Blazers place at State Cross Country meet

Three Blazers competed in the Maryland State Cross Country meet, held Nov. 12 at Hereford High School in Parkton, Maryland. Juniors Ashlyn Sinclair, Halsey Sinclair and Joshua Uzzell all placed in the top 50 in the Maryland 4A region race.

Halsey placed 24th with a time of 20:48.02 minutes, with Ashlyn Sinclair close behind in 27th place at 20:51.84. Uzzell came in 44th, running the three-mile course in 18:10.21 minutes.

Ashlyn Sinclair was not feeling good during the race, which slowed her time. "I was sick and I couldn't breathe during the race," she said. Though she still placed high, she is not happy with her finish. "I don't think I did that well."

For Uzzell, it was his first time competing at the state meet, which gave him a disadvantage over the numbers of runners who had competed there many times before. "It was an experience. It was tougher than I expected," said Uzzell. He isn't afraid of the course, and he is ready to start work for next year's competition. "It could have been better," Uzzell said. There are still a lot of things I need to work on. Hopefully by next year I'll be up in the top five. I think it's possible."

The runners qualified for states by placing in the top 25 percent of runners at the regional meet, where Ashlyn Sinclair finished third and Halsey Sinclair finished tenth in the girls 4A race, while Uzzell finished tenth in the boys 4A race.