SMITHSBURG – The Smithsburg boys cross country team started their season with the same goal that every high school squad known to man has targeted.
Objective: Win a state title.
But for these Leopards, it had a different spin to it.
For a lack of a better description, they wanted to be one of the girls.
“We always see (Smithsburg’s) girls win everything,” said Gavin Gross. “It’s like ‘The girls won (a state title) again.”
Believe it or not, Smithburg – a small Class 1A school – has always been known for its football prowess with six state titles between 1976-2009. There has been only a few other titles, but they have been few and far between for the boys.
Meanwhile, the school’s girls programs have brought home 45 titles in various sports in the last 49 years. It includes 14 volleyball titles and another 17 in track. The female cross country team has six titles.
It changed some on Nov. 8 when Smithsburg’s boys won the state cross country meet in resounding fashion at Hereford High School in Parkton, Maryland (Baltimore County). All five Leopards finished in the top 16 to win the title by 34 points (49-83) over rival Brunswick.
It gave Smithsburg it’s first boys state championship since the indoor track team took a crown in a decade. It had been 48 years since the Leopards won the cross-country trophy.
In the words of singer Deniece Williams, “Let’s hear it for the boys. Let’s give the boys a hand.”
Even that song was released in 1984.
“It was really fun,” said Gross, who finished 14th as Smithsburg’s third finisher. “Our boys, in general, haven’t won a state championship since 2015 (in any sport), and it’s been since 1977 we won in cross county.
“It is really cool to make history like that.”
Dylan Herbst carried the mantle for Smithsburg on Hereford’s ultra-hilly, sometime intimidating 3-mile course by finishing second overall in a time of 16:42.72, almost 15 minutes behind race-winner Simon McGilliary of Brunswick.
Michael Wynkoop took fifth (17:08.50) as Smithsburg’s second finisher. Gross led the charge of three consecutive Leopard finishers in 17:42.27 for 14th, while Grayson Wynkoop finished 15th (17:44.37) and Camilo Mellott took 16th (15:45.83) to round out the scoring.
Luke Gentzel finished 48th and Charles Higgins came 58th to round out Smithsburg’s effort.
It’s all icing on the cake.
“They had seen the success the girls had had for the last four years. The girls team had won five state titles in the three years between indoors, outdoors and cross country,” said Smithsburg Coach Adam Rudy. “And if they didn’t win, they were second. The senior class that just graduated, when they were freshmen, they were third. They have seen a lot of success.
“The boys were working equally as hard, but for whatever reason, the pieces weren’t falling together for them. There are a lot of talented kids on the roster and they are a closeknit group. I think they made the decision ‘I’m going to be a champion this time. It’s my time.’ I’m super happy for them. There are so many kids on the team that really deserve the moment.”
Storybook ending
Although the season became the answer to a dream, the Leopards were driven to make it happen.
Rudy could see Smithsburg had the talent to make a run at the title. It was going to take some work and dedication.
“When I accepted the job when Ray (Shriver, the godfather of the program) retired, I said ‘OK guys, track is going to finish and we are going to talk about summer,’” Rudy said. “I gave everyone a plan of what you need to do every single day to kind of ease into where they are at, so a lot of the plan was based off where they were fitness-wise.
“Every cross country coach, whether they are good or not, will tell you that cross country is won in the summer. Even though you compete in September, October and November, the foundation comes in June, July and August is incredibly important.”
The program was designed to strengthen bodies, prepare minds and lower times.
“We’ve been training all season. We did so much work over the summer. Our coaches are really good at what they do. They pressed through an amazing training plan,” Gross said.
“I started this season and I was running like 19 minutes in a 5K. The whole season has been bringing that time down. I made a bunch of big jumps. Each week had goals. We all just have been working hard.”
Gross’ plan started with a schedule to run three or four miles on specific days, five days a week. By July, a sixth day was added to give more strength and endurance for the tougher workouts to come in August and September.
“You hit August and September, and you’re still doing a lot of this strength work,” Rudy said. “You’re trying to get that foundation, so when you got to August and September, you are strong and you can start to attack some more difficult workouts.
“I think most distance runners actually think summer is the best time to run. That was my favorite time.”
Job well done
Smithsburg started showing improvement from the start of the season.
“I knew we had a shot going into the year,” Rudy said. “We knew we had a good team. We had some success early on in the year, like we ran in Brunswick – that’s a good invitational – and we were missing three of our top eight and we tied for the win.
“We won at Carroll County Community College and we won against a 3A school. Then we went down to Oatlands (Plantation). It’s a massive Invitational in Leesburg, Virginia, with 605 runners. I wanted them to really have their eyes open to ‘Hey we’re good for small school, but this is what it takes.’ Actually, one of my favorite things is we didn’t run that well, but a lot of guys came out of the race and said ‘that’s never going to happen again.”
And it didn’t happen again. Smithsburg’s success was now up to the Leopards themselves.
I knew we were really, really good when we won the Frank Keyser Invitational,” Rudy said. “(It) is an awesome, awesome meet in Boonsboro. To my knowledge, Smithsburg had never won as small school or large school, and we won the whole thing by like 50 points.
“We crushed it that day. I said we are in a good spot. Now we just need not to screw it up.”
The main ‘course’
Over the years, Hereford’s course has been the place where state cross country legends have been made.
