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Jump to: Coaches | Athletes | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 |
1998 | 1999
See Also: Mocorunning's All-Decade XC Team of the 2000's: Boys Girls
Introduction
It was an era of rapidly evolving technology and communication. Internet and cell phones were almost unheard of in 1990 but were highly desirable commodities in
1999. Newspapers were the primary media source for running coverage in the early 90's while certain independent sources offered some coverage through magazines
and subscription newsletters. If you were not at a meet, you most likely only learned about results if the local newspapers printed them days later. By around
1996, primitive websites specializing in publishing track results began to pop up and local newspapers also began putting their stories on the internet. It was
the start of something wonderful, but with all the advancement, nobody ever put much effort towards digitally archiving the history of the sport. The reason is
obvious: the effort required to digitize old results is intimidating. Marathons are also intimidating, but thousands of people achieve their endurance goals
every year by approaching the task one day at a time. This article is decades late, but it is the first attempt to organize and summarize the results of an era.
It is step one in the renewed effort by Mocorunning to make the history of the sport readily available on the internet. In addition to this summary of the
decade, I've added several results never before seen on the internet to this page for cross
country and this page for track & field. That is an ongoing effort.
All photos are from the Montgomery Journal and are republished with permission granted by the present day owners of the rights to the Montgomery Journal,
MediaDC.
This article covers high school cross country in Montgomery County, Maryland from 1990 through 1999. Athlete of the Decade selections and year-by-year recaps
were compiled by the author Kevin Milsted with input from coaches and athletes of the era. Additional sources include: The Montgomery Journal, the MPSSAA state
record book, the Washington Post and results on carrollcountyrunning.com.
Montgomery County All-Decade XC Team of the 90's
Coach of the Decade: Kerry Ward, Whitman High School
As of the writing of this article in 2015, Kerry Ward remains the most decorated cross country coach in Maryland history. He was a boon to the organization of
girls cross country in Montgomery County in the early 70's and he won 13 total cross country state titles, six with B-CC and seven with Whitman. Specifically in
the 90's, he led both the Whitman boys and girls teams to three consecutive state titles, a feat no other coach in Maryland history has matched.
Coach of the Decade: Gerald Link, Quince Orchard High School
When Whitman was seemingly winning everything in the early 90's, Jerry Link stood toe-to-toe with the heavyweight champs from Bethesda. For a time, the
Gaithersburg school that opened in 1988 reigned as the supreme boys and girls team in the county. Link led the Quince Orchard boys to three consecutive state
titles and two county titles between 1992 and 1994. The Quince Orchard girls won three county titles during the decade and finished as state runners-up four
times between 1991 and 1996. In 1997, QO fielded one of the best girls team of the decade but fell to third place at the state meet due to a sick runner. The QO
girls would get their state title in 2001 after Link's protégé, Seann Pelkey, took over the head coaching job.
Coach of the Decade: Tom Arnold, Our Lady of Good Counsel High School
It is impossible to summarize the success of the Good Counsel team in the 90's in one sentence due to the constantly evolving championship season structure. In
this article, you will read about the Metropolitan Catholic Championship, Maryland Catholic Championship, the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC)
Championship, the Washington Metro Conference Championship, and the Mid-Atlantic Private Schools Invitational. Most of those meets were defunct by the early
2000's, but suffice to say that the Good Counsel girls team mowed down just about every Maryland and DC team in their path, private or public, from 1993 to
1998. Arnold's girls team won ten of eleven WCAC titles between 1993 and 2003 while the boys came on very strong in 1999 and went on a tremendous run in the
early 2000's.
Coach of the Decade: Greg Dunston, Walter Johnson High School
Jerry Link won three state titles in a row and Kerry Ward won three in a row for boys and girls concurrently, but Greg Dunston did something neither of those
guys did: win four state titles in a row. The Walter Johnson girls team won four consecutive state titles from 1996 to 1999 and also won five consecutive county
titles from 1998 to 2002. Dunston's girls also made it onto the podium as state runners-up from 1991 to 1993.
Credit: Ken Lambert, Journal '91 | Male Athlete of
the Decade: Pascal Dobert, Walt Whitman Class of 1992
Dobert was a two-time county and state champion who also helped his team win state titles in 1990 and 1991. Dobert was unbeatable on the local scene in 1991 and
finished 26th at the Kinney Cross Country National Championships after placing sixth in the northeast regional. He was the only Montgomery County male runner to
qualify for cross country nationals in the 90's. He went on to win an NCAA title and three US titles in the steeplechase and represented the United States in
the 2000 Olympics. |
First Team All-Decade
Jama Bile Georgetown Prep 1992
Troy Harry Quince Orchard 1993
Josh Orenstein Walter Johnson 1994
Ed Tufaro Whitman 1997
Thad Minshall Landon 1999
David Glynn Walter Johnson 1999
Jarrett Van Tine Bethesda Chevy Chase 2000
Second Team All-Decade
Balazs Koranyi Walter Johnson 1992
Dave McCombe Good Counsel 1993
James Mills Seneca Valley 1995
Michael Taye Richard Montgomery 1996
Matt Seymour Magruder 2000
Matt Hanlon Good Counsel 2001
Marcus Hershberger Gaithersburg 2001
Honorable Mention All-Decade
