Amanda White's presence at the head of a cross country pack is not unusual. The peculiar thing is when all six of her Dulaney teammates follow closely in her tracks.
That's what happened in yesterday's Class 4A, Region II girls cross country meet at Oregon Ridge Park. Led by White, who won her third straight regional championship, all seven Dulaney runners finished among the top 10 to pace the Lions to an easy victory.
"We just let Amanda run her own race and then try to set a pattern for the rest of the girls," said Dulaney coach Bob Dean. "You don't want to hold her back. You just let her go and let the others follow."
With White finishing the damp, slippery 3-mile course in a modest 17 minutes, 34 seconds, her teammates followed closely behind. Among the Lions' other finishers were Kristin Friz, second (19:41); Dishina Davis, fourth; Ashley Durr, fifth; Patti Zahner, eighth; Stacy Sympson, ninth, and Erin Cecil in 10th.
Dulaney finished with 20 points, to second-place Perry Hall's 50 and third-place Western's 74. All three, along with fourth-place Laurel, advance to the Nov. 14 state championship meet at Western Maryland College.
Dulaney made it a clean sweep as Keon Littrell took the boys' race in 17:07, just three seconds ahead of High Point's Malik Ellis.
Littrell's finish, however, was more frantic than White's, as he sprinted to the finish line just ahead of the closing Ellis.
"I didn't know I had it until the very end," said Littrell.
The other story in the boys' race was the dominance of Perry Hall. Led by third-place Bret Lurz, the Gators placed six runners among the top eight to easily claim the team title, scoring 25 points to second-place Dulaney's 50.
"We expected to do well here," said Gators coach Frank Insinga. "Even though the weather slowed up times, what you have to do is think place, not time."
Starting with Lurz, Perry Hall's Chris Drumgoole, Aaron Roof, Gary Gerard, Joe Leilich and Frank Trimble finished in consecutive order, leaving little doubt about the outcome.
Perry Hall, along with Dulaney, High Point and Woodlawn, advanced to the Nov. 14 state championship meet at Western Maryland College.