SALISBURY — Trent Johnson had his 15 minutes of fame Oct. 4.
Actually, it was a little more than that for the Kent County High School sophomore, who ran a personal best of 20 minutes, 51.1 seconds as the Trojans’ front-runner at the annual Tidewater Fall Classic earlier this month.
Johnson, who is a first-year cross country runner, was the only Trojan to break 21 minutes.
He was 137th overall in a 5K field of nearly 350 boys from Maryland and Delaware public and private schools.
Queen Anne’s junior Ben Marks led from start to finish, stopping the timer in 16:10.8.
Marks ran a 4:55 first mile, and led by at least 5 seconds the rest of the way.
Cape Henlopen sophomore Jason Baker was the runner-up in 16:15 flat.
Milford senior Nate Waydelis (16:40.1) and Gunston senior Colin Hallmark (16:48.3) were the only others to break 17 minutes.
Boasting four finishers in the top 10, Cape Henlopen of Delaware posted a low score of 46 points to run away with the team title.
Kent Island was a distant second with 162 points. The Bucs were led by senior Trey Donnelley, who was ninth in 17:21.70.
Thirty schools brought full boys teams.
Kent County’s scoring contingent consisted of Johnson, senior Jack Spray (21:15.3), senior Kevin Stroup (21:35.0), sophomore Andrew Buckel (21:48.7) and senior John Hinton (22:20.4)
They were pushed by sophomore Lynden Saunders (22:27.1), freshman Ashton Dean (22:56.9) and senior Aiden Herman (22:58.7).
In the girls race, Indian River senior Brynn Crandell established a meet record of 17:36.5. The previous record of 18:02.4 was set by Easton’s Kathryn Gearhart in 2015.
Crandell’s nearest challenger was Sussex Academy eighth-grader Paige Ballinger, who was more than a minute back in 18:48.9.
There were 248 girls.
The top performer from the Mid-Shore was Gunston senior Zoe Buzzelli, who was 13th in a PR of 21:03.0.
Kent County sophomore Alden Swanson was 19th in 21:31.2. She splashed onto the high school cross country scene this fall by winning her first three races.
Also representing KCHS were freshman Sophie Cousineau (25:01.2) and sophomore McKenzie Smith (31:07.5).
Salisbury University hosted the race that was held at WinterPlace Park, which is home to the SU cross country program.