Chris Neal Georgetown Prep 1991
Mike McPherson Georgetown Prep 1992
Kevin Birdsell Quince Orchard 1993
Tim Billo Whitman 1993
Chris Hertz Whitman 1994
Brian Hetherington Quince Orchard 1995
David Harry Quince Orchard 1995
Alex Rhodes Quince Orchard 1996
Justin Palmer Whitman 1997
Andrew Roynestad Gaithersburg 1999
Phil Knowlton Whitman 1999
Jamie Albertine Whitman 2000
Gary Heflin Damascus 2000
Daniel MacKenzie Georgetown Prep 2000
Stephen Hayes Winston Churchill 2001
Credit: Bill Wood, Journal '93 | Female Athlete of the Decade: Sally
Glynn, Walter Johnson Class of 1996
Glynn was unbeatable locally for four years. She won four consecutive county, regional, and state titles in cross country, never losing to a Montgomery County
athlete in her time at Walter Johnson. As a junior in 1994, she was the runner-up at the Footlocker Northeast Regional Meet and went on to place second at
Footlocker Nationals. She was the only female runner of the decade from Montgomery County to qualify for nationals. She went on to become an NCAA All-American
several times over and one of the greatest runners in Stanford University history. |
First Team All-Decade
Anna Quezada Good Counsel 1996
Sarah Wassner Watkins Mill 1997
Erin Sicher Good Counsel 1999
Claudin Hull Quince Orchard 1999
Lucinda Hull Quince Orchard 1999
Martha Nelson Bethesda Chevy Chase 1999
Karen Pulliam Quince Orchard 2002
Second Team All-Decade
Craig Lake Whitman 1991
Tonya Watson Kennedy 1992
Rebeccah Wassner Watkins Mill 1993
Suzy Burr Richard Montgomery 1995
Kati Orifici Springbrook 1997
Hannah Benjamin Damascus 1998
Kim Hurney Good Counsel 2001
Honorable Mention All-Decade
Erin Gorely Gaithersburg 1993
Sarah Leshner Churchill 1994
Christina Stallings Quince Orchard 1995
Laurel Hildebrandt Gaithersburg 1996
Jamie Knapp Good Counsel 1996
Andrea Cardy Damascus 1997
Kjetil Lowe Poolesville 1998
Megan McGolrick Damascus 1998
Michelle Rafeedie Seneca Valley 1999
Renee Berry Seneca Valley 1999
Kate Schilling Good Counsel 1999
Cecily Garber Richard Montgomery 1999
Jenny Bodine Walter Johnson 2000
Rachel Brandenburg Jewish Day 2001
Maggie Guille Whitman 2001
Girls Individual State Champions
====================================================================================================
Year Div Name School Time Site
====================================================================================================
1998 4A Claudin Hull Quince Orchard 19:45.0 Hereford
1997 4A Claudin Hull Quince Orchard 20:22.0 Hereford
1997 1A Kjetil Lowe Poolesville 20:33.0 Hereford
1996 4A Katy Orifici Springbrook 20:36.0 Hereford
1996 2A Martha Nelson B-CC 20:12.0 Hereford
1995 4A Sarah Wassner Watkins Mill 20:02.0 Hereford
1995 3A Sally Glynn Walter Johnson 19:29.0 Hereford
1994 3A Sally Glynn Walter Johnson 19:00.0 Hereford
1993 3A Sally Glynn Walter Johnson 17:24.0 Hereford
1992 3A Sally Glynn Walter Johnson 18:37.7 W. Maryland College
1991 3A Tonya Watson Kennedy 19:20.5 W. Maryland College
Boys Individual State Champions
====================================================================================================
Year Div Name School Time Site
====================================================================================================
1999 4A Marcus Hershberger Gaithersburg 16:29.0 Hereford
1998 3A David Glynn Walter Johnson 16:36.0 Hereford
1998 2A Jarrett Van Tine B-CC 16:27.0 Hereford
1997 3A David Glynn Walter Johnson 16:36.0 Hereford
1997 2A Jarrett Van Tine B-CC 16:58.0 Hereford
1996 4A Ed Tufaro Whitman 16:45.0 Hereford
1993 3A Josh Orenstein Walter Johnson 16:00.5 Hereford
1992 4A Troy Harry Quince Orchard 16:03.4 W. Maryland College
1991 4A Troy Harry Quince Orchard 16:02.8 W. Maryland College
1991 3A Pascal Dobert Whitman 15:22.3 W. Maryland College
1990 4A Pascal Dobert Whitman 17:30.0 Hereford
Girls Individual County Champions
==================================================================================================
Year Name School Time Site
==================================================================================================
1999 Karen Pulliam Quince Orchard 19:13.3 Blake
1998 Lucinda Hull Quince Orchard 18:03.8 Blake
1997 Hannah Benjamin Damascus 19:00.6 Watkins Mill
1996 Martha Nelson B-CC 19:52.0 Watkins Mill
1995 Sally Glynn Walter Johnson 19:00.3 Watkins Mill
1994 Sally Glynn Walter Johnson 17:06.9 Poolesville Polo Grounds
1993 Sally Glynn Walter Johnson 18:10.5 Watkins Mill
1992 Sally Glynn Walter Johnson 19:41.1 Watkins Mill
1991 Rebecca Wassner Watkins Mill 19:52.0 Watkins Mill
1990 Craig Lake Whitman 19:07.0 Watkins Mill
Boys Individual County Champions
==================================================================================================
Year Name School Time Site
==================================================================================================
1999 Matt Seymour Magruder 15:58.5 Blake
1998 Jarrett Van Tine B-CC 15:06.2 Blake
1997 Jarrett Van Tine B-CC 16:06.5 Watkins Mill
1996 Ed Tufaro Whitman 16:33.0 Watkins Mill
1995 Michael Taye Richard Mont 16:25.0 Watkins Mill
1994 Jamie Mills Seneca Valley 16:33.0 Poolesville Polo Grounds
1993 Josh Orenstein Walter Johnson 16:39.4 Watkins Mill
1992 Troy Harry Quince Orchard 16:34.2 Watkins Mill
1991 Pascal Dobert Whitman 16:03.0 Watkins Mill
1990 Pascal Dobert Whitman 15:44.0 Watkins Mill
Team State Champions: 4A Boys Whitman Kerry Ward
4A Girls Whitman Kerry Ward
3A Boys R. Montgomery Scott Spear
Team County Champions: Boys Whitman Kerry Ward
Girls Whitman Kerry Ward
On MTV: U Can't Touch This - MC Hammer; Blaze of Glory - Bon Jovi
Whitman High School won its third boys state title in five years and the fourth in school history under the leadership of head coach Kerry Ward. Pascal Dobert
emerged as Whitman's top runner in his junior year. He was considered somewhat of a surprise in winning the county title and even more of a surprise in winning
the 4A state title. Whitman placed six runners in the top 15 at the county championship and 5 runners in the top 25 at the state championship.
