Lancers' Sears uses his own map to get a leg up on competition, win county title
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Oct. 29—MOUNT AIRY — Heading into Thursday's championship meet at Old National Pike Park, Jack Sears put his engineering brain to work.
The senior at Linganore High opened the Google Drawings program and designed a map for the 3.1-mile course on which the Frederick County Public Schools cross-country championships would be run.
He marked each section of the course with different colors and noted mile markers to help guide runners along. And this map was distributed to every team prior to the race.
While setting up the course, Lancers coach Andres Wright was 50 meters short of the required length near the finish. So who did he ask to help solve the issue? Sears, of course, who suggested installing a final turn that would make up the difference.
Did all of this insight and intimate knowledge of the course give Sears a leg up on the competition?
"I guess so," Sears said through a big smile after winning his first county championship in 16 minutes, 54.78 seconds.
Sears' victory and teammate Cole Williamson's second-place finish (17:15.73) propelled the Linganore boys to the team championship with a score of 40.
The Lancers' top five runners all placed among the first 14 finishers. Junior Kyle Walker, who plays on the school's soccer team, placed 11th in 18:07.82. Senior Sam Metzner was 12th in 18:10.19, and senior Ronan Perrone finished 14th in 18:13.95.
No other team was close to the Lancers. Urbana and Oakdale finished tied for second, both with a score of 87 (the Hawks won the tiebreaker), while Brunswick was fourth at 107.
"It's a really strong team, and the most fun I've had as a coach," Wright said. "The temperament is perfect, and we are getting everything we can out of our talent."
That is certainly true of Sears, who won last week's Central Maryland Conference championship at Boonsboro High School in 16:25.1.
For him, the road to this point has been long — he was the No. 7 runner on Linganore's state runner-up team in 2018 as a freshman. It was also filled with obstacles — he suffered a grade-three stress fracture in his left foot last November that prevented him from running for roughly three months.
"I really wanted to win this since I was a freshman," Sears said of the county championship. "It's been a nice, long journey to get here, and I am proud that I made it here."
Sears was equally proud to see Williamson come in as the next-best finisher.
The two have become very close over the course of training runs and meets and offer a contrast in running styles.
Williamson has a strong kick at the finish, and sets his race up accordingly. He is able to hold back in certain spots, whereas Sears' kick is not as strong.
Plus, Sears doesn't like to leave things to chance at the end. So, he works hard to gain and maintain the lead.
"I was just so happy this race did not come down to a final kick," he said. "My next thought was to see where Cole was coming in. I am very proud to go 1-2 today. It's an amazing feeling to do that."
Sears said he will give it his best shot at the upcoming regional and state meets and try and help the Lancers finish among the top three teams.
In the future, he is interested in becoming an engineer.
While he did have inside knowledge of the course going into the race, he was also helping everyone else out with his map. So, was he helping his competition?
"I think it all evened out in the end," he said.
Follow Greg Swatek on Twitter: @greg_swatek