Cross Country

Sarah Zielinski successfully defended her small-school girls title with a big-time performance Saturday at the season-opening Interstate Classic cross country invitational. The Boonsboro junior covered Clear Spring's 3-mile course in 19 minutes, 10.6 seconds - more than 2 minutes faster than her winning time last year. “I trained harder over the summer,” Zielinski said. “I ran more mileage.” Smithsburg senior Lauren Johnson finished nearly a minute behind her Saturday in 20:08.3, placing second for the second straight year.

The Williamsport boys cross country team is loaded. The three-time defending Washington County champions return six of their top seven runners from last fall, led by senior star Evan Hardy. If the Wildcats were still in Class 1A, they likely would be favored to win their first state title since 1975. However, beginning this fall, Williamsport is now in Class 2A. “It's like you waited a long time in line to get something and then, all of the sudden, you have to get in the back of another line,” Williamsport coach Randy Buchman said.

Cameron Hanlin was an impressionable 15-year-old boy when he first ran the Gary Brown Memorial C&O Canal 5-Miler in 2003. “Steve Spence (the Olympic marathoner) won it that year,” Hanlin said. “When he was leaving that day, he saw me eating a box of doughnuts. And I remember him saying, 'That's the breakfast of champions.'” Hanlin joined Spence on the list of Gary Brown champions Saturday at the 30th annual running of the towpath race. Hanlin, 23, of Hagerstown, covered the out-and-back course, which started and ended at Riverbottom Park, in 26 minutes, 49 seconds.

There would seem to be some irony in a 5-kilometer race sponsored by a local doughnut shop, but distance runners often load up on carbohydrates before a race and the math indicates that participants in Friday's Donut Alley Rally would still come out ahead in the calorie count. The 343 entrants sprinted, loped, jogged and strolled briskly at the inaugural run, sponsored by Krumpe's Do-Nuts, that kicked off at 7:30 p.m. at the intersection of First and Spruce streets. The course took them down city streets and through Rose Hill Cemetery before finishing near the starting point at Donut Alley, the home of Krumpe's Do-Nuts for more than six decades.

Tony Clement has come a long way to get back to where he started. The former Hagerstown Community College star athlete is now an assistant coach and fitness-center associate at HCC. And he's quickly regained his status as the top runner in Washington County. “I didn't know anything about track or cross country when I first came here,” said the 24-year-old Clement, whose running career didn't begin until late in the spring of his senior year at Windber (Pa.) High School in 2005.

Becky Walter tries to get the most out of her Boonsboro runners, and they try to get the most out of their coach. On Nov. 20, a week after both her boys and girls teams competed at the Maryland state cross country meet, Walter ran the JFK 50 Mile ultramarathon for the fourth time, recording a personal-best time of 9 hours, 48 minutes, 28 seconds. This year she was pushed along by several of the Warriors, who took turns running parts of the race with her. "I knew I couldn't slow down or whine because I'd never hear the end of it from them," she said.

Williamsport junior Evan Hardy is nothing if not consistent. "With Evan, you never get a bad race. It's either very good or great," Williamsport cross country coach Randy Buchman said. "He's just a solid performer. " Hardy won titles this season at the MVAL Antietam and Washington County championships and was the small-school boys champion at Smithsburg's Don Stoner Invitational. He was the runner-up at both the Maryland Class 1A West and state championships and also had second-place finishes at Clear Spring's Interstate Classic, Boonsboro's Frank Keyser Invitational and the Oatlands Invitational in Virginia.

Sarah Zielinski won’t reveal exactly how many miles she ran over the summer. The Boonsboro sophomore doesn’t want her opponents to know. But it’s no secret that hard work pays off, as Zielinski is The Herald-Mail’s 2010 Washington County Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year. “She worked very hard over the summer, out running almost every day, doing track workouts once a week, long runs, everything,” Boonsboro coach Becky Walter said. “And she enjoys every minute of it. She goes crazy when she can’t run. In fact, she drives everyone else crazy when she can’t run. “She has a great work ethic.

WILLIAMSPORT -- Steve Spence might be past his prime, but he still casts a mighty large shadow on the starting line. The 48-year-old from Shippensburg, Pa., isnearly two decadesremoved from his days as an Olympic marathoner and world beater, but he can still dictate the pace of a local race -- just by showing up. "I was worried about Steve Spence, so I went out real hard," said Dan DeWitt, 22, of Frostburg, Md., after winning the 29th annual...

Nathan Brandt of Hagerstown is a recipient of a $1,500 scholarship from Military Children Program. The scholarship was awarded at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md. Fort Detrick is one of more than 250 commissaries operated worldwide by the Defense Commissary Agency. Nathan,the son of Jeffrey Brandt, is a student at Virginia Tech. In high school, he was in the National Honor Society, and participated in Young Life, cross country and outdoor track at Clear Spring High School.