As strong as Whitman was, Georgetown Prep was the class of Montgomery County in 1990 as demonstrated by defeating Whitman soundly at the Georgetown Prep
Classic. Coach Michael Horsey's Georgetown Prep squad fielded perhaps the strongest team in school history led by Jama Bile. Bile finished second at the
Georgetown Prep Classic in 15:47 and won the IAC Championship, the Metropolitan Catholic Championship, and the National Jesuit Championship. As a team,
Georgetown Prep won the IAC title with a perfect 15 points and won the Jesuit Championships. Bile would transfer to Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia and
qualify for the Kinney cross country national championships the following year.
 The Richard Montgomery boys, under head coach Scott Spear, were a distant second to Whitman at the county
championship meet and were projected to be no better than second at the 3A state championship meet. Oakland Mills High School had won six consecutive state
titles albeit in lower classifications. The Rockets took down Oakland Mills in the rain to win the 3A state title in what was one of the biggest team upsets of
the decade. Spear had only taken over the team in 1988 and he himself had no prior distance training experience. It would be his first of two state titles of
the decade.
 The Whitman girls team won its first state title in school history, but they were no strangers to
championships by the turn of the decade. Whitman had won every county title between 1984 and 1990 (there was no team scoring at the county championship in
1985). The Whitman girls were nationally ranked by Harrier Magazine after wins at the Spiked Shoe Invitational, Pallotti Invitational, Hereford Invitational,
and a third place finish in the Eastern States race at the Manhattan Invitational in New York City. With five runners in the top twelve, Whitman scored 31
points at the county championship meet which was a record low score at the time.
Whitman senior Craig Lake emerged as the number one runner in Montgomery County. After leading the team for the better part of the previous four years, Lake won
the county title and placed fourth at the state championship.
Photo 1: Richard Montgomery Boys Team, Jon Shushinsky, Derek Vandrey,
Anthony Cate, Deresse Harris, Carl Graf, Nemanja Krsmanovic, Alan Barney, Montgomery Journal 1990, Bill Wood
Photo 2: Whitman Girls Team, Craig Lake,
Jennifer Novack, Tina Brown, Montgomery Journal 1990, Katherine Frey
TOP
Team State Champions: 4A Girls Churchill Ron McGaw
3A Boys Whitman Kerry Ward
3A Girls Whitman Kerry Ward
Team County Champions: Boys Whitman Kerry Ward
Girls Churchill Ron McGaw
On MTV: Good Vibrations - Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch; Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
A regional realignment was big news in 1991 because it allowed for more Montgomery County teams and individuals to qualify for the state championship than what
had been the norm. As it turned out, it also meant more teams and individuals from Montgomery County won state titles. Both Whitman and Walter Johnson moved
down from 4A to 3A classification and the boys and girls squads from both schools took first and second at the 3A state championships. In the 4A classification,
the Churchill girls won the 4A state title behind the leadership of Coach Ron McGaw. For Whitman High School and head coach Kerry Ward, it was back-to-back
years where both boys and girls teams won state titles.
Prior to the 1991 cross country season, Balazs Koranyi of Walter Johnson clocked a 1:53 800m as a junior and emerged in 1991 as a cross country star with a win
at the William and Mary Invitational. He later became the greatest professional 800 meter runner to ever come from Montgomery County, but over long distances
during their senior year, Pascal Dobert of Whitman proved unbeatable. Dobert had transformed from the surprising up-and-comer of 1990 to a full blown star in
1991.
Even in a shorter 2.5 mile race at the Manhattan Invitational, Dobert clocked 12:49 while Koranyi clocked 13:21 in a different race. Koranyi came within 4
seconds of Dobert at the regional meet, but Dobert won the county and state meet by over 20 seconds. Dobert finished 26th at the Kinney Cross Country National
Championships after placing sixth in the northeast regional. Dobert was the only male Montgomery County runner of the 90's to qualify for nationals while at a
Montgomery County school (Jama Bile also qualified for nationals in 1991, but he had transferred from Georgetown Prep to Fork Union Military Academy).
Just third at the county championship, Quince Orchard junior Troy Harry won the 4A regional and 4A state titles in 1991, establishing himself as the county
favorite for the following year.
Pascal Dobert went on to win an NCAA title and three US titles in the steeplechase and represented the United States in the 2000 Olympics.
Balasz Koranyi represented Hungary at multiple world championships and in the 1996 and 2000 Olympics in the 800 meter run. In 1999 he ran 1:45.39.
 Behind Dobert, the Whitman boys of 1991 were perhaps the strongest team of the decade. In winning the
University of Virginia Invitational, Whitman topped many of the best teams in Virginia. Whitman also placed second at the Manhattan Invitational before sweeping
county, regional, and state titles. The '91 Vikings put five runners in the top fourteen spots for a score of 37 points at the 3A state championship.
While Whitman went unchallenged in 1991, pundits were already pointing to county and state runner-up, Quince Orchard, with rising star Troy Harry and a deep
young supporting cast, as the expected team of the future.
The Whitman and Churchill girls teams were touted as co-favorites all season long and that culminated in a 57 to 57 tie at the Montgomery County Championship
Meet. The tie was broken by a sixth runner tiebreaker where Churchill had the advantage. It broke Whitman's streak of six consecutive county titles (excluding
1985 when the meet was not scored). Quince Orchard, who was third at the county meet, took down Churchill at the 4A regional meet before Churchill won the 4A
state title.
