Salesianum survives, Tatnall thrives again for DIAA boys cross-country titles

FELTON - Jonathan Drew cemented his supremacy among Delaware runners by gapping the field and lifting Middletown within inches of the DIAA Division I boys cross country championship, won by Salesianum for the 45^th time in the last 54 years on Saturday at Killens Pond State Park.

Delaware Military Academy sophomore Ethan Walther, whose only opponent was the stopwatch, ran away with the Division II title. Foreshadowing continuing future dominance, five underclassmen led Tatnall to its 13^th small-schools title in 14 years.

The Sals and Middletown treated the rest of the Division I field as if they were guests at a dual meet, taking six of the first seven places. Only Henlopen Conference champion Ryan Baker of Cape Henlopen, third behind Salesianum’s Matt Miller, was among the day’s elite.

Middletown’s Jonas Rush (fourth) and Walter Samuels (sixth) paired with Salesianum’s Colin Small, whose career best landed him fifth place, and James Kennedy (seventh).

As in the Sals’ one-point victories in 2009, 2013 and 2014, their fourth and fifth runners made the difference. Matthew Bradley’s 10th place and Sam Felice in 13^th gave the Sals a four-point margin.

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Middletown’s Eamon Rush recovered from an ankle twist that idled him last week to finish 12^th. Carter Boyd lowered his personal best by more than 30 seconds to finish 18^th, as the Cavaliers put together their best performance since Rob Dubois led Middletown to the 1998 Division II title.

“Freshman year, if anyone said that we would finish second, I would have called them crazy,” Jonas Rush said. “We realized our talent. We came up short - Sallies has a really good team - but we can’t feel disappointed.

“I told them you can either have 17 minutes of pain and a lifetime of happiness if we had won. But it’s OK. We had a great effort. This is the greatest team to be part of.”

For the third straight year, the state meet was conducted in abnormal weather, topping at 72 degrees.

In 2020, the pandemic pushed the meet into wintry December. Last year, the runners contended with a cloudburst. This year, spectators arrived in air-conditioned cars.

“Preseason began a week after school ended, miles and hills,” said Drew, who took passed Baker in the second mile and thrived on the comparatively level Killens Pond course to finish in 16:06.2 - the day’s best time - four seconds ahead of Miller.

After finishing second in 2019 and 2020, leading to the longest title drought since Rev. Joseph Beattie launched the Salesianum dynasty in 1969, the Sals have returned to dominance, winning twice under new coach Scott Davis, a key member of Salesianum title teams in 2010-2011.

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The Division II race clearly belonged to Walther, who wanted to run the afternoon’s best time, but didn’t know how Drew - who would run later - would perform.

“The hardest part wasn’t actually the course. It was me running the clock,” Walther said. “I calculated all the splits I needed to get. My coaches agreed to stand at each mile mark for me and shout out my time. So I knew how much more I needed to get.”

Walther finished in 16:18.3, a 23-second margin over Lathan Love-Brown of A.I. du Pont. His aunt, Kirsten Walther, was the state’s top half-miler at Padua in 1988. He is the last product of George Leidy, the longtime coach at St. Edmond’s Academy who died in 2018.

Led by Ben Pizarro (third), Tatnall sent its next four in a pack, earning a 51-98 team margin over St. Andrew’s.

“We weren’t planning on a pack, but that’s how it worked, and that’s why we ran so well,” said freshman Ewin Minihan, who finished 12^th, amid Luke Kain (ninth), Independent Conference champion Gavin Leffler (11^th) and Michael McGinley (16^th).

They were followed by Ukrainian native Dmytro Novosad, a rare basketball player among Tatnall runners, and captain Will Kain.

St. Andrew’s was led by Peter Bird (fifth) and Chris Onsomu (seventh).

Richie Angiullo (eighth) and Camilo Alvarez (14^th) paced third-place Archmere.

Ian Hayes, Woodbridge’s multi-sport star, finished fourth in Division II. Troy Hedrick of DMA (sixth), Connor Stockton of Saint Mark’s (10^th) and Conrad’s Braeden Peterson (13^th) and Sebastian Bergstrasser (15^th) rounded out the leaders.

Camerin Williams of Hodgson (eighth), Maddox Downs of Caesar Rodney (ninth), Connor Wilson of Smyrna (11^th) and Joey DeGregory and Liam O’Donnell of third-place Cape Henlopen completed the Division I top 15.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: DIAA cross country: Salesianum, Tatnall run to boys team championships