As the finish line neared at the District Championships, senior Elijah Merino battled with Dayton junior Jaxon Asbill for the top spot on Oct. 10.
Merino, the defending two-time district champion, dominated Asbill and the rest of the field a year ago. This year, Merino jumped out to a solid lead in the race again. However, Asbill challenged Merino on the home stretch, where Merino’s final kick was not enough.
Asbill took first place, edging out Merino by just .19 seconds.
“I was hoping to create a gap early on,” said Merino, who finished in a time of 15:39.08. “I think Jaxon did really good with his strategy of staying back and going into the kick. I’ve never had a strong kick, so it was hard. But I think Jaxon definitely deserved that first place.”
Senior Carson Brown earned bronze (16:27.18) for the second year in a row as the Kingwood Park boys finished second to Dayton in the team standings.
Going into the meet, the Panthers expected a close race with Dayton High School, which narrowly edged out Kingwood Park a year ago for the top spot. This year, the Panthers only trailed Dayton by three points in the end.
“I think the key part was just everyone’s consistency,” Brown said. “Everyone did what they were supposed to do for the most part.”
The course at Atascocita High School is familiar to the Panthers. First-year boys coach James Higham expected the meet would be a challenge for each of his runners however.
“The race itself is really daunting,” Higham said. “It’s 3.1 miles and there’s always got to be some strategy with it. Making sure they get out there and run their best is probably the biggest challenge that we have right now.”
All of the varsity runners finished in the top 15: Sophomore Tristain Parfait (8th), senior Logan Schiele (9th), freshman Bo Barndt (10th), junior William Burmingham (11th) and junior Juan Herrera (13th).
“The biggest surprise of the meet was Bo Barndt,” Higham said. “He’s a freshman, and there’s always a question mark as far as not exactly knowing what’s going to happen and what’s going on. But he did a really fantastic job at getting in and competing.”
The team will now shift its focus to the Region Meet on Oct. 21 in Huntsville. Merino and Brown hope to lead the team’s young runners to State for the third year in a row.
“It’s my last ever district meet, but there’s so much more,” Merino said. “We have plenty more races to go before it gets too emotional.”
