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Frederick Douglass High School senior Gloria Roberts knew she had to run a smart race at Saturday's Maryland Cross Country Championships in order to improve upon last year's performance.

Roberts said she was a bundle of nerves before finishing 10th in last year's Class 2A girls' race, having never previously taken on the challenge of the ominous Bull Run state championship course at Hereford High in Parkton. She started too fast, and it cost her.

She made sure that didn't happen this time around.

"Last year, I was so worried about who was going to be in second or third place — I couldn't sleep the night before the race because I was thinking about how I was going to do," Roberts said. "I never imagined that I would do so well."

On Saturday, after a run of 20 minutes, 47 seconds on the 5-kilometer course, Roberts came in eight spots better than last year. She finished with the fastest time of any Prince George's County girl on her way to a second-place finish in Class 2A. Century High's Maura Linde won the girls' 2A race with a time of 20:07.

"She's just an amazing young lady," said Douglass coach Bill Hay. "The only thing that equals her running ability is how sweet she is. She's down to earth. When somebody's having a bad day on the team, she's always trying to lift them up. It's only once in a lifetime that you get to coach a person like that."

Meanwhile, Eleanor Roosevelt junior Amirah Johnson had a great day Saturday. It was a stark comparison to how things went for Johnson in the days leading up to the state meet.

Johnson injured her right foot during a practice session on Nov. 10 and was limited in practice nearly the entire week. The night before the meet, she visited a doctor, who informed her that she would need an orthotic insert for her right shoe.

Although Johnson's time of 20:53 was nearly a minute off of her time in the 2008 state championships, she was satisfied with taking seventh in the girls' Class 4A race.

"What I did was better than I thought it would be," Johnson said.

As a team, the Roosevelt girls took a significant step back. After being a top-10 fixture in recent years, including three consecutive state championships from 2004-2006 bookended by runner-up finishes in 2003 and 2007, the Raiders finished 16th out of 18 teams.

But Raiders' couch Greg Johnson isn't worried.

"I think we did pretty good, and what it did was give our girls experience here because some of them had never run here," he said. "We return everyone except for Danielle [Calhoun], so we will be better."

Standing alone

The boys' team from Roosevelt was the only county squad that challenged for a high spot in the team standings. The Raiders took seventh in Class 4A. Leading the way was county and 4A South Region champion Charles Bolinger, who finished 15th in 17:53, cutting three seconds off his 2008 state meet time.

Joining Bolinger were sophomore teammate Justin Ahalt (28th/18:12) and junior Paul Yuan (32nd/18:19).

"I think we all did well, based on the conditions of the course," Bolinger said referring to last week's rainy weather, which soaked the course prior to the meet. "When we ran at the Georgetown Prep [Classic], we had to run in rainy conditions. I think we have the chance to go on and do big things come next year and we should enjoy this effort."

Compounding challenges

Running the hilly state meet course at Hereford is tough enough, but imagine taking on the course without a proper warm-up. That's what Fairmont Heights had to do on Saturday.

The Hornets' bus did not arrive at Hereford until nearly 1 p.m. The Class 1A girls' race started at 1:30 p.m., and the boys' race was at 2:30.

"Our driver got lost," said Fairmont Heights coach Vaughn Johnson.

The Fairmont Heights boys finished 13th out of 17 teams, led by sophomore Deion Lee, who finished 61st (21:05). The Hornets were not the only county team to struggle.

The Charles H. Flowers girls, who had a strong season that included a Prince George's County championship, took 17th out of 19 teams in the Class 4A race, while the Bowie girls were 19th.

"They felt like when they were running the hills, they kept sliding back down the hill because of the mud," Charles H. Flowers coach Tracee Gilchrist said with a laugh.

The Bowie and Henry A. Wise boys finished 19th and 20th out of 20 teams.

The Largo girls finished 18th out of 19 teams in the girls' 3A race, while the Douglass girls were left out of the standings because not all of the runners finished the course.

"It was really tricky in certain spots," said Potomac junior Antonio Washington, who finished 110th in the boys' 3A race. "You had to cut a lot of turns short, and it seemed like they added a few hills on the course."

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