Many stories have been told about the atmosphere along with successes and failures the grueling hills and rolling terrain that make up this test for a state title.
“As a coach, I draw so much from my experiences,” Rudy said. “I was, I guess, above average. I never achieved the athletic goals I had set as an athlete. I think that helps me as a coach a lot. I know how it is to have raced it, you can give good honest feedback.
“I can tell them ‘Hey, this is the most difficult part of the course and this is what it will feel like.’ And I can be genuine about it because I’ve experienced it. I never had the success they did down there.”
While the hills may be the trademark at Hereford, it’s a valley that may have caused the most depression.
“The iconic part of the course is ‘The Dip,’” Rudy said. “That goes down and up, and it is lined with people all the way. There is this adrenaline rush to hit it.
“When I was running there, a coach yelled out to his runners that the race doesn’t start until after ‘The Dip.’ I said ‘What does he mean?’ I was in fourth. This is good, but then three guys left me in the dust. It’s about trying to hold back all the energy and desire and let it loose on the hardest part of the course. That second mile is absolutely brutal.”
The Leopards tried to prepare the best they could.
They ran Smithsburg’s course three times, which is extremely hilly in its own right. They watched videos of past state title races at Hereford. And they even traveled as a group to tour the site the weekend before the meet.
“My sister (Michaela) used to race here, and she won a few state championships,” Gross said. “She said Hereford is one of the worst pains she ever had and said it was a very tough course, so I knew what I was getting into coming into it.”
But then, he found out first hand.
“I fell at the start of our race. I tried to get up and go harder … sprint harder, but we had to make sure we weren’t going too fast,” he said. “You can always lose in the first mile but you can never win it.
“Coach Rudy gave us an amazing breakdown of the course and told us what to expect and what we should do for each mile. I got my positioning in the first mile and I attacked after ‘The Dip’ and just battled in the back (half of the course) because that’s where it’s tough.”
Survival of the fittest
Practice made perfect for these Leopards for this state championship race.
Rudy gave details of each of the team members.
- Herbst – “He had phenomenal summer. He had a little hip thing in the season that derailed him a little bit. I think he would been closer to winning the state title if that didn’t happen. He’s super coachable. He kind of took a risk in the last mile. He came out of the dip in fourth and he ran down two guys to get second. It was a really awesome finish for him.”
- Micheal Wynkoop – “He told Ray (Shiver) as a freshman ‘I promise we’re going to win the state title by time I graduate.’ He did it. I think he was probably a little disappointed in his individual finish because he wanted more but he gutted out for the team. Cross country is all about depth. That’s incredibly important He loves to run. That kid in a ton of miles.”
- Gross – “He’s a cool story because he kept plugging along. He had never run in a regional track meet before. He was like a 5:03 miler in the spring. He wasn’t someone you would have thought be contending in that part of the race but he worked tirelessly. He was a big part of why we won.”
- Grayson Wynkoop – “One of the best freshmen in the state and is Michael’s little brother. He’s a really talented kid and is tough as nails. He’s been dealing with a calf strain on and off for about three weeks. A half-mile into the race, he was gritting his teeth. I said he was hurting, but he’s not a kid who is ever going to back down. He just gritted it out the entire way.”
- Malott –“He’s a dual sport captain of the soccer team who comes out and runs for us, too. Just an awesome human being. Had a great season. He did not medal last year, but he put in a solid summer. He would run a cross country workout on Wednesday and then go to soccer practice. He was fundamental in the success that this team had,”
- Gentzel – “He’s a tall kid. I feel bad for the tall kids out there because it’s tough to move up those hills He had a phenomenal season, and he will be someone to watch for indoor and outdoor track for sure.”
- Higgins – “He won the most improved career honor for us. If you look back at him as a freshman, he was very far off from where he is today. He ran some really gutsy races for us. I’m incredibly proud of him and for him because he can call himself a state champion. He’s a great kid who worked really hard. I think, this title means a lot to everybody, but it means an exceptional amount to him to be there and experience that.”
A new legacy
It has been said that “youth is wasted on the young.”
Teenagers have a habit of living in the moment, not always considering how an event may change their lives.
“I think its pretty cool,” Gross said. “But obviously I’m getting focused on the next thing and next year and definitely winning it again.”
These Smithsburg boys gladly accepted the state championship trophy.
It’s a symbol of an accomplishment few teams before have experienced. It made them a hot topic and community celebrities.
“To bring home something like that …,” Rudy said. “There was support from other kids in the building and other family members. There were kids (at Hereford) who weren’t on the cross country team and don’t have anything to do with it, but they were down there supporting their friends.”
For now, the trophy proudly sits in Rudy’s classroom. From there it will move to a trophy case.
In reality, somewhere down the line, the magnitude of the accomplishment may hit home someday.
“Winning in the cross country title is such a unique experience because it’s such a tight-knit group of kids,” Rudy said. “I couldn’t be more excited for them. I think they’re going to continue to be successful next year because they have a good foundation.
“Winning a state championship is cool. To see the joy on their face of achieving the thing is the coolest moment for me. The trophies are awesome. The jackets are awesome. And the countless emails about ordering rings are awesome. But they get to say they are a state champion for the rest of your life. No one can take that away. That’s just an awesome thing for a 17- or 16- or 18-year-old to be able to say.”
