Three years ago, Kelli Thibou missed the first day of football practice. That same season, Markia Walker broke a bone in her foot playing soccer.
Those are the reasons the Eleanor Roosevelt students, then freshmen, turned to cross country. Wednesday afternoon at Fort Washington Park they won the boys and girls titles respectively at the Prince George’s County Championships.
Both dominated, winning by better than one minute. Both led the Raiders to runaway team titles. And both were unimpressed by their performances on a warm afternoon.
“It’s hard to run by yourself, to even get in that mind-set to push myself because there’s no one out here to run with,” said Thibou (16:27) who finished one spot clear of junior teammate Jeremy Bowers (17:39).
“It wasn’t easy running today,” said Walker (19:08) who beat second-place Jennifer Redman (20:11) and led a sweep of the top five places by ER girls even though the Raiders rested two of their top three runners.
Thibou is a natural. After missing out on football in his freshman year, he joined the cross country team and finished second in his first race. By the end of the fall he was a Prince George’s County champion. In his sophomore and junior seasons, he finished behind teammate Mikias Gelagle (Arizona State).
Walker took to track in the spring of her freshman year and was persuaded to run cross country the following fall. She finished ninth in the county as a sophomore and second last year.
“I didn’t really like it until I realized I was pretty good at it,” said Walker who finished a disappointing 10th Saturday at the Eastern States Invitational after stumbling at the start.
Like Walker, it’s taken Thibou a while to appreciate cross country.
“At Maymount (Richmond) we were in the hotel room with Chapell Hill boys and they were so excited about the race,” said Thibou. “That kind of inspired me. I thought, I should get excited too. I should start liking this sport.”
Race results
Boys
1. Kelli Thibou (ER) 16:27
2. Jeremy Bowers (ER) 17:39
3. Jerod Franks (Flowers) 17:44
4. Mike Gallion (Parkdale) 17:53
5. Donald Lockhart (ER) 18:30
Girls
1. Marika Walker (ER) 19:08
2. Jennifer Redman (ER) 20:11
3. Tyreka Arrington (ER) 20:34
4. Christian Hickson (ER) 21:22
5. Brittany View (ER) 21:34