Junior Rebeccah Wassner from Watkins Mill was a surprise winner of the county championship meet on her home course. Kennedy's Tonya Watson won the 3A Regional
Meet over Wassner and then won the individual 3A state title.
The Good Counsel boys team won the Washington Metro Conference Championship Meet and the Good Counsel girls won the Metro Area Catholic Championship.
Mike McPherson was the only remaining varsity member of Georgetown Prep's star-studded 1990 squad and he individually won the 1991 IAC title.
Photo 3: Tonya Watson of Kennedy High School, Montgomery Journal 1991, Jeff Taylor
TOP
Team State Champions: 4A Boys Quince Orchard Gerald Link
3A Boys Whitman Kerry Ward
3A Girls Whitman Kerry Ward
Team County Champions: Boys Whitman Kerry Ward
Girls Whitman Kerry Ward
On MTV: Baby Got Back - Sir Mix-A-Lot; Drive - R.E.M.; End of the Road - Boyz II Men
 Enter Sally Glynn...
The earth did not quake the first time Sally Glynn's spikes pushed through dirt, but it wasn't long before the Walter Johnson youngster was heralded as a
freshman phenom. Her performances quickly made it known that local opponents would be no competition for her. As a freshman, she usually won her local races by
a minute or more. Then she traveled to New York City where she placed second overall at the Manhattan Invitational. Glynn won county, regional, and state
titles, increasing her margin of victory in each race from 22 seconds to 41 seconds to 52 seconds. She capped the season off by returning to New York to place
14th at the Kinney Northeast Regional.
Rebeccah Wassner of Watkins Mill, the 1991 county champion, was the unfortunate runner up to Glynn at the 3A regional and state meet. In Wassner's absence,
Claire Torchia of B-CC was the runner-up to Glynn at the county championship.
The Whitman boys and girls teams each won a third consecutive cross country state title, an unprecedented feat in the state of Maryland.
 The predicted rise of the Quince Orchard boys team proved out in the 1992 season when QO knocked off
stalwart Whitman at the Spiked Shoe Invitational in September. Whitman got back at QO in a heated dual meet but Quince Orchard made waves again just before the
county championship when it took 2nd place in the Eastern States Championship at the Manhattan Invitational.
Whitman defeated QO at the county championship with 36 points on a sixth man tiebreaker. Whitman's sixth man edged out QO's sixth man by 0.3 seconds in a sprint
finish. The tie-breaking Whitman runner at the county championship, Peter Kimball, was quoted in the Montgomery Journal saying, "This kind of makes the season
for us...This was our biggest race."
Indeed the county meet was the climax for the Whitman boys team who dominated 3A regional and state competition with less difficulty than their match-ups
against 4A Quince Orchard. In the 4A classification, Quince Orchard won its first state title despite stiff competition from Westminster. Quince Orchard had
only been open for four years at that point. It would be [spoiler alert] the first of three consecutive state titles for Quince Orchard and head coach Jerry
Link between 1992 and 1994.
As this article is written in 2015, 36 points remains the lowest point total ever scored in the boys race at the county championship meet and two teams tied
with that point total in 1992. Quince Orchard and Whitman took 12 of the top 17 positions at the county championship meet that year.
 Defending 4A state champion Troy Harry had a perfect championship season, winning the county, region, and
back-to-back 4A state titles. He also took 9th at the prestigious Manhattan Invitational.
The Whitman girls took back the county crown from Churchill although Churchill kept it close at the 1992 county championship meet. As the two teams went their
separate ways after the county championship, each team won its respective regional race. Whitman won its third consecutive state title in the 3A classification
while Churchill took second behind Dulaney in the 4A classification.
The Good Counsel boys rose to prominence in 1992 in winning the Pallotti Invitational, Metro Washington Catholic Championship, and taking third at the Metro
Conference Meet. Dave McCombe had been the individual leader of the team for almost four years and emerged as one of the best runners in the DC area while the
boys team developed around him. In a post-season article in the Montgomery Journal, Coach Tom Arnold was quoted saying, "The guys team was our best ever... I
came to the conclusion we probably couldn't beat Whitman and Quince Orchard, but we'd be competitive with them."
Photo 4: Sally Glynn of Walter Johnson, Montgomery Journal 1992, Bill Wood
Photo 5: Whitman runners Chris Hertz and Tim Billo, Montgomery Journal 1992,
Daniel Richards
Photo 6: Whitman runners Desiree Ficker and Anna Battat, Montgomery Journal 1992, Photographer not credited in original publication
TOP
Team State Champions: 4A Boys Quince Orchard Gerald Link
Team County Champions: Boys Quince Orchard Gerald Link
Girls Whitman Kerry Ward
On MTV: Dreamlover - Mariah Carey; Heart Shaped Box - Nirvana
Kerry Ward's final season as Whitman's head cross country coach ended on a sour note after the 1993 season in which his girls team missed the start of the
regional race. After the race began, Whitman's girls team sprinted to the starting line and started the race several minutes after the rest of the field. The
Whitman girls had won the county meet and appeared poised to make a run at a fourth consecutive state title, but they would not qualify for the state meet. Ward
claimed that he never received a memo about the change of the regional race start time. Newspapers thoroughly documented the drama as Whitman parents appealed
to state meet organizers to allow the girls to run at the state meet, but the girls were relegated to cheer for the boys from the sidelines.
In the absence of the Whitman girls team, the county runner-up Walter Johnson girls team took second place behind Linganore at the 3A west regional and 3A state
meet.
After her first full year of high school, the general consensus was that Walter Johnson's Sally Glynn was certifiably unbeatable. Her only opponents were her
course records from the previous year. All other runners would be competing for second place when Glynn was in the race. Aside from sweeping the three post-
season meets, highlights for Glynn's sophomore year included a win in the "A" race at the William & Mary Invitational in 17:56 and second place finish in the
Eastern States race at the Manhattan Invitational in 14:57 (2.5 Miles).
