This time, it's an upset: Salesianum rallies past Caesar Rodney for D-I cross country title
WILMINGTON - For the first time in its half-century of cross country dominance, Salesianum won the state title in an upset.
The most powerful team in Caesar Rodney history packed five runners in the top 10, all ahead of Salesianum’s fourth runner. But Sam Felice, James Kennedy, James Dempsey and Ian Sabia each passed a Rider runner in the final mile to give the Sals a 33-36 victory in the DIAA Division I championship meet on Saturday at Brandywine Creek State Park.
The Sals’ Ethan Walther dominated from the outset, scorching the field by 20 seconds in 16:35.2 to become Division I champion, a year after he won a Division II individual title as a sophomore at Delaware Military Academy.
Camerin Williams of A.I. du Pont worked from the back of a 10-man pack at the first mile to win the Division II individual race in 16:42.2.
Williams finished three seconds ahead of Tower Hill’s Colby Twyman, who also picked off seven runners in the second half. Gavin Leffler, who led for much of the race, finished third to lead Tatnall to its fourth straight D-II team title, and 14th in the last 15 years.
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Salesianum and Caesar Rodney overwhelmed the Division I field, with 13 of the top 15 finishers in the 18-school race. Most of the race looked to be a narrow CR victory, but the final score proved to be the fifth time in the last 15 years that Salesianum had won by four points or less.
“Our coach [Scott Davis] had us take it easy the first half of the race,” Felice said. “He said to treat it like the last mile is when the race started.”
As Newark’s Carlos Lobo, who finished sixth, explained, “The race starts at the starting line, but you don’t start really racing other people until you pass those two hills. The goal for a lot of people today is to pass as many people as possible on the less steep hill on the back mile.”
Davis has presided over a resurgence at Salesianum, with its third straight title since he took over the program after an uncharacteristic two-year streak as runners-up in 2019 and 2020. The Sals have 46 of 55 state meets since 1969.
Walther, unbeaten in Delaware this fall, generates motivation even when he leads by 150 meters.
“I’ve got more in me, plenty more,” said Walther, whose grandfather Steve Walther was an All-State basketball player for the Sals in 1966.
“Whenever I felt like stopping, I just kept pushing. It’s all a mental battle out there,” Walther added. “It’s not the hills that are the most difficult. It’s the long stretch along the road. It’s mental the whole time. I just picture somebody ahead of me, and I push. I don’t want anybody to get close.”
Caesar Rodney had a storybook season, winning the Salesianum, Lake Forest and Joe O’Neill invitationals before sweeping the top five in the Kent County championships and placing five runners in the top six in last weekend’s Henlopen Conference meet.
Maddox Downs (fourth), Caleb Price (fifth), Ian Cain (eighth), Griffin Spana (ninth) and Patrick Craig (10th), followed by Evan Easton (13th) and Jonathan Bush (18th) gave the Riders 36 points - the best score by any second-place team in the meet’s 70-year history.
“We knew we had a shot,” Downs said. “We gave it our all.”
Williams accelerated over the last mile to become the third Division II champion from A.I., following German Barrios (1991) and Bob Stuber (1964). He and Twyman set a measured pace, sitting ninth and 10th at Maintenance Hill, the steep incline that exhausts runners after the first mile.
“I wanted to work from the back. I made the move on the long backstretch,” Williams said. “The whole race was hard, all that talent up there. Nothing was easy.
“At the end, I wanted to show public schools could do it too. Everybody looks at the private schools to win. Almost everyone behind me was private school.”
Leffler kept grinding after Williams and Twyman passed him at the second mile.
“We were underdogs at states last year. We were grinding all season. We pulled it off last year,” Leffler said. “This summer, we went back to work as hard as we could every day. Some of us couldn’t race all this season. Some of us could. Today is really the meet that mattered.”
Leffler’s brother Max helped Wilmington Friends to the D-II title in 2019, the only state meet that Tatnall didn’t win since 2008.
Gavin Leffler led the team in the pool over the summer, “working our joints, stretching, running, bonding as a team,” he said. “That’s more than half of the reason we won today, our bond.
“Aqua-jogging, stretching or swimming. It loosens up your joints and builds them stronger. Having your hips underwater and moving your legs in every direction is super important.”
Ben Pizarro (fourth), Jackson Downin (seventh), Luke Kain (eighth) and Dylan McCarthy (18th) backed Leffler to give the Hornets a 40-93 margin over Saint Mark’s. The Spartans were led by Alec Jurgaitis (sixth), Brian Yeager (13th) and Connor Stockton (17th).
Sebastian Bergstrasser of Conrad, the meet’s top freshman, finished fifth. Division II runners accounted for six of the day’s eight sub-17-minute times.
Daniel Brake (11th), Henry Stenta (16th) and Lazo Slijepcevic (18th) lifted Sanford to third place, the Warriors’ top finish in 26 years.
Peter Bird (10th) and Chris Onsomu (12th) led St. Andrew’s to fourth.
Camilo Alvarez (ninth) and Owen Parsons (20th) helped Archmere to fifth. Will Ross (14th) and Timothy Claessens (15th) paced sixth-place Newark Charter.
In Division I, Cape Henlopen sophomore Jason Baker, who finished third, and Newark’s Lobo were the only outsiders in what became a Salesianum-Caesar Rodney dual meet.
Kaleb Kain (14th) and Chase Coda (15th) gave the Sals seven of the top 15. Brayden Reed (17th) helped Cape capture third place.
Doug Davis (20th) paced Charter of Wilmington to fourth. Chase Stone (16th) helped Middletown to fifth. Nate Waydelis of Milford was 19th.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: DIAA boys cross country: Salesianum edges Caesar Rodney for D-I title
