STEVENSVILLE — Kent County’s harriers are upping their game as they prepare for conference and region meets, with the ultimate goal of qualifying for the state championship next month.
In their most recent cross country race, Oct. 9 at Terrapin Nature Park, freshman Kato Swanson came oh-so-close to breaking the 19-minute milestone and was one of five Trojans to establish personal-best 5K times.
Swanson stopped the timer in 19 minutes, 6 seconds to place 17th.
Also postings PRs were Dalton Smith, Austin Sengprasert-Galan, McKenzie Smith and Jordana Capp.
All told, there were 80 boys and 51 girls.
Queen Anne’s senior Ben Marks (17:04) and North Caroline senior Brooke Sullivan (21:06) were the front-runners in their respective races.
Kent Island High School hosted the meet, which featured the seven North Bayside Conference schools that offer cross country as a varsity sport
Running in their backyard, Kent Island’s boys ran away with the victory. Their five scorers finished in the top 11, led by runner-up Gunner Hansard (17:19), for a team tally of 32 points.
Cambridge-South Dorchester (64) beat out Queen Anne’s (73) for second, followed by North Caroline (93) and Easton (134) to round out the top five schools. Then came Kent County (160) and North Dorchester (179).
On the girls side, Queen Anne’s, led by runner-up Faith Gordon (21:10), came out on top with 27 points.
North Caroline (44), Kent Island (67) and Cambridge-SD (95) were the only other schools to field full girls teams.
Printed here are complete results for Kent County.
GIRLS: Janey Depp, 25:00, 13th; McKenzie Smith, 30:37; Jordana Capp, 31:00; and Sydney Bortz, 47:58.
BOYS: Kato Swanson, 19:06, 17th; Ashton Dean, 21:56; Andrew Buckel, 23:11; Lynden Saunders, 23:25; Dalton Smith, 25:35; Austin Sengprasert-Galan, 28:58; and John Fries, 34:52.
Today, the Trojans traveled to Queen Anne’s County High School.
NEXT UP are the Bayside Conference championship Oct. 23 hosted by Cambridge-South Dorchester High School and the state-qualifying Class 1A East Region meet Oct. 31 at Fair Hill.