The last week of dual meets is in the book as we get ready for the Championship part of the season.

MONDAY: The Blue Hen Titles were decided today .  Congratulations to the Newark guys team who defeated district rivals Glasgow and Christiana in the Christina Cup at Iron Hill to finish 7-0 in league and win Flight A.  Brandywine girls won their 9th !!! straight Flight A crown with a win over Wm Penn and kept their 6 year undefeated string in dual meets alive.  Charter School won both Flight B titles  (read News Journal story), the second consecutive for the girls and the first ever in any sport for the boys team.  Both of Coach Kelly's squads emphasize pack running and the girls have become masters of it.  Downstate, the big meet was at Cape Henlopen where CR dominated in both boys and girls tri meets .... Kasheka Codner back in action for the Riders who were undefeated in their Conference ....Hodgson and Delcastle split in a vo-tech showdown at BCSP .... Michelle Spadaro won her first career dual meet but the Spartans fell to Catholic rival Ursuline who got big races from Julie Taylor, Stef Griffith, Stephanie Miller and Alanna Stewart in a 28-29 thriller 

TUESDAY: Tower Hill girls got a good race over the BCSP course in preparation for the County meet in a walkover against WCS .... Sanford defeated a less than full strength Tatnall squad on their campus in Hockessin

WEDNESDAY: Salesianum defeated rival St Mark's at White Clay behind their normal big team effort .... Chad Darlington kept his hot streak going with a 16:27 win  ....... another big quad meet day in the Henlopen ..... Where's Dover?

FRIDAY: CATHOLIC CONFERENCE MEET - The Padua Pandas easily won the 23rd annual conference meet at Bellevue and wrapped up the league Championship after an undefeated dual meet season.  Super frosh Samantha Lichtner and Jessica Walsh ran 1-2, Mary Kate McCaffrey and Janet Cleary 5-6 and Bridget Keegan was 10th.  Sara Morton and Sarah McCartan were 11th and 15th for this deep squad.  Julie Taylor had her best race of the year finishing 3rd for Ursuline while excellent freshman Kasey Hacker led Archmere with a 4th place run (twin sister Kim was 14th).  Jackie Justison and Michelle Spadaro led St Mark's to a close 2nd place finish over UA and Archmere with a big assist from Kate Ogden (results)
DIAMOND STATE CONFERENCE : The Archmere boys got nice runs from Pete McBride, Jason Nista and fine freshman Chris Bourke who tied for first in the second annual DSC Meet also held at Bellevue .... Red Lion edged Wilm Christian for the runner up spot ..... St Thomas More Ravens won the girls championship getting the first 4 spots led by Sheena McIntire's 21:16 win ...Archmere girls opted to compete in the Catholic Meet (results)

SATURDAY: BLUE HEN CONFERENCE MEET - at wet and soggy Lum's Pond after an all night rain saw form hold as the Brandywine girls and Newark boys edged their counterparts from Charter in both races ..... Pat Wilcox has been outstanding lately and got the win in an all out finish with runner up Steve Blanco of Middletown (see story and partial results) ....  Jessica Leitsch led the Bulldogs who got a nice race from Stef Gordon who came off the injured list to post an 8th place finish and give the team another weapon as we head to Counties and States ...Mason Hickey appears to be coming into his own and led CSW to a strong 2nd place in the guys race

WEEK IN REVIEW - WEEK 6 (10/7 to 10/12)
By Clay White, N5CTA correspondent

Heavy rain on Thursday and Friday caused the postponement of the U Of Delaware Invitational and made for an abbreviated week.  Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were relatively nice days to run so we did see dome good performances. 
MONDAY: Mason Hickey of Charter set a course record as Charter knocked off Dickinson at Carousel.  John Carter led Concord to their first win of the year over Howard ar Bellevue .... Mike Grafton edged Tyler Mayforth as Hodgson defeated Mt Pleasant at Lum's .... Ryan Lord got back in action in a big way with a 16:44 at Bellevue as Sallies looked sharp in win over AI .... Kenima Hall helped the Howard girls win their first against Concord .... 
TUESDAY: Enya Spence (Jr), Jessica Jacobson (soph) and Katie Lyell (Jr) all broke 22:00 at White Clay as Newark shut out Wm Penn ..... Brandywine girls took advantage of a cool day to run some fast times at the Creek against Delcastle .... Christiana Boys won the closest meet of day over McKean at Brandywine Springs 
WEDNESDAY: Big Henlopen day saw Dover boys wrap up the Henlopen title with relatively easy wins over top contenders CR and Cape ....Gibson, Worley and Boyle all broke 17:00 while 4th man Baldwin was a close-up 17:22 ...Senators getting stronger .... meet was held at Dover's home course at Schuttie Park..... Cape girls upset Seaford with a solid team performance led by Milford transfer Amy Mallamo .... Both Tower Hill squads won Independent Conference clashes with upstart Friends at good old Rockford Park

