Runners take off at the beginning of the boys' race on Saturday at the 2016 DODEA European cross country championships in Baumholder, Germany. The 5-kilometer route on Baumholder's Army Golf Course is one of the more challenging courses the runners see all season because of its rolling hills and grassy, uneven terrain. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
Runners take off at the beginning of the boys' race on Saturday at the 2016 DODEA European cross country championships in Baumholder, Germany. The 5-kilometer route on Baumholder's Army Golf Course is one of the more challenging courses the runners see all season because of its rolling hills and grassy, uneven terrain. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
Kaiserslautern's Helene Arnold tries to catch Ramstein's Jordanne Hill down the final stretch on Saturday at the 2016 DODEA European cross country championships in Baumholder, Germany. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
Runners sprint for position at the start of the girls' race on Saturday at the 2016 DODEA European cross country championships in Baumholder, Germany. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
Kayla Smith runs at the front of the pack on Saturday at the 2016 DODEA European cross country championships in Baumholder, Germany. Smith repeated as the girls' champion, setting a new course record in the process. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
A pack of runners loops around Baumholder's Army Golf Course on Saturday at the 2016 DODEA European cross country championships in Baumholder, Germany. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
The lead pack behind St. John's Kayla Smith stayed together throughout most of the girls' race Saturday at the 2016 DODEA European cross country championships in Baumholder, Germany. Towards the end of the first of two loops on Baumholder's golf course, the runners,from left, were: Stuttgart's Tatiana Smith and Rachel Dickenson; Ramstein's Katelyn Schultz, SHAPE's Holly Moser, and St. John's Sydney Smith and Sofia Jegnell. Schultz and Jegnell went on to finish second and third behind Kayla Smith. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
St. John's junior Kayla Smith breaks the finish tape in first place in the girls' race on Saturday at the 2016 DODEA European cross country championships at Baumholder, Germany. Smith broke her own record on the course, set one year ago, with a time of 18:45.21. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
Ramstein's Colin McLaren and Hohenfels' Jeremias Serrano-Velez run together during the first of two loops Saturday on the five-kilometer course on Baumholder's Army Golf Course. McLaren went on to win the boys' race at the 2016 DODEA European cross country championships in course-record time. Serrano-Velez finished third. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
A pack of runners race past a small pond on the Baumholder Army Golf Course on Saturday. The runners were competing in the 2016 DODEA European cross country championships in Baumholder, Germany. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
Hohenfels' Jeremias Serrano-Velez maintained a small lead on Lakenheath's Austin Burt about midway through the 2016 DODEA European cross country championships in Baumholder, Germany, on Saturday. Burt finished fourth in the race, less than five seconds behind Serrano-Velez, who was third. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
Runners vie for position about midway through the 5-kilometer course in the boys' race at the 2016 DODEA European cross country championships in Baumholder, Germany, on Saturday. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
Naples' sophomore Daniel Aleksandersen finished second in the boys' race at the 2016 DODEA European cross country championships in Baumholder, Germany, on Saturday. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
Ramstein's Colin McLaren breaks the finish tape first in the boys' race at the 2016 DODEA European cross country championships in Baumholder, Germany, on Saturday. McLaren set a new course record of 16:27.03 on the 5-kilometer course, helping the Royals win the Division I boys' title. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
BAUMHOLDER, Germany – For the second consecutive year, two course records fell on the rolling hills of Baumholder at the 2016 DODEA European cross country championships.
St. John’s phenom Kayla Smith obliterated the record of 19 minutes, 28.61 seconds she set on the 5-kilomter course a year ago in the championships, racing to an 18:45.21 on Saturday to defend her title in the girls’ meet.
In the boys’ race, Ramstein’s Colin McLaren shaved about 4 seconds off the course record set by Stuttgart’s Hunter Ficenec, clocking a 16:27.03 to earn his first DODEA-Europe cross country crown