For the first time in 10 years, the Rockville Boys Cross Country team traveled to Hereford High School to compete in the state championship. Having fought through the challenges to get to this point, junior Marcus Johnson credits team chemistry as a driving factor in their success.

“All the guys, we love each other, you know, it’s built upon throughout the season and our chemistry is what keeps the hype, keeps the energy up, and just keeps us motivated,” Johnson said

In order to qualify for the state meet, teams must first get through the county meet at Gaithersburg High School, before turning to the Regional meet at Utica park. If teams can accumulate a top six scores at the Regional meet, they get the opportunity to run at states.

However, getting to states isn’t the only challenge, the course at Hereford, nicknamed Bull Run, is one of the hardest in all of Maryland.

“The state race at Hereford High School… it just has this massive hill when you go down, then go back up. It just gets you, kills you every time,” junior Cameron Wong said.

With such physically demanding courses, strong leadership is crucial for success, and Head Coach Sarah Thomas has played a huge role in the improvement of the cross country team throughout her first 3 years. 

“She saw us like running these kind of slow times as freshmen, or when we were all underclassmen,” Johnson said. “But then she knew the potential that we had, and throughout each of the seasons that we went through the past three years, she worked us harder and harder each year because she wanted to bring out that potential.” 

The 2024 season has been one of the most successful seasons in recent history for Rockville Cross Country. From senior Jefferson Regitz, who ran the fourth fastest time in Rockville history, a 16:23 at Bohrer Park. Then, they finished 5th as a team in Regionals to clinch their spot into states. then after states they moved on to Nike Cross Country Regionals (NXR) Southeast, where they competed against teams all along the East Coast, and placed 64th out of 95. There is a lot of good that can be taken out of this season, but what is needed to keep the success going into next season?

“Just to make sure everyone on the team is having fun and putting in the work,” Wong said.