Woodbridge boys unseat Forest Park as district cross county champions

Gabe Wentlandt's health last weekend left him feeling miserable.

"I had a fever, but I didn't think it was the flu," the Woodbridge junior said. "I felt crummy."

He had no such feeling on Thursday. Wentlandt ran 17:12 to win his first Cardinal District postseason meet and lead the Vikings to their first district title since 2001.

"We're pretty happy," Wentlandt said. "We definitely had the best chance we had in a long time to win this district championship. We trained really hard."

In a race dominated by Forest Park during the past decade, the Vikings took advantage of the absence of Bruins' top runner Patrick Cobb to earn 36 points, thanks to a second-place run from Ryan McGreal (17:32), a fifth from Dylan Taylor (17:39), 14th from Brad Jones (18:18) and 17th by Brian Hetrick (18:39).

When the times were official, Wendlandt, McGreal, Taylor and Jones stood in the pavilion along with the 11 other all-district runners to be recognized among the spectators.

The foursome posed then joined their teammates for pictures with the team trophy before all of Woodbridge's runners ate the supply of donuts from Dunkin' Donuts in a post-race celebration.

"We're all pretty satisfied," Wentlandt said.

Cobb did not attend Thursday's race after being stricken with the flu. But his teammates made up for his no-show with all-district finishes from Alex Cord (sixth), Kyle Swanson (seventh), Andrew Gaiser (ninth), Danny Camacho (10th), Tony Bango (11th) and Patrick Swanson (13th).

Still, missing Cobb left the Bruins without someone who likely would have contended for victory and helped the Bruins defend their team title.

Instead, Forest Park settled for 38 points, but still qualified for the Nov. 5 Northwest Region meet.

"Patrick would have definitely made a difference," Cord said.

Osbourn Park's girls' team faced a similar situation, though illnesses forced Kayla Tyrrell, Brandy Wybersky and Kaitlin Mulder to pass on running.

Their losses were alleviated by the Osbourn Park girls who did run.

Ariel Karabinus ran 19:09 to reclaim a district title a year after finishing second. Ashley Wybersky finished second and Natalie Geleta celebrated her 17th birthday by placing fourth. Kelly O'Toole (fifth), Sarah Russell (seventh) and Nicole Durham (ninth) also helped the Yellow Jackets earn 19 points to win the team title.

"We have a really deep team and we knew that whoever we threw in there, we could win a district championship with," Karabinus said.

Karabinus, who despite battling a cold earlier in the week won her third district postseason title after fighting off a side-by-side challenge from Gar-Field's Lindsi Arrington early in the race.

Karabinus, though, was not about to surge until the race's later stages.

"I was just going to chill up there with Ashley and Natalie and Lindsi and feel it out," she said.

Arrington took third, the best finish by any Gar-Field runner.

Staff writer Robert Daski can be reached at 703-878-8049.