When legendary Dulaney High coach Bob Dean left the cross country program in Chad Boyle's hands in 1998 he made sure he would continue to keep the Dulaney boys and girls teams among the elite and continue to host the Barnhart Invitational at Dulaney High.
Torrential rains and flooding all last week that wiped out some invitationals around the state couldn't disrupt the 29th annual Richard Barnhart Memorial Cross Country Invitational that was held Saturday, Sept. 10.
Loyola Blakefield's Kevin Corbusier followed in the mudsteps of 2010 champion and former teammate Matt Jablonski by winning the 3.1 mile race in a time of 16:10.
It was well off the record-setting performance set by Jablonski (15:14), now running at the University of Oregon, but that mark is seemingly untouchable.
"He (Jablonski) gave Kevin something to look at and they trained together over the summer," Loyola Blakefield coach Jose Albornoz said. "I think it got into his head he could run at that level and ever since the summer they've been running some fast tempos and he's been behind Matt, but not that far."
"Matt kind of pulled me through cross country and I slowly got better and he showed me how to race," said Corbusier, whose time of 16:32 in last year's Barnhart placed him eighth.
Corbusier, Rising Sun's Austin McGinley (16:13), Loyola freshman Michael Wegner (16:16), Perry Hall junior Vince Ciattei (16:24) and Gilman's Will Meadows (16:28) were the top five finishers.
Westminster's Alex Cooke (16:32), Dulaney's Andrew Woodard (16:36), Hereford's Kevin Collins (16:39), Kevin Payne (16:42) and Julian Rivera (16:44) rounded out the top 10.
Hereford had hoped to get four runners in the top 10, but even though they didn't, they still won the team title (68) over runner-up and two-time defending champion Loyola (63).
Jon Luckin (14th, 16:58) and Gabe Rivera (22nd, 17:22) also scored for the defending Class 3A state champion Bulls.
"There is pressure, but we are all confident in our abilities and we work pretty hard," Collins said.
Loch Raven senior Emily Ruppel worked even harder on her mileage over the summer and it paid off as she won the girls race in 19:51.
She put in 50 more miles over the summer and bettered her time of last year (20:06) when she finished sixth.
Her goal was to get to the front and stay there and she executed it well.
"I don't have much of a kick at the end so I tried to go out hard at the beginning and hang on," she said. "That seemed to work out."
As winner of the first invitational of the season involving elite Baltimore County runners from defending state champion Hereford and perennial top squad Dulaney, she now will be a target for future runners.
"It's kind of surreal," Ruppel said. "I'm not going to lie, there always seemed to be someone else there, now as a senior it's me."
Dulaney's Isabel Griffith (20:07), who finished second, and Hereford's Erin Causey (20:31), who was fourth, will certainly be battling for top spots at the county championship meet which will also be held at Dulaney High.
Causey, Sara Carter (5th), Emily Vandewater (7th), Lauren Kennedy (9th) and Megan Anderson (10th) all finished in the top 10 for the Bulls who captured the team title in convincing fashion.
Causey, the defending Class 3A state champion, is recovering from a quadriceps injury.
"We were real happy with her because she hasn't had any real training," Hereford coach Jason Bowman said. "She is where she should be and we have a lot of time to get better."
Causey is also excited about the team that returned six runners and added talented freshman Anderson.
"Our team is looking pretty good," Causey said.
Bowman agreed.
"It was a great team victory and they did what they had to do and hopefully we'll keep improving," he said.