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Parkdale High School senior Elizabeth Carino has predictably performed like one of the county's better distance runners this fall. The 2008 Gazette-Star All-County Second Team selection has notched top-10 finishes in every cross country meet she's entered.

But this season has been anything but ordinary for Carino. She has battled an ongoing illness since August, and under doctor's orders she is limited to practicing just twice a week.

Participating in cross country has become more therapeutic than competitive for Carino.

"Running kind of relaxes me," said Carino, who declined to disclose the exact nature of her illness. "I have a chance to forget about everything and just run. When I'm running, it's just more mental. I think I'm very strong mentally."

While Carino is not big in stature, standing about 5-feet tall, her coach Walter Swift said her heart is as big as they come.

"She's handling it pretty well," Swift said. "She's taking it in stride. Running is like her release of everything. Elizabeth is as straight-A student. Running frees her up from all the stress of classwork."

Carino is enrolled in advanced placement courses in biology and calculus. She also has excelled on the cross country course this season, finishing fourth at the Prince George's Invitational and fourth at the first dual meet of the season at Patuxent Park, where she ran the 5-kilometer course in 21 minutes, 4 seconds. At the next dual meet at Fort Washington Park, Carino finished fifth and then took sixth at the county championship meet on Oct. 21.

Carino and Swift are satisfied with how's she's placed in meets, but want her times to fall. She ran 21:50 at the second dual meet at Fort Washington Park and 22:18 on the same course in the county championship meet. Carino hoped she would be somewhere around 20 minutes on the course this season.

"I'm trying to do as much as I can," Carino said. "I want to run better times. I want to maybe run in college. But this season, I'm very confident that I can qualify for the state championship."

Carino is not the only Parkdale runner who has had to deal with adversity. Panthers' senior Cullen Mosely had his sights on competing for the individual county and 4A South Region titles. He worked out intensely through the summer.

"It was like I was doing two-a-days like football," Mosely said. "I was running six miles in the morning and six miles in the afternoon every day. I figured since other people were getting better, I should get better."

And then one day, the plans were derailed.

"I couldn't put my toe down without pain," he said.

The diagnosis: Mosely said his doctor told him he suffered a stress fracture in his left foot from overuse. He was in a boot cast for six weeks starting in late August. Mosely got back to training three weeks ago, and has only run in one meet – last week's county championships – which he did not finish because he came down with a flu-like illness the day of the meet.

"I went through a down phase where I was thinking that maybe I wasn't as good as I thought I was," Mosely said. "I feel like I'm at 80 percent now. It was hard coming back because my foot was so stiff that I couldn't keep up with everybody after not practicing for so long. I think I can still make it to states like I did last year."

"I think [Carino and Mosely] will make it to states," Swift said.

The pair will get their shot to qualify for the state meet at the 4A South Region championships Nov. 5 at Fort Washington Park.

E-mail Terron Hampton at thampton@gazette.net.