Oakdale XC Finishes Strong

Nicholas Raumann

The Oakdale Boys Cross Country championship season has concluded. It started off on October 19, with the Central Maryland Conference Championship race at Boonsboro. Linganore barely won the meet with a tie against Oakdale, both scored 57 points. The top five runner score for the team and the tiebreaker was the sixth runner.

Oakdale Junior, Kyle Lund won the 3 mile race, running a time of 15:19, beating second place by eleven seconds. Lund ran the same course a week earlier; this time Lund ran fourteen seconds faster. Senior Collin Shriner also had a top ten performance, finishing seventh, running a time of 16:04. Oakdale also had runners Charles Parrott, Joshua Milliken and Spencer Buckwalter in the top twenty.

Junior Joshua Milliken stated, “By having a running partner they have helped push me and run faster and finish better.”

The Frederick County Championships was next on October 25, at Governor Thomas Johnson High School. Oakdale won the County Championship, beating Linganore by thirteen points, scoring thirty one points. Lund picked up another win, running a time of 15:11, beating second by nine seconds. Junior Collin Dempsey ran his first race back from injury, and came in third followed by Shriner in fourth. Four others runners finished top twenty: Milliken, Buckwalter, Nick Stokes, and Parrott.

2A West regionals took place November 1st at Liberty High School. Oakdale had another tie, this time with Liberty, both scoring 59 points. Oakdale qualified for states, and won the tiebreaker with Sophomore Spencer Buckwalter beating Liberty’s sixth runner by one spot. Lund grabbed another win with running a 16:38, winning by eight seconds. Dempsey got third place with a time of 16:53. Shriner and Milliken finish top twenty.

Buckwalter exclaimed, “I was surprised that the result of the meet came down to me!”

Oakdale went to 2A States on November 10 at Hereford High School. Oakdale came in fourth in states behind first place liberty by twenty one points. Oakdale’s average time was 17:10 only four seconds off of Liberty’s average of 17:06. Lund and Dempsey finish off a strong season finishing fifth and sixth. Lund ran a time of 16:29 and Dempsey ran 16:36. Shriner was the next Oakdale runner to finish twenty-ninth running a time of 17:19.

Milliken stated, “The season was competitive and that was good for Oakdale it made us strong, to running against competitive teammates and other teams”

The Oakdale Cross Country team has had a successful season winning all but two championship meets. They are looking forward to continue training for track, and improving for next year.