Seneca Valley's Andrea Cardy burst onto the scene as a freshman standout and finished as runner-up to Glynn at the county, region, and state meets.
 In the private school ranks, sophomore Anna Quezada emerged from the back of the pack to lead Good Counsel
through championship season. Quezada won the Metropolitan Catholic Championships, Maryland Catholic Cross Country Championships and the WCAC Championship,
leading the team to wins in all three meets.
By 1993, the Quince Orchard boys team surpassed Whitman for Montgomery County supremacy. QO cruised through championship season, winning its first county title
in school history followed by the regional and state titles.
Walter Johnson's Josh Orenstein was the reigning county champion in the 1600m on the track but he was considered a bit of a secret in just his second year of
running cross country. Everyone knew Orenstein after he swept the cross country county, region, and state titles in 1993.
County runner-up James Mills and the Seneca Valley boys were young and inconsistent, but showed signs of what was to come in 1994.
Photo 7: Walter Johnson runner Josh Orenstein, Montgomery Journal 1993, Bill Wood
TOP
Team State Champions: 4A Boys Quince Orchard Gerald Link
3A Boys Seneca Valley Charles Dormo
2A Girls Damascus Robert Youngblood
Team County Champions: Boys Quince Orchard Gerald Link
Girls Quince Orchard Gerald Link
On MTV: I'll Make Love To You - Boyz II Men; Basket Case - Greenday
 Seneca Valley's meteoric rise to a 3A state title was dampened only by the fact that neighboring school
Quince Orchard had assembled one of the best boys teams of the decade. QO's top 4 of Brian Hetherington, Alex Rhodes, Seann Pelkey, and David Harry were all
legitimate threats to win a race on any given day. Quince Orchard squashed Seneca's hopes for a county title by scoring 57 points to Seneca Valley's 73. QO (4A)
and Seneca Valley (3A) each went on to win regional and state titles. Quince Orchard incredibly squeezed four guys into the top eight at the state championship
with the #5 man coming in at 32nd position (53 points) to win its third consecutive 4A state title under head coach Jerry Link.
James Mills, in the first and only county championship meet at the Poolesville Polo Grounds, sprinted past Quince Orchard's Alex Rhodes in the final 20 meters
to claim the individual county crown. Whitman's Ed Tufaro beat out Mills at the 3A West Regional meet. Mills came up short of an individual state title, instead
taking third place. As a consolation, Seneca Valley and head coach Charles Dormo won the school's first state title since 1977. Seneca Valley also won the
Brunswick Invitational and the Montgomery College High School Invitational earlier in the year.
1994 was the pinnacle of Sally Glynn's high school cross country career as she would finish as runner-up with a time of 17:12 at the Footlocker National
Championships in San Diego, California. It was only considered the pinnacle because she would fight mononucleosis in 1995 and not return to the national
championship meet (she would still sweep county, region, and state titles for the fourth consecutive year in '95).
En route to her brilliant national championship performance, Glynn placed third in the Eastern States Championship race in New York and obliterated a loaded
field at the Georgetown Prep Classic which was touted as a race where Glynn would face stiff competition. She topped Perry Hall's Krissy Jost (18:41) and
Annapolis's Kristen Nicolini (18:49) by over 40 seconds with a time of 17:57. Glynn ran a ridiculous time of 17:07 at the Montgomery County Championship Meet, a
course record by close to three minutes and a performance that would have placed 11th in the boys varsity race strictly based on time. She faced no competition
in winning the regional and state meets.
Glynn finished second at the Footlocker Northeast Regional in New York, defeating Erin Davis for the first time but losing to Mary Cobb. She clocked 17:25 on
the challenging course. At Footlocker Nationals, Glynn defeated both Cobb and Davis and finished runner-up to Julia Stamps of California.
The Whitman girls had a down year by Whitman standards in the first season of head coach Chris Flynn. Whitman didn't stay down for long, but in 1994, it was the
Quince Orchard and Watkins Mill girls teams that battled for Montgomery County supremacy. Quince Orchard won the county title by three points and Watkins Mill
won the 4A West regional title. Dulaney won the 4A state meet while Quince Orchard was the runner-up.
 Individually, county runner-up Suzy Burr of Richard Montgomery had a chance to shine whenever she wasn't racing
Glynn. Burr won the UMD Invitational, Montgomery College High School Invitational, Georgetown Prep Invitational Division II race and the 4A West Regional title
before placing second in the 4A state race.
The 1993 county runner-up, Andrea Cardy, transferred from Seneca Valley to Good Counsel to team up with Anna Quezada for a deadly 1-2 punch. The runners took
turns leading the team with Quezada winning the Pallotti Invitational and Division I race at the Georgetown Prep Classic and Cardy winning the WCAC title in a
course record time. Early in the season, the deadly duo topped Walter Johnson's Sally Glynn and Alissa Parmelee at the Woodward Relays.
Upon discovery of a scoring error, the Damascus girls were crowned as the 2A state champions days after the state championship meet. The Damascus girls behind
head coach Robert Youngblood were sixth at the county championship but emerged as 2A West Regional champions before winning the state title by a tiebreaker.
Photo 8: Seneca Valley runner James Mill leading Brian Hetherington and David Harry of Quince Orchard, Montgomery Journal 1994, Katherine Frey
Photo 9: Suzy Burr of Richard Montgomery leading Sarah Wassner of Watkins Mill and Laurel Hildebrandt of Gaithersburg, Montgomery Journal 1994, Katherine
Frey
TOP
Team State Champions: 4A Boys Whitman Chris Flynn
3A Boys R. Montgomery Scott Spear
Team County Champions: Boys Whitman Chris Flynn
Girls Damascus Robert Youngblood
On MTV: Gangsta's Paradise - Coolio; Waterfalls - TLC; You Oughta Know - Alanis Morissette
The Damascus girls were 2A state champions in 1994 and had aspirations of repeating in 1995, but a classification realignment in 1995 bumped Damascus up to the
3A classification which made the road to a state title considerably more difficult. Working in Damascus's favor was a new secret weapon: Andrea Cardy, formerly
of Seneca Valley and Good Counsel, who landed at her third school in three years.
