Photo by Debbi Persinger
Vote below for Maryland's Week #7 Boys XC Runner of the Week from the October 15th week of meets. This week's batch of nominees includes Southern Garrett's Declan Horner, Smithsburg's Will Merritt, McDonogh's Dalton Hengst, Northwood's Obsaa Feda and Howard's Nick Deamer.
After several top-ten finishes over the past few seasons, Howard junior Nick Deamer broke through on Saturday with his first major invitational win at the Gunpowder Invitational. It was almost a carbon copy of this year's Barnhart Invitational, where he finished third, ahead of Jonathan Ellis and Hunter Petrik who finished second and third on Saturday. Deamer will carry momentum into next week's Howard County Championship showdown with River Hill's Rahul Reddy and Oakland Mills' Joey Navarro.
Farther west, Declan Horner and Will Merritt picked up big wins in their respective races at the Frank Keyser Invitational. Horner outlasted Liberty's Nick Tilson in the small school boys race, where his time of 15:25 placed him in the top-20 at the meet since 2002. Merritt was even better in the afternoon, blasting away from the competition and finishing in 15:06, the fourth-fastest time at Frank Keyser since 2002. The two will meet later this season at the 1A West regional championships.
McDonogh's Dalton Hengst turned in perhaps the best performance of the season to date by a Maryland runner in his win at the Third Battle Invitational in Virginia. His time of 15:11 now leads the state as he prepares for another run at qualifying for a spot at Foot Locker Nationals. Northwood's Obsaa Feda picked up a big win at the MCPS Consortia Championships, making it back-to-back years that a Northwood runner won on their home course. He beat Einstein's Simeon Mussie, who beat Joey Navarro earlier in the week at the Scorpion Crawl Invitational.
Voting closes at 10 PM on Thursday! Voting is unlimited and feel free to share with your coaches, family, friends, teammates, teachers, and more!
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