For the second straight year there were no county team or individual winners in the 3A classification at the state championship meet.
The River Hill girls ended up second, the Wilde Lake boys took third and no county runners finished among the top five individually in either race at Hereford High School Saturday morning.
But that didn't mean there weren't success stories.
Wilde Lake junior Tim Virostek, who finished sixth in the boys race in 16:55, broke 17 minutes for the first time in his career. River Hill's Leanne Young posted her fastest time ever (20:25) at the state championship meet to finish sixth and as the county's top girl.
As for the teams, the River Hill girls finished a spot higher than last year despite losing four of their top seven to graduation and the Wilde Lake boys were eight spots better than this time last fall.
The bottom line was that Hereford, which swept the team boys and girls team competitions for the second straight year, was simply too tough on its home course. The Bulls' girls put up 48 to easily outdistance River Hill (114) and Urbana (120), while their boys posted a 72 to edge Linganore (75) and cruise past Wilde Lake (153).
"Hereford is so tough, especially here. They really are an excellent program," said River Hill coach Earl Lauer. "That said, I told my girls coming in we had an opportunity to be second and that's what they went out and did. I was very happy with the way we finished."
No one embodied the Hawks' late-race surge into second place better than Young, who was actually sitting back in a pack several spots outside the top 10 midway through the race.
But as she got to the final mile, Young seemed to keep getting stronger.
"To be honest, I'm not a very fast starter so that wasn't unusual to be where I was," Young said. "But I could hear coach yelling, 'you've got to move up, you've got to move up,' so I just started focusing on one girl at a time and tried to pass them."
By the time she reached the final straightaway, Young had nearly fought all the way back into the top five. She ended up sixth, 32 seconds behind Urbana's Emily Mulhern, who won in 19:53.
Hammond's Nicole Dawson (20:33) and Mt. Hebron's Rachel Yep (20:44) fell right behind Young in seventh and eighth, respectively.
With Young out in front, River Hill also got strong pushes down the stretch from its other four scorers. Angelica Yi ended up 13th in 21:16, while Stacey Young, Becca Andersen and Kelly Maloney all finished inside the top 50.
Mt. Hebron, led by Yep, was the next best county's girls team in fifth with 168 points.
For Virostek, a first-year cross country runner, it became obvious early on that it was going to be difficult to catch the lead pack in the boys race.
A group of five guys, including eventual winner Braden Bruning of Linganore, had opened up a gap on the rest of the field by the first mile marker. But, while behind, Virostek said he used the faster pace to pull himself along.
"I definitely went much faster than I have in previous races trying to stay as close as I could to them," he said. "I didn't end up having as much kick at the end, but it was overall a better race."
Virostek's personal record time of 16:55 left him still 38 seconds behind Bruning, but only five seconds outside the top five. He was the only county boys runner to finish in the top ten.
In the team competition, Wilde Lake also put Henry Enerson in the top 15 to lead the way to a third-place finish overall. The team's other three scorers were Duncan Enerson, Daniel Valinsky and Joseph Keating.
River Hill was the next best county team, placing sixth with a 207 total.