 Damascus first took down stalwart Watkins Mill to win their MCPS division and then upset the Whitman girls to
win the school's first county title. Damascus defeated Frederick at the 3A West Regional before Frederick got back at Damascus at the state championship meet.
Damascus was the #1 team in Montgomery County and demonstrated it could beat Frederick, but came up short of a state title by three points.
The Whitman girls were state runners-up behind Dulaney in the 4A competition.
Meanwhile, the Good Counsel girls team only continued to get stronger. The Falcons added one more weapon to their loaded squad in Jamie Knapp, who won the Metro
Catholic Championships. Senior Anna Quezada had her best season, going undefeated against Montgomery County runners and winning the Maryland State Catholic
Championships. Good Counsel as a team won the Montgomery College Invitational and the Metro Catholic and Maryland Catholic Championships.
Sally Glynn was noticeably absent for much of the 1995 season, either due to a bout with mononucleosis or official college visits to places like Stanford
University where she eventually ended up. Glynn was not as dominant as a senior, and stories were written about her competitors being amazed that they were
running with and ahead of Glynn for parts of the county meet. In her first race of the season, Glynn defeated Sarah Wassner of Watkins Mill by just 12 seconds
to win the county title. Wassner went on to win the 4A West regional title and the 4A state title while Glynn won her fourth consecutive county, region, and
state titles.
Quince Orchard's boys team had aspirations of "four-peating" at the state championship and "three-peating" at the county championship, but Whitman moved up to
the 4A classification and the Viking boys team roared back as strong as ever in coach Chris Flynn's second year as head coach. Amid reporting where Flynn
controversially admitted to not racing his athletes during mandatory dual meets, the Whitman boys team swept county, regional, and 4A state titles convincingly.
Ed Tufaro won the 4A West Regional title and led a lethal Whitman quartet that finished in the top 10 in the county, top 7 at the regional meet, and top 12 at
the state meet.
The Richard Montgomery boys flew under the radar for much of the year, but finished third at the county championship behind Whitman and QO and won the 3A West
regional meet and the 3A state championship meet. The Rockets were led by head coach Scott Spear who notched his second state title of the decade with a
completely different cast of characters on his two state winning teams (1990 and 1995). Individual county champion Michael Taye proved too powerful for Tufaro
and the Whitman boys when they met on the hilly Watkins Mill course for the county championship. Taye finished as region champ and runner-up at the state
championship and would later become an NCAA Division III All-American distance runner at Frostburg State.
Like Richard Montgomery, Georgetown Prep bounced back with its strongest team since 1990, and like RM coach Scott Spear, Georgetown Prep's coach Richard Drozd
wandered into cross country coaching accidentally and found success in his third year. Prep won the IAC title convincingly with individual conference runner-up
Jason Dwyer and a freshman contributor named David Glynn.
Photo 10: Anna Quezada of Good Counsel, Montgomery Journal 1995, Katherine Frey
Photo 11: Sarah Wassner of Watkins Mill, Montgomery Journal 1995, Katherine Frey
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Team State Champions: 3A Girls Walter Johnson Greg Dunston
Team County Champions: Boys Whitman Chris Flynn
Girls Quince Orchard Gerald Link
On MTV: Macarena - Los Del Rio; Down - 311; C'mon N' Ride It (The Train) - Quad City DJ's
 Ed Tufaro lost some of his supporting cast to graduation, but Whitman reloaded to remain the strongest boys
team in Montgomery County in 1996. Whitman won the Eastern States Race at the Manhattan Invitational with the caveat that several of the expected seventeen
teams did not show up due to a driving rain storm. Whitman easily won the county title and defeated a strong Westminster team in the 4A West Regional, but
Westminster caught fire to take the 4A state title away from Whitman. Individually, Ed Tufaro finished second at the Manhattan Invitational and won the county,
regional, and state titles.
Two of the best female runners of the decade, Sally Glynn and Anna Quezada, graduated in the spring of 1995 and ironically their respective high school teams
grew stronger than ever.
Good Counsel added sophomore Erin Sicher who picked up the team's #1 role occupied by Quezada for the previous three years. Tom Arnold's Good Counsel team
finished fifth at the highly competitive William & Mary Invitational, well ahead of 1996 county champions Quince Orchard (13th). Good Counsel won the Metro
Catholic Championships with 19 points behind individual champion Sicher.
 Despite Glynn's departure, Walter Johnson found itself with depth and a tight spread it never had before. While
WJ finished second to QO at the county championship, the Lady Wildcats went on to win the school's first cross country state title (3A).
Martha Nelson of B-CC was a devoted field hockey player who, after suffering a hamstring injury playing field hockey, ran cross country for the first time as a
sophomore in 1996. She picked up on it pretty quickly. Nelson won the Montgomery College Invitational and won the first individual girls county title in the
post-Glynn era. Nelson went on to win the 2A state title.
Katy Orifici of Springbrook was another runner who emerged seemingly out of nowhere. The senior finished second at the county championship before winning the 4A
West Regional and state meet. Orifici also shined on the basketball court.
The Hull twins, Lucinda and Claudin, were just getting started as sophomores in 1996. They led Quince Orchard to the team county title, barely edging out Walter
Johnson, 76 to 78. QO won the 4A West Regional and finished second to Dulaney at the 4A state meet.
