Caesar Rodney, Padua best at Bellevue as state's top cross-country runners gather

Fortified by a summer of marathon-level training after an injury that crimped her junior year, Brynn Crandell of Indian River blazed to a runaway victory at the Joe O’Neill Invitational cross-country meet on Thursday at Bellevue State Park.

Crandell became invisible to her opposition after the first mile, covering the 5,000 meters in 17:28, a half-minute ahead of the field.

Improving his time by nearly a minute from last year’s meet, Camerin Williams of A.I. du Pont outkicked Tower Hill’s Colby Twyman to win the boys event, whose team title was captured by Caesar Rodney for the first time.

Sophia Holgado, the versatile Padua senior who edged Crandell by eight seconds in the 3,200 at last spring’s Meet of Champions, shaved 36 seconds off her 2022 time to break 18 minutes for the first time, repeat as runner-up and lead Padua to the girls team title.

Crandell, whose successes over the last three years have ignited a distance running fervor throughout her school, was voted the state’s top runner last year for the second time, even as she recovered from a peroneal tendon injury that held her to third place at last year’s O’Neill meet.

She recovered sufficiently last fall to repeat as DIAA Division II champion and the state’s runner of the year, but at 50 seconds slower than her sophomore times.

The tendon injury, beneath her ankle, also affected her hip. She recovered this spring and undertook exhaustive summer training, logging 50 to 60 miles a week until her Indian River team gathered in mid-August.

The experience has led Crandell away from the long runs in the sand that marked the ascent to her first state title in 2021. She only occasionally runs on firm sand and trains mostly around Selbyville.

She runs for tempo in the midweek dual meets of the Henlopen Conference, then bests strong fields on weekends, winning the Lake Forest and Salisbury Invitationals by more than 20 seconds.

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Williams, who transferred to A.I. upon moving to Wilmington after winning the Meet of Champions 1,600 on a dramatic final lap as a Hodgson junior, displayed the same powerful kick to overcome Twyman.

“It’s been a long journey, making myself a smarter runner,” said Williams, who was 16th in this race last year. “I thought it was going to be a faster first mile, but it was really conservative. It was like a sit-and-kick race, but luckily that’s my strong suit.”

In his first season of cross-country after maintaining a three-sport regimen through his sophomore year, Twyman has become one of the state’s leading distance runners.

After finishing third behind Williams in the Meet of Champions 1,600, “I started thinking, there are a bunch of other guys who are dropping times because of cross-country, and thought, maybe I’ll try that and get some aerobic work in,” Twyman said after lowering his personal record by 18 seconds.

Caesar Rodney won the Salesianum Invitational three weeks ago for the first time, with all seven runners ahead of the Sals’ fourth man. At Bellevue, each of the Riders’ top five runners – Patrick Craig (sixth), Griffin Spana (seventh), Ian Cain (ninth), Caleb Price (12th) and Maddox Downs (15th) – would have been the top finisher for 29 of the other 38 teams.

CR trains on four-by-fives, which are five minutes of intense running, repeated four times, with 90 seconds of rest in between. The Riders frequently run Saturday practices at Brandywine Creek State Park, the site of this year’s state meet.

“We know Sallies is always good,” Cain said. “We’ve been working hard since June. We just need to put it all together when it matters.”

For many years the midseason centerpiece of Delaware cross-country, the only meet where all runners in the state would face off, the O’Neill attracted 40 schools. Yet, this year’s meet was missing runners from two powerful teams.

Tatnall, whose girls won the Eastern States Championship race at the Manhattan Invitational last weekend, and Salesianum’s two top runners – James Kennedy and defending Division II titlist Ethan Walther – passed up the race.

Walther won his heat of Great American Cross Country Festival two weeks ago in Cary, North Carolina, in 15:37, the best of any Delaware runner this year, with Kennedy sixth in 15:58. Tatnall elected not to compete in the short week after its girls won the championship heat of the same meet, and leading a 75-school field a week earlier at the Carlisle (Pa.) Invitational.

“Races are intense. They take a lot of energy,” explained Sam Felice, who finished fifth to lead the Sals to second place as a team on Thursday.

The course was reconfigured this year to become as fan-friendly as its flat surface is runner-friendly.

The runners no longer foray as deeply into the woods of Willy du Pont’s horse farm. The tighter course gives spectators several additional viewing points.

“I like it better,” said Padua’s Molly Flanagan, the state 800-meter champion, who finished fourth. “The turnaround in the woods is nice. The hills were good.”

“The most important thing to recognize is that even though you’re racing with a bunch of other girls, it’s still your own race,” said Maddie Priest, who finished eighth to lead Archmere to second in the girls team standings. She was helped by Helen Socorso (ninth) and Alaina Thomas, the day’s top freshman in 15th.

Kelsey Wolff (fifth), Anna Bockius (seventh) and Brianna Heffernan (11th) joined Holgado and Flanagan to give Padua its seventh victory in the last 10 O’Neill meets.

Eighth grader Paige Ballinger of Sussex Academy finished third. Leah Horgan of St. Andrew’s (sixth), Alyssa Napier of Conrad (10th), Faith Mitchell of Milford (12th), Nikita Lachke of Wilmington Charter (13th) and Arina Varrato of Sussex Tech (14th) also broke 20 minutes.

Among the boys, Jason Baker was fourth for Cape Henlopen and Peter Bird took fifth for St. Andrew’s.

Alec Jurgaitis (11th) and Brian Yeager (20th) led the Saint Mark’s boys to third place. Tim Claessens (16th) paced fourth-place Newark Charter. Richie Aniullo (10th) and Owen Parsons (18th) led Archmere to fifth.

Brady Koch of Tower Hill (eighth), Carlos Lobo of Newark (13th), Nate Waydelis of Milford (14th), Sebastian Bergstrasser of Conrad (17th) and Chris Onsomu of St. Andrew’s (19th) completed the top 20.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Brynn Crandell, Camerin Williams fastest at Joe O'Neill Invitational