Name: Naomi Warner
Self-described age group: mid-thirties going on 22
Residence: Reston
Occupation: CPA
Volunteer roles in the running world: (as applies) Unofficial and official race pacer – I’ll be pacing the 4:15 group at the Disney World marathon this month.
Why you run: I run because it gives me life. Running is my therapist, happy hour, social time with friends, a way to clear my head, a break from the stresses of work and family.
Name: Brandon Skall
Self-described age group: Not quite 40
Residence: Bloomingdale
Occupation: DC Brau CEO/Co-Founder
Volunteer roles in the running world: I am the co-founder of Braurunners (along with Adam Duffy). Every month we do a group run that starts and finishes at a bar serving DC Brau. We always feature a local non-profit and ask our runners to donate something to the charity. We buy everyone’s first post run beer. In under two years we have raised over $14,000 and brought attention to some great causes in the D.C. Metro area.
Why you run: To connect my body and mind. To listen to the Grateful Dead while cruising through beautiful D. C. sunrise. To meditate and take inventory of my thoughts and days. For the amazing running community I have found and strength I find in sharing my life with people who motivate me.
After years of Page Lester and Taylor Knibb laying waste to the D.C. state meet, this fall saw some more competitive races, particularly on the women’s side, both in terms of the individual race and the team standings, with Wilson upsetting defending champion St. John’s, who missed junior Cady Hyde to injury. And while Gonzaga continued to win the boys’ team title, the competitive distance between juniors Gavin McElhennon, Luke Tewalt and Cullen Capuano narrowed. Kenilworth Park continued to serve as the site of the DCXC Invitational, which managed to go off, albeit muddy, when other invitationals were forced to cancel after heavy rain.
John Ausema (Gonzaga), Kevin Hughes (Georgetown Visitation) and Jim Ehrenhaft (St. Albans and National Cathedral) selected the D.C. team.
Northern Virginia teams swept day two of the state championships, with Tuscarora winning its fourth title in five years and West Springfield and Loudoun Valley winning their first titles. On the boys’s side, Loudoun Valley won its fourth straight and WT Woodson edged West Springfield for the Cavaliers’ first team title.
Chris Pellegrini (West Springfield) and Mike Mangan selected the Virginia team.
While Northwood didn’t unseat Severna Park at the Maryland state meet, the Gladiators’ runner-up finish was the best by a D.C.-area boys team in six years. On the girls’ side, Bethesda remained home to the top team, but this year it was Walt Whitman. Private schools saw some solid work by St. Andrew’s freshman Allison Mitchell and Bullis’ Nicholas Kariyanis.
Giovanni Reumante, Scott Silverstein and Chad Young selected the Maryland team.
The 2018 cross country season in the D.C. area was marked by a lot of rain. Some races, like the Oatlands and Octoberfest invitationals, were cancelled outright. Others, like the Glory Days Invitational, were altered to preserve as much of the course as possible. Races that went on were often much slower, and forced runners to be more tactical. Times appropriately went out the window. It seemed to pay off, though, in late November when many the Nike Cross Southeast regional was run in a deluge. By that point, the conditions were second nature to most of our local runners, who took advantage and found themselves near the front of the race. Ten boys in the top 25 and three girls in the top 15. Loudoun Valley’s boys then went on to repeat as Nike Cross Nationals champions, the first boys team to do so, and improving on their record-low score in the process.
Locally, we saw the first public individual and team champions in D.C. state meet history, a first state title for Loudoun Valley’s girls, W.T. Woodson’s boys, West Springfield’s girls and Woodrow Wilson’s girls. Young runners had breakout seasons all over the place, while the veterans continued to demonstrate a mastery of the sport. Loudoun Valley’s boys won their fourth straight state title and Tuscarora’s girls won their fourth in five years.
RunWashington convened members of its coaches panel to look at local runners’ seasons and name them to the All-RunWashington Postseason Team, which comprises the top 10 boys and top 10 girls in Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C. and Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. The Maryland, D.C. and Virginia teams comprise the next seven boys and seven girls. The coaches who selected the postseason teams are: Chad Young, Bethesda-Chevy Chase; Chris Pellegrini, West Springfield; Mike Mangan, Lake Braddock; John Ausema, Gonzaga; Kevin Hughes, Georgetown Visitation; Jim Ehrenhaft, National Cathedral School and St. Albans; Giovanni Reumante, Northwood and Scott Silverstein, Winston Churchill.
Coaches considered overall season progress but gave more weight to postseason performances.
See the D.C., Maryland and Virginia teams here and have a look at all of RunWashington’s cross country coverage here.
Name: Marty Horan
Self-described age group: Old guys who still think they’re teenagers (aka 55-59 age group)
Residence: Gaithersburg, Md.
Occupation: IBM Summit Program Manager – DC Hub (follow me on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn)
Volunteer roles in the running world: Currently, professional race packet stuffer for Parks Half Marathon and Pike’s Peek 10K with the world’s greatest running club, the Montgomery County Road Runners Club (MCRRC)! Previous MCRRC VP & Board member, previous Race Director, Kentlands Lakelands 5K & MCRRC Firebirds Mile.
Elyse Braner shares stories from her years of building a community of fun runs at Pacers, her evolving goals for her own running and how she became a whiskey aficionado.