Photo 12: Whitman High School runner Ed Tufaro, Montgomery Journal 1996, Katherine Frey
Photo 13: B-CC county and state champion Martha Nelson, Montgomery Journal 1996, Katherine Frey
Photo 14: Kati Orifici of Springbrook, Montgomery Journal 1996, Katherine Frey
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Team State Champions: 3A Girls Walter Johnson Greg Dunston
Team County Champions: Boys Whitman Chris Flynn
Girls Quince Orchard Gerald Link
On MTV: Fly - Sugar Ray; Walkin' on the Sun - Smashmouth; Tubthumping - Chumbawamba
The graduation of state champion Ed Tufaro left behind a young but still hungry and talented Whitman squad that would dominate the county and 4A West regional
meet in addition to winning the Georgetown Prep Classic with no seniors. An argument can be made that the '97 Whitman team with no seniors was among the
strongest of the decade despite not winning the state title. Whitman was runner-up to Westminster at the state meet, 66-49. Whitman had six runners in the top
18, ahead of Westminster's #4, but as cross country scoring goes, Westminster's front three in the top six proved too much for Whitman to overcome. With
Westminster graduating three of its top seven and Whitman graduating none, surely 1998 would be Whitman's year. To be continued...
The 1996 4A state runner-up Quince Orchard girls loaded up with a much better girls squad in 1997. Behind Claudin and Lucinda Hull and head coach Jerry Link,
the QO girls dominated the county and 4A West regional championships. A poor race at the state championship, which included an illness to their #5 runner,
crushed their hopes of winning the first girls state title in school history. Powerhouse Dulaney won its fourth straight state title with a team that QO had the
potential to beat on paper.
The county championship fourth place finisher, Claudin Hull of Quince Orchard, won the 4A state title.
In the 3A classification, Greg Dunston's Walter Johnson girls won their second consecutive state title.
 Individually, Hannah Benjamin of Damascus, who had been a part of such strong Damascus squads since the state
championship team of 1994, elevated her own running profile by winning the individual county title and 3A West regional title as a senior. She placed second at
the state championship meet behind arguably the top runner in Maryland that year, Kelly Coogan of C. Milton Wright.
The Montgomery County championship runner-up, Kjetil Lowe of Poolesville, won the 1A state title. Lowe was a senior who previously played field hockey, but
through the enthusiastic efforts of Coach Jim Vollmer, Lowe became the most successful female cross country runner in Poolesville High School history.
Three individual stars emerged in the boys ranks of Montgomery County in 1997 and amazingly they were all underclassman.
Thad Minshall of Landon showed signs of stardom during his sophomore year, but his arrival was in winning the 1997 Georgetown Prep Classic as a junior. He won
the IAC title and was the highest Maryland finisher at the Footlocker Northeast Regional Meet (38th).
 Right behind Minshall in second place at the Georgetown Prep Classic was B-CC sophomore Jarrett Van
Tine. This was strange at the time because B-CC had not had a strong male runner in about ten years. Van Tine backed up his Georgetown Prep performance by
winning the Montgomery County title, the 2A West Regional title and the 2A state title.
Nearly catching Van Tine at the county championship was Walter Johnson junior David Glynn. Every article written in the 90's mentioned that David Glynn was
Sally Glynn's younger brother so I am going to do the same. Sally Glynn's younger brother shed his little brother reputation when he finished runner-up at the
county championship and won the 3A West regional and 3A state titles as a junior in 1997.
Freshman Kim Hurney and Junior Kate Schilling joined Erin Sicher at Good Counsel to maintain Good Counsel's juggernaut status. With apologies to the county,
region, and state champions of MoCo, Tom Arnold's Good Counsel squad was the best girls team in Montgomery County in 1996 and 1997. The '97 Falcons finished
fifth at the Georgetown Prep Classic ahead of all other Montgomery County teams and won the WCAC title.
Photo 15: Damascus High School runner Hannah Benjamin, Montgomery Journal 1997, Katherine Frey
Photo 16: David Glynn of Walter Johnson and Jarrett Van Tine of B-CC, Montgomery Journal 1997, Katherine Frey
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Team State Champions: 3A Girls Walter Johnson Greg Dunston
Team County Champions: Boys Whitman Jeff Kostoff
Girls Walter Johnson Greg Dunston
On MTV: I Don't Want to Miss a Thing - Aerosmith; One Week - Bare Naked Ladies
Blake and Northwest High Schools opened in 1998 which marked the first new schools to open in Montgomery County since Watkins Mill opened in 1989. The total
number of public schools in Montgomery County increased to 23. Longtime Montgomery County coach Allan Bellman, who moved to Watkins Mill when it opened in 1989,
took a teaching and coaching opportunity at Blake High School. So too the county championship meet followed Bellman from Watkins Mill to Blake.
 After playing runner-up to Quince Orchard for two consecutive years, the two-time 3A state champion Walter
Johnson girls team finally won the first county title in school history on the speedy Blake High School home course. The Walter Johnson girls won the 3A West
regional title before dominating the 3A state meet for the third consecutive year.
With all due respect to the WJ Wildcats, Good Counsel remained the premier girls team in Montgomery County for at least the third consecutive year. Behind
tremendous trio Erin Sicher, Kim Hurney, and Kate Schilling, Good Counsel dominated the Georgetown Prep Classic over Walter Johnson and also Virginia
powerhouses Lake Braddock and Thomas Jefferson.
 The Quince Orchard girls team fell off a little bit in 1998, but twin seniors Claudin and Lucinda Hull elevated
to championship status. Lucinda Hull won the 1998 individual county and 4A West regional titles while defending state champion Claudin was county runner-up in
both races. At the state championship, Claudin Hull won her second consecutive state title while Lucinda was the state runner-up. Claudin Hull was the only
Montgomery County runner of the decade besides Sally Glynn to win multiple state titles.