MID SEASON OBSERVATIONS: 
Based on the action up to this point November promises to be very exciting as there are interesting possibilities in all four divisions .... Division 1 Girls looms a showdown between defending champ CR and Padua as both have been very sharp all year and will continue to improve .... Brandywine will be a big factor also with their outstanding top 3 but need to solidify their 4th and 5th spots which they could certainly do ..... Tower Hill jumped right into the Division 2 Girls picture with their big race at Lake Forest and should be there at the finish but they are relatively untested at this point ...... Cape Henlopen had a big win over perennial contender Seaford on Wednesday and would love to come on late like their boys team did last year ... Catholic Conference foes Ursuline and Archmere  will be major factors too .... Salesianum remains a clear favorite in Divison 1 boys but Dover and St Mark's both have solid squads and are running well ..... could be a slugfest .... Archmere has looked very strong all season and should be favored in Division 2 boys but Tatnall is coming on  .... Individually, Lisa Klein appears a strong fave in Division 2 Girls as does Jessica Leitsch in Division 1.... the Boys winners are not so easy to pick with up to 8 guys having legit shot in Div 1 while Pete McBride of Archmere and Kyle Kershner of Tatnall will fight it out to the end In Div2 ....

ETCETERA
How about some new ESSAYS folks?  Haven't had many lately and I know a lot of people like to read these more than times and all ..... we would love to get thoughts of coaches, runners, parents and anyone involved in this great sport .... fire up that word processor now!  Not to mention new TUNES ....let us know what you listen to to get fired up for races runners .... from the number of headphones and portable CD players we see at meets we know you've got some favorites that work ..... UH OH!!! ...the Message Board is back on Marshall's site ..... be nice now! .... Congrats to Coach Keith Jones Wilmington College Men's XC team who won The Alvernia Albright Invitational on Saturday .... Goldey Beacom's teams are doing well also .... maybe we should check out Valley Garden Park? .... GOOD LUCK to all in the last month of the season and NO INJURIES please

WEEK IN REVIEW - WEEK 5 (9/29 to 10/5)
By Clay White, N5CTA correspondent

MONDAY: Highnote of the day was St Thomas More's big win over Lake Forest girls at Killen's .... Sheena McIntire's 21:57 led the way but it was total team effort as the Lapinsky sisters, Vaughn and Welsh made it possible ....mixed feelings for Jim Blades ..... Steve Blanco of Middletown set a course record at the newly resurrected Iron Hill course as the Cavs swept Christiana
TUESDAY: Padua all but clinched the Catholic Conference title with wins over Ursuline and St. Elizabeth's at Bellevue ... Ursuline got strong runs from Julie Taylor and Stephanie Griffith but the Panda's depth too much .... Tower Hill girls had 3 under 21:00 as they romped at Rockford? 
WEDNESDAY: Charter girls taking pack running seriously as they put the first 5 within 14 seconds in a win over Hodgson at Lum's .... Delcastle guys (1-3 going in) knocked off 3-1 Wm Penn at Bellevue .... Brandywine girls one step closer to another Flight A title as they recorded easy wins over Glasgow and St Mark's at the Creek ..... 
THURSDAY: Red Lion lost to Smyrna for the second time in 3 days but did win big over Tome School .... is this a best-of-seven series? ..... We're just kidding because we know how tough it is to fill a schedule when you're an independent school

SALESIANUM INVITATIONAL

Saturday was very hot, humid and breezy at BCSP but maybe not as hot as the Padua Pandas as they dominated the Girls B race with a great team effort.  Outstanding freshman Samantha Lichtner (Independence School, Holy Angels CYM) finished a strong 3rd while teammates Walsh (10), Morton (11), McCaffrey (9) and Cleary (10) were packed tightly between 22:18 and 22:53 .... Jessica Leitsch won her 3rd straight invitational and teamed with frosh Anna Brousall to help the Bulldogs to a solid third place finish .... Jackie Reifschneider of AI was a strong runner up in 21:23 ... Caitlin McGroerty of Seaford said "What hills?" in an excellent 6th place run and led her squad to a nice 5th place overall ..... Charter only had one top 20 finisher but their pack approach got them T-Shirts as they finished 4th as a team ..... in the Girls C Race, Archmere got a great race from frosh Kasey Hacker (5th; 22:42) and nipped Catholic Conference rival Ursuline for second place .... UA got fine runs from Julie Taylor and Stephanie Miller to take third .... Becky Grey, sticking with it as St Elizabeth's struggles to rebuild their XC teams, got 11th ..... in the Girls A Race, St Mark's  finished a respectable 6th against strong competition .... Salesianum finished 4th in the Boys A Race led by JP Meany's Delaware best 17:14 while Ryan Hamill also broke 18:00 for the Sals ..... In the Boys B Race, St Mark's put 5 guys in the top 14 to grab the victory ..... Chad Darlington led the way, followed by O'Brian, Golladay, Martin and Hoffman in a nice 46 second spread .... Mason Hickey was 11th for Charter as they finished in 5th overall ..... Pete McBride and Jason Nista were outstanding for Archmere, a strong runner up in the Boys C Race ...... Kyle Kershner and Steve Brown led upstart Tatnall to a big 3rd place .... Tyler Mayforth continues to quietly have a fine season for Mt Pleasant (9th; 18:20)  

