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Almost first
Eagles girls 2nd as is La Plata's Bahneman
Friday, Oct. 30, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo File photo by REID SILVERMAN
La Plata's Emma Bahneman placed second in Wednesday's SMAC meet, finishing in 20 minutes 29 seconds.
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North Point girls cross country head coach Jimmy Ball said his girls were "tickled pink" at their performance Wednesday at the SMAC cross country meet at Greenwell State Park in Hollywood.
Although the Eagles were tickled, it was no laughing matter on the course as the team earned a second-place finish with 75 points on the day.
Leonardtown earned first with 19 points, Northern (104) was third and La Plata finished fourth overall with 127 points.
"The girls were tickled pink because they are very excited about how they ran the race," Ball said.
Katy Bonaro (22:23) and Brittany Baker (22:32) finished 12th and 13th overall, respectively, in helping the Eagles to their solid showing.
"Katy wasn't even in our top seven last year," Ball said. "…But you know, a lot of our kids worked over the summer, and that's why they are having all of the success that they are having now."
La Plata's Emma Bahneman earned second place individually finishing in 20 minutes 29 seconds, improving upon her 13th-place finish at last year's SMAC meet.
"It was hard," Bahneman admitted. "It was very extremely difficult because I was boxed in, and I really had to work hard to get back up there [to the front] where I thought I should be. The mud made it pretty difficult, too."
La Plata junior Katie Huber finished eighth overall clocking in at 21:39 on the day in helping her team to fourth place.
Leonardtown senior Jessica Gass placed first overall with a time of 20:12 as the Raiders placed six runners in the top 10.
"I wanted our team to do very well," Gass said. "I wanted us to win for the sixth time in a row, and that what our main goal was as a team."
McDonough (278) placed 10th overall as sophomore Carley Flowers (23:43) led the Rams with her respectable 22nd-place finish.
Westlake (335) earned 11th place overall.
Despite having sophomore Fairouz Lamb finish 20th overall with a time of 23:19, the Chargers were bitten by the flu bug coming down the stretch of the season, according to Lackey head coach Katie Schubbe, and had only four runners finish, as opposed to the required five to make up a team score.
The same situation turned up for Thomas Stone, however, freshman Peyton Reynolds took a 27th-place finish clocking in at 23:58.
Leonardtown boys take SMAC honors
Although Leonardtown's Tyler Blake finished third individually on the boys side with a time of 17:15, the Raiders boys also won a SMAC title with a team score of 35. Northern took second with a 72, and Patuxent finished third with 109 points.
The Raiders used the power of the odd number to take home its sixth consecutive conference title as head coach Jamie Copsey witnessed Blake finish third, Ryan Ponse take fifth, Sean Hageman earn seventh, Brian Oechsel in ninth, Mark Sweet in 11th and Tim Carey in 13th place, respectively.
North Point freshman Christopher Jones finished tops among Charles County runners as he earned 12th place individually with a time of 18:13.
"Chris Jones has been our No. 1 runner all year," Ball said. "He has a lot talent. Right now, he needs to work on his strength. Once he gets that strength, he is going to be one of the top runners in the conference."
The Eagles placed fifth as a team, tops among Charles County, with 135 points. La Plata placed eighth on the day with 185 points on the heels of 23rd-place finish from Jon Mattingly (18:40).
Thomas Stone (296), Westlake (323), McDonough (324), and Lackey (392) rounded out the 10, 11th, 12th, and 13th spots, respectively. McDonough's Kyle Dilling (18:14) placed 14th overall.
