ahead of Kent County’s Depp.
Norman, Newton, Suarezapecheche, James Bennett freshman Lindsay Ford (fourth in 19:56.30) and Depp all posted PRs.
For the boys, Kent Island senior Gunner Hansard, who has been the front-runner all season, was first into the chute in a personal best of 16:10.72.
Easton senior Jacob Camper (16:32.59), Stephen Decatur sophomore Carter Steffy (16:33.30) and Parkside sophomore Alex Swift (16:34.21) placed second, third and fourth, respectively, in the span of about a second and a half — and all in personal-best times.
Kent County’s top finisher was senior Mennetrier, who stopped the timer in a PR of 17:49.32.
In team scoring, KCHS was third among Class 1A schools and 10th overall.
Printed here are complete results for Kent County. Personal-best times are in bold.
GIRLS: Janey Depp, 20:02.89, fifth; Alden Swanson, 20:57.40; Sophie Cousineau, 25:11.85; Devynn Wiggins, 28:09.80; McKenzie Smith, 31:26.84; and Sydney Bortz, 40:56.16.
BOYS: Pacome Mennetrier, 17:49.32, 21st; Ashton Dean, 19:44.42; Trent Johnson, 20:05.66; Andrew Buckel, 20:23.51; Lynden Saunders, 20:55.15; Austin Sengprasert-Galan, 21:46.21; and Dalton Smith, 22:10.57.
Beckett Vivier (21:52), John Fries (22:30), Nate Copper (22:34), Joshua Na-El (24:08) and Sam Bell (24:12) ran the junior varsity race.