LAKE FOREST INVITATIONAL

First big in-state meet served as an exciting starting point for the '02 season.  In the boys Large school race, huge preseason favorite Salesianum won, successfully repelling strong challenges from Dover and St. Mark's.  PJ Meany and Ryan Hamill led the Sallies but Joe Donnelly, Sean DeCecchis and Mike Zeberkiewicz made it happen.  Defending State champ Tom Lord is injured and did not compete. This was possibly Dover's biggest race ever with 3 top 9 finishers led by Charles Gibson who pulled away in the last 200 yards to win it.  Rich Worley (3rd) and Pat Boyle (9th) were outstanding while the Senators 4th and 5th men are getting better all the time.  St Mark's was a solid third led by Chad Darlington (4th) and soph Kyle Hoffman (8th).  ..... Archmere ended a grueling week in fine style with a decisive victory in the small school boys race as Peter McBride won for the second year in a row in exactly the same time.  Veterans Jason Nista and Eric Longo, along with freshman Chris Bourke paced the Auks to victory over the surprising Tatnall Hornets whose Kyle Kershner was 2nd and Steve Brown 11th.  Greg Swift led Cape to a solid third place.  Milford (4th) and Red Lion Christian (7th) showed big improvement over last year. ........ Caesar Rodney looked very good winning the Girls Large School Race led by runner-up Kashante Codner and they had to be sharp because Padua and Brandywine were right there in an extremely competitive race.  This is going to be a fun year in Division 1 ...... Maryvale Prep from MD won the Small School Girls Race, edging Tower Hill in a real eye-opener.  Known quantity Lisa Klein won in the fastest time of the day by far and newcomer teammates Sara Casscells and Mimi Kelly finished in the top 15 as the Hillers almost beat a team that topped both Padua and Brandywine last week at Goucher.  Ursuline and upstart Archmere were 3rd and 4th.

WEEK IN REVIEW - WEEK 1 By Clay White, N5CTA correspondent

The 2002 season got underway on Friday 9/6 with an abbreviated schedule of Blue Hen inter-flight meets.  Middletown was the only Flight A school to win as they swept Mount Pleasant at Bellevue.  Junior Chris Bramwell led the Cavaliers with a victory and got a big boost from teammate Steve Blanco who edged Green Knight Tyler Mayforth for 2nd.  Ashley Kelso ran the best time of the day for MtP but the Cav's 2-3-4 pack of Nimmerichter, Billings and Feister was too much to overcome. ..... Both Dickinson teams looked strong in wins over Delcastle at Carousel.   Sestak and Jackson led the boys to a competitive win over the Cougars while Brittany Turner got off to an impressive start in an apparent walkover as Delcastle did not field a girls' team ...... Pete Roth and Jackie Reifschneider led AI DuPont to wins over William Penn at the Creek.... once again, the boys meet was fairly close but The Colonials may not have had a girls' team ..... Hodgson looked solid in both meets as they defeated Glasgow at Lum's.    Mike Grafton and Valerie Howell led the Silver Eagles .... Sallies impressively defeated Archbishop Wood in their annual dual meet in Warminster PA on Saturday
Odds and Ends :  
It will seem strange not to see several familiar faces at the big meets this year as an unprecedented number of long time coaches have retired.  Lou Olivere (Ursuline), Jim Blades (Lake Forest), John Reinhold (Glasgow) and Pat Pollock (Cape) were excellent coaches and good guys.  Their contibutions to the sport in our state were significant.  Nick Russo, former assistant at both Sallies and St Mark's, takes over at Ursuline.  Art Madric, long time track coach, and Bob Rutkowski, former coach at St Elizabeth's and Tower Hill, will coach the boys and girls respectively at Glasgow.  Cape is fortunate to have George Pepper to step back in for Pat Pollock.  Tom 'Jap" Ferrier has decided to concentrate on basketball at St. Elizabeth's ....former Sals runner Chris Peltz will take over the Vikings squads .... Peltz's uncle Jerry coached some very strong teams at St E's in the early '70's ..... The New Castle County meet will be held at Brandywine Creek this year in a break from the established rotation .... there may be reason for optimism regarding our relationship with the State Park officials ..... stay tuned..... but in the mean time have that money ready