Wilde Lake junior Tim Virostek is proving to be a fast learner.
As a first-year cross-country runner, Virostek spent last week's county championship race picking up the intricacies of Centennial High School's course - things like how to attack the hills and when to start his late-race kick.
Then on Thursday, in the 3A East regional at the same location, he put what he learned into action.
Sticking close to the leaders for the first two-thirds of the race, Virostek made his move over the final 800 meters and then outkicked the competition down the stretch on his way to a time of 17:14 and this year's boys region title.
"At counties I had used the same kick to finish second, so this race the plan was to try and be closer so I could kick up to first," said Virostek, who cut eight seconds off his second-place time from counties.
"I was still a little farther back than I wanted for a lot of the race, but I never let them get too far ahead."
His winning effort, along with a pair of top five finishes from Wildecat brothers Henry (third in 17:25) and Duncan Enerson (fifth in 17:28), helped Wilde Lake to a victory in the team competition as well. The Wildecats (57 points) outdistanced second-place River Hill (86) by 29.
On the girls side in 3A East, Mt. Hebron's Rachel Yep improved on her third-place showing at counties to win a regional title and River Hill finished first for the second straight week. The Hawks, which had won by 28 at counties, outscored second-place Reservoir by 26 on Thursday.
In the 2A South races held at Oakland Mills, it was the host Scorpions that cleaned up. Individually, Oakland Mills' Tiffany Lang won the girls race in 19:25 and Sam Andrews won the boys race in 16:40.
The Oakland Mills boys also put up a dominating effort in the team competition, scoring 32 points to outpace second-place Marriotts Ridge (65) by 33. The only section of the meet that the Scorpions didn't win was the girls team competition, where they finished third (66 points) behind Calvert (52) and Glenelg (54).
3A East
The boys race at Centennial was tightly contested throughout, with a group of six to eight guys running within 10 seconds of one another for the first two miles. Henry Enerson held the lead for the largest portion of that stretch, followed closely by Annapolis' Hale Bullen (second in 17:16).
Virostek seemed content hanging a little further back, sitting in fourth heading into the race's final mile. But as the finish line neared, he kicked it into another gear.
"I've been a soccer player the past two years and switched over to cross country for this, my junior year, and I think that speed that I have from (soccer) really helps me with my kick," Virostek said.
Virostek passed Henry Enerson on the last uphill straightaway and Bullen just before reentering the stadium. At that point, there was no catching him.
For Wilde Lake, which was second to River Hill at the county championships, Virostek's title was just one piece of a day of redemption. Each of the team's top five runners improved on their times from the previous week and the fourth and fifth guys, Daniel Valinsky and Anthony Rizzi, worked themselves into the top 28 overall to help seal the title.
"There is no question there was a little extra motivation today," Wilde Lake coach Whitty Bass said. "We pretty much know what we're going to get from our top three, so it came down to what we could get from the fourth and fifth spots and those kids competed their butts off today. This is going to do a lot for their confidence."
River Hill's second-place showing was led by Chris Heydrick's sixth-place individual effort. Atholton's Gary Smolyak, this year's county champion, ended up finishing 10th.
For Yep, her time at regionals (20:37) was actually seven seconds slower than at counties when she finished third, but a smart race plan helped her easily beat the competition. By getting out in front and establishing a comfortable pace, Yep held a lead of at least six seconds for the entire second half of the race.
"I think I went out a little too fast at counties, so today I wanted to go to the front but not tire myself out too much during the first mile," Yep said. "From there, every time I felt someone coming up on me and getting close, I kicked a little bit."
Hammond's Nicole Dawson ended up finishing second with a time of 20:50, River Hill's Leanne Young was third in 21:04, and Centennial's Alyssa Taylor took fourth (21:07).
With Young and Angelica Yi (fifth in 21:13) leading its charge, River Hill was well on its way to the team championship. It also didn't hurt that Kelly Maloney (13th), Stacey Young (15th) and Becca Andersen (16th) were not far behind.
"Today was that next step for us and we ran well, with five in the top 16," River Hill coach Earl Lauer said. "It was a nice win and now we can move on to next week and start thinking about defending state-champion Hereford."
Reservoir ended up second in the team competition, led by Amy Oliver's sixth-place time of 21:21.
2A South
Tiffany Lang broke through a week ago at the county championships and she carried that momentum over into regionals. Her winning time of 19:25 on Thursday was 30 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Julia Nardone of Glenelg and 51 ahead of Calvert's Courtney Mattson (third in 20:16).
Alyssa Hemler joined Lang as Oakland Mills finishers in the top five, placing fifth in 20:30.
As a team, Glenelg's girls followed Nardone's lead and put their top five runners in the top 21 to fall just two points shy of Calvert in the race for the title.
For Andrews in the boys race, victory came on the heels of finishing third at the county championships. On a familiar course this time around, he posted 16:40 to finish 30 seconds ahead of runner-up Connor Foley of Marriotts Ridge.
The rest of the Scorpions followed Andrews' lead, with each of the team's five scorers placing among the top 13. None of the other 10 boys squads had more than two runners finish that high.
Tom Brumbaugh (fourth in 17:22), Steven Cale (fifth in 17:34), Cameron Bowling (ninth in 17:52) and Louie Chaverini (13th in 18:13) were those other members of Oakland Mills' top five.
Marriotts Ridge finished second behind strong efforts from Foley and Gulraize Khan (sixth in 17:40).