On Saturday, September 28, the DeMatha Cross Country team competed in the Prince George’s Invitational race, held in Fort Washington. The team was coming off a big first place finish two weeks ago at the Mark Ferris Invitational.
The Stags ran a great race as a team, having two runners finish in the top ten overall. DeMatha finished in second place with 63 points, right on the heels of Poolesville High School.
Junior Roman Zentek had the best race of his career, smashing his personal record by a whopping 31 seconds. He ended up in 8th place overall and first for the Stags with a time of 17.40.63. He said that he was “really surprised” when he saw that he had broken his record, because of “the humidity and the fact that this course has been known for being a slower course.”
This was his first time finishing first on his team, and he did all this despite coming off a toe injury that had sidelined him for the last couple weeks. Zentek said he was not too worried about the injury affecting him, and that he “trusted my training enough to where I knew I could run well.”
Senior Brandon Smoot was the other Stags top ten finisher. He came in 10th place overall with a time of 17.47.61. Smoot said, “Even though I didn’t get the result I wanted, I was still able to make a push to get our team into second place.” He also mentioned that he was proud of how his team performed, saying that for both varsity and JV “the energy was good, and we were pushing each other to be better.”
The cross country team looks to continue their success this Saturday, when they run in the Maryland XC Invitational.