Expectations could not have been higher for the Whitman boys entering the 1998 season, but resentment lingered on the boys team following the dismissal of
well-liked head coach Chris Flynn. Exactly how much this drama affected the team is impossible to quantify. Whitman had a good season, but it became evident
that they had more to worry about than just Westminster at the state meet. Whitman won the county title, but Gaithersburg, who garnered a national ranking by
defeating a nationally ranked team at the Manhattan Invitational, upset Whitman at the 4A West Regional Meet. After perhaps overlooking the rising Gaithersburg
squad at the regional meet, Whitman had another epic dual meet with Westminster at the state meet in which both teams placed five runners in the top 19. Whitman
lost the 4A state title to Westminster for the third consecutive year, 50 to 41.
For the second consecutive year, WJ's David Glynn finished runner-up to B-CC's Jarrett Van Tine at the Montgomery County Championships, and for the second
consecutive year, Glynn (3A) and Van Tine (2A) won state titles in their respective classifications.
Only a junior, Van Tine also defeated Landon's Thad Minshall at the Georgetown Prep Classic to stake his claim as Montgomery County's top runner of 1998.
Minshall was the repeat IAC champion and won the inaugural Mid-Atlantic Private Schools Championship at Georgetown Prep before he was again Maryland's top
finisher at the Footlocker Northeast Regional Meet in 1998 (22nd).
Minshall, Van Tine, and Glynn were all selected as first team Washington Post All-Met runners in 1997 and 1998.
Photo 17: Erin Sicher of Good Counsel, Montgomery Journal 1998, Rodney Peele
Photo 18: Claudin and Lucinda Hull of Quince Orchard, Montgomery Journal 1997,
Katherine Frey
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Team State Champions: 3A Girls Walter Johnson Greg Dunston
Team County Champions: Boys Whitman Dave Paulson
Girls Walter Johnson Greg Dunston
On MTV: Smooth - Santana ft. Rob Thomas; Genie in a Bottle - Christina Aguilera; All-Star - Smashmouth
Following the graduation of Claudin and Lucinda Hull, a new star emerged from Quince Orchard in sophomore Karen Pulliam. Pulliam placed second in a race at the
Manhattan Invitational before winning her first individual county title. Pulliam won the 4A West Regional before placing second at the state meet behind another
sophomore, Dulaney's Tenke Zoltani. It was the beginning of a rivalry between Pulliam and Zoltani that extended into the 2000's. Pulliam went on to have one of
the most impressive high school careers in Montgomery County running history and in 2009 was voted by Montgomery County coaches as Mocorunning.com's cross
country athlete of the decade for 2000 to 2009.
With five girls in the top ten, the Walter Johnson girls scored 27 points to win the 1999 county title. As of the writing of this article in 2015, that remains
the lowest point total ever scored at the Montgomery County Championship Meet. With five seniors leading the way, the Wildcats won their fourth consecutive
state title. Through the leadership of head coach Greg Dunston, Walter Johnson's girls team continued its dominance into the 2000's, winning five consecutive
county titles between 1998 and 2002.
 After winning two straight county and state titles, B-CC's Jarrett Van Tine was expected to dominate
every race he ran in 1999. The winners of four consecutive county titles, Whitman's boys team behind Jamie Albertine was expected to continue its winning ways.
1999 turned out to be anything but predictable on the boys side of things.
Van Tine was a non-factor in the Georgetown Prep Classic (23rd) while Magruder's Matt Seymour emerged as the top MCPS finisher (4th). In the minds of some,
Seymour was considered the new county favorite after previously being described as the county's best kept secret by the Montgomery Journal. Seymour won the
individual county title while Van Tine bounced back to finish second.
Van Tine would only finish third at the 2A state championship meet.
Seymour won the 4A West Regional, but in probably the biggest upset of the decade, Gaithersburg junior Marcus Hershberger won the individual 4A state title at
Hereford. Hershberger had not been considered a favorite to win any race all year, but he would back up his state title by later dominating the Montgomery
County XC scene and repeating as 4A state champion in 2000.
Running under their third coach in three years, the Whitman boys won their fifth consecutive county title with three runners in the top ten, but Gaithersburg
finished within six points of Whitman at the 4A West Regional Meet. On the final stage at Hereford, the Whitman boys, who had finished as state runners-up for
three consecutive years, finished fourth behind not only Westminster, but also Severna Park and Gaithersburg.
Despite occasional disappointment, controversy and coaching changes, Whitman High School's record in the 1990's is unparalleled. Between 1990 and 1999, the
Whitman boys team won eight out of ten county titles, won state titles in 1990, 1991, 1992, and 1995 and finished as state runners-up in 1996, 1997, and 1998.
The Whitman girls also won three county titles and three state titles.
 Meanwhile in the private school ranks, another relatively unknown runner named Matt Hanlon from Good
Counsel finished ahead of Magruder's Matt Seymour at the Georgetown Prep Classic, which arguably made him Montgomery County's top runner of 1999. Hanlon led the
Good Counsel boys team on a torrid run that demonstrated that their 1999 team was at least on the same competitive level as their highly regarded girls team.
The Good Counsel boys won at the Mercersburg Invitational, beat a very strong West Springfield team at the Salesianum Invitational, finished fifth at the
Georgetown Prep Classic ahead of county stalwart Whitman, and finished second at the Mid-Atlantic Private School Invitational. Good Counsel only finished behind
St. Albans of Great Britain while Hanlon finished second individually behind only a runner from Great Britain.
Kim Hurney's leadership of the Good Counsel girls team continued as she won the individual WCAC title, the Mercersburg Invitational, and the Mid-Atlantic
Private Schools title. The Good Counsel girls team took a step back from their dominant teams of the previous four years as they only finished third at the
Mid-Atlantic Private School Invitational and fell outside of the top ten at the Georgetown Prep Classic.
Photo 19: Whitman's Jamie Albertine and Good Counsel's Matt Hanlon, Montgomery Journal 1999, Katherine Frey
Photo 20: Maggie Guille of Whitman and Kim Hurney
of Good Counsel, Montgomery Journal 1999, Katherine Frey
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