For Centrowitz, the 4A Boys' Crown Will Have to Do

Late Tumble Costs Broadneck Runner Chance at Record

Broadneck senior Matthew Centrowitz openly stated his mission heading into the Maryland cross-country championships. He wanted the Hereford course record. Centrowitz's coach, Dana Dobbs, said he had no doubt Centrowitz would not only break the mark, but do it by 20 seconds.

Centrowitz saw the finish line's clock from about 25 meters and knew he was running late. The crowd let out a collective groan when the clock hit 16:00, the course record, with Centrowitz still several yards away. He finished at 16:02, a second slower than his time from last year.

"You can't call it a bad race when you win," said Centrowitz, who won the 4A race by nearly 29 seconds, his third in three seasons. "But I wasn't too pleased with my performance, that's for sure.

"Coming into the race, I knew I ran 16 minutes last year, and I knew that I was a lot stronger than last year," he said. "I felt there would be no excuse why I shouldn't have gotten the record."

A dirt spot marked Centrowitz's right shoulder. He fell about 100 meters from the finish as he came around the final turn. After the race, Dobbs called the team together to apologize for apparently working the runners too hard during the week. Centrowitz dismissed both the tumble and difficult practices.

He took it on himself. He wanted the record for himself, to prove he had improved after last year's time. It wasn't about his father, Matt, who set the U.S. record for the 5,000-meter race in 1982 and was a gold medal winner in the 1979 Pan American Games. It wasn't about his sister, Lauren, who won 4A Maryland titles in 2002 and 2003.

Centrowitz, who will attend his father's alma mater, Oregon, knew what his father would say when he called with yesterday's news.

"Don't worry too much about the record," Matthew said, reciting his father's words. "You got the win. You have to move on. With running you're going to have bad races, some you're not pleased with. But the most important part is how you pick yourself up."

Mount Hebron senior Liz McCarter knows all about that. Leading by a wide margin, she fell about 10 yards from the line and crawled to finish just more than a second ahead of North Carroll's Katie Hursey. McCarter had lost three times to Hursey, the reigning 3A champion, this season. McCarter's strategy was to sprint through the flat stretch midway through the course and just hang on from there. "That was the hardest last half of a race I ever had to run," McCarter said. "I knew I was in good shape, but I was dying fast. . . . I was panicked. I had visions of her passing me so I was like, 'Get up, get up.' So I just crawled."

Bethesda-Chevy Chase senior Chris Bowie used a similar strategy to win the 3A boys' title. After stalking the leaders for much of the race, Bowie lost patience and passed five runners to take the lead.

"Usually I don't like to go early because it will catch up to you," Bowie said. "But I figured this is states and you have to do something big."

Eleanor Roosevelt senior Marika Walker won her second straight 4A girls' title while also leading the Raiders to their third straight team title. "A lot of people were saying other people were going to win," Walker said. "I felt like I was in the same position I was in last year. People didn't think I would win it again."

Quince Orchard's boys capped off their undefeated 4A season with their first team title since 1994, placing five runners in the top 18 (64 points).

Two Atholoton runners won their third straight state championships as Andrew Revelle took the 2A boys' title, beating F.S. Key's Arthur Leathers by more than 47 seconds, and Alison Smith won the 2A girls' race by more than 26 seconds.

Leathers led Francis Scott Key to the team title just ahead of Atholoton, and Howard took the 2A girls' race by placing five runners in the top 15.

Maryland Cross-Country Championships Demonic: Hereford's three-mile course, which features a grueling up-and-down dip, was described by Liz McCarter as being "designed by the devil." Good Change: The 4A boys' and girls' and 3A boys' champions were all soccer castoffs who took up cross -country after their freshman year.