By Mark Donovan

The Herald-Sun

 

DURHAM — Three seniors from the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics tied for first and led the Unicorns to a boys-girls sweep of the Durham City-County Cross Country Championships at Durham Academy Tuesday afternoon.

 

But it was a freshman — Eliza Dekker of Durham Academy — who stole the show.

 

Dekker, who turned 14 last week, came out flying and never stopped.

 

Dekker was ahead of eventual runnerup Hana Ratcliffe of Durham School of the Arts by perhaps 50 yards after about the first half mile as the girls left the D.A. Upper School track and headed into the woods.

 

When the runners came out of the woods a mile or so later, Dekker had an insurmountable lead.

 

Dekker ended up a minute and 11 seconds ahead of Ratcliffe, finishing in a pedestrian — for Dekker — 18 minutes and 53 seconds. Dekker set a personal best at a recent Adidas meet in Cary of 17:59, and she’s undefeated in high school dual meets and multi-team meets this season.

 

“She’s made a mark for herself,” D.A. coach Dennis Cullen said of Dekker, who he called perhaps the top talent he’s had in his 36 years coaching at Durham Academy.

 

“She’s incredible,” Science & Math coach Nick Lehman said of Dekker. “She might be the best runner — in any classification — in the state.”

 

If Lehman felt any angst at watching Dekker blow away the field, he could take solace in the fact that his girls team came through with a 4-5-6-9-11 finish in the six-team field adding a 35-77 team win over Jordan after an earlier 24-56 win by the Science & Math boys, also over Jordan.

 

Lehman’s boys team slam-dunked the opposition, grabbing the top three slots as Bobby Baraldi of Clayton, Stephen Mulherin of Greensboro and Levi Rolles of Denver, N.C., plotted a coup on fellow pre-race facorites David Bradley of D.A. and Daniel Beamer of Jordan.

 

While Bradley and Beamer, respectively, set the early pace, Baraldi, Mulherin and Rolles led a grouping of Science and Math runners who bade their time within shouting distance of the co-leaders until about the two-thirds mark of the 5-kilometer race.

 

They then broke away to finish tied at 16:48. Bradley was fourth at 17:03 and Beamer fifth at 17:19.

 

Baraldi, Mulherin and Rolles know what success is all about, the trio comprised three-fourths of last year’s state title team in the 4x800 relay outdoors, and had every intention of tying for the title Tuesday.

 

Lehman said they ran the race they’d plotted in advance.

 

“They wanted to get out to a conservative start and work their way up during the race, then they decided to stay together at the end,” Lehman said.

 

The three first-place finishers said they didn’t want to push themselves Tuesday afternoon since they’re gearing up for a major meet Saturday in Hendersonville and wanted to remain fresh.

 

Dekker, who is already receiving major college recruiting attention — including contacts from UCLA and Alabama — said she’s been running competitively since the end of third grade.

 

“My mom bribed me to start,” Dekker said. “She told me if I ran once around (Duke’s) East Campus, she’d buy me a new dress. ... I did it and I liked it and I’ve kept on doing it.”

 

She not only kept on running, she quickly joined the Durham Striders club team.

 

Oh, and she liked the new dress.

 

NOTES: Science & Math snapped a four-year winning streak in this event by the Durham Academy boys, although Science and Math actually tied for first in the team scoring a year ago, but lost on a tiebreaker — the best finish by the sixth place runner for each school ... The winning time in the boys meet was well off the record set by Durham Academy’s Fred Ward a year ago of 16:00 ... Jordan’s girls had won this event for three straight years and 11 of the past 12.

 

Durham City-County Championships

Boys’ 5K Results

 

Team results—1, N.C. Science and Math 24; 2, Jordan 56; 3, Durham Academy 80; 4, Riverside 95; 5, Northern 124; 6, Durham School of the Arts 150.

Individual leaders—T-1, Bobby Baraldi, Levi Rolles and Stephen Mulherin (all of NCSSM) 16:48; 4, David Bradley (DA) 17:03; 5, Daniel Beamer (J) 17:19; 6, Samuel Peters (J) 17:43; 7, Carson Woodell (R) 17:56; 8, Drew Harrelson (NCSSM) 17:57; 9, Colton Lawson (N) 18:00; 10, Hayden Abene (NCSSM) 18:02; 11, Will Milligan (NCSSM) 18:032; 12, Tommy Monson (DA) 18:05; 13, David Spencer (NCSSM) 18:08; T-14, Nicholas Kreiling (J) and Patrick Connelly (J) 18:20; 16, James Wyngaarden (J) 18:21; 17, Alan Hilliard (N) 18:28; 18, Jimmy Mosca (DA) 18:29; 19, Cole Whestone (R) 18:30; David Storelli (R) 18:33.

 

Girls’ 5K Results

 

Team results—1, N.C. Science and Math 35; 2, Jordan 77; 3, Riverside 82; 4, Durham Academy 84; 5, Durham School of the Arts 117; 6, Northern 138.

 

Individual results—1, Eliza Dekker (DA) 18:53; 2, Hana Ratcliffe (DSA) 20:04; 3, Veronica Walker (N) 21:22; 4, Cassie Lindquist (NCSSM) 21:34; 5, Bronwyn Fadem (NCSSM) 22:01; 6, Adele Bernard (NCSSM) 22:22; 7, Vanessa Canuto (J) 22:25; 8, Emma Bogard (R) 22:34; 9, Anne Kelley (NCSSM) 22:41; 10, Eryn Clark (J) 22:42; 11, Annie Venable (NCSSM) 22:45; 12, Michaela Woodmansee (J) 22:46; 13, Hannah McShea (R) 22:53; 14, Julianna Ruggiero (NCSSM) 23:02; 15, Caralyn Evans (R) 23:15; T-16, Abby Thurman (NCSSM) and Kayla Mitchell (R) 23:19; 18, Cassidy Ring (NCSSM) 23:24; 19, Gwen Lloyd (DA) 23:25; 20, Rachel Baker (N) 23:42.

 

 

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