TC’s Girma, Brown Qualify for XC Regionals

Lake Braddock wins boys’, girls’ Patriot District XC titles.

— The T.C. Williams boys’ cross country team missed qualifying for regionals by one place on Oct. 25 as the Titans finished fifth at the Patriot District championships. While TC came up short, it wasn’t for lack of effort from Anteneh Girma and Nick Brown.

Girma placed second and Brown finished ninth during the district meet at Burke Lake Park, sending each to the regionals as individuals. The Northern Region championship meet was re-scheduled for Friday, Nov. 2 at Burke Lake Park.

Girma finished with a time of 15:36, 25 seconds behind Lake Braddock’s Nick Tuck, who won the individual district title. Brown finished with a time of 16:08.

The top 15 individual finishers and the top four teams qualify for regionals.

“The boys had good performances from Anteneh Girma [and] Nick Brown,” T.C. Williams head coach Michael Hughes wrote in an email. “The team did not advance to the regional meet, which was disappointing because the team has worked very hard this fall. We didn’t compete up to our potential as a team.”

Lake Braddock won the team championship with a score of 55. West Potomac finished second with a total of 66, followed by West Springfield (78) and Woodson (118). T.C. Williams finished with 133.

South County’s Alec Jones finished third with a time of 15:42. Lee’s Biruk Amare finished fourth (15:58), Lake Braddock’s Alex Corbett was fifth (16:00), West Springfield’s William Rabil finished sixth (16:02) and West Potomac’s Luca Halladay (16:02) and Nick Cucinotta (16:03) were seventh and eighth, respectively.

West Potomac’s Corey Rosenberg finished 10th (16:12), followed by West Springfield’s John Amann (11th, 16:12) and Joey Spaziani (12th, 16:13), Annandale’s Aviad Gebrehiwot (13th, 16:14), Woodson’s David Falcone (14th, 16:15) and Lake Braddock’s Forrest Isenhour (15th, 16:15).

In girls’ action, T.C. Williams finished sixth out of eight teams with a total of 192. Lake Braddock won the event with a score of 25, followed by West Springfield (49), West Potomac (79) and South County (89). Woodson finished fifth with a total of 103.

Eileen Nakahata was TC’s top finisher, coming in 32nd with a time of 20:16. Hanna Smythe finished 39th (20:57), Hanna Bates was 42nd (21:09), Ava Scott finished 43rd (21:38) and Isabel Jones was 46th (21:44).

Lake Braddock’s Sophie Chase won the individual title with a time of 17:02. West Springfield’s Caroline Alcorta finished second with a time of 17:09, followed by Lake Braddock’s Hannah Christen (third, 17:34), Lake Braddock’s Katie Roche (fourth, 17:39) and Lee’s Bailey Kolonich (17:58). West Springfield’s Maddie Wittich finished sixth (18:05), followed by West Potomac’s Katie Genuario (seventh, 18:16), West Springfield’s Katie Kennedy (eighth, 18:23) and Lake Braddock’s Katy Kunc (ninth, 18:37) and Misha Suresh (10th, 18:41).

The rest of the individual regional qualifiers were: West Potomac’s Lauren Price (11th, 18:56), Woodson’s JaHyun Yang (12th, 18:59), South County’s Mary Cate Scully (13th, 19:02) and Emily Lamontagne (14th, 19:02) and West Potomac’s (15th, 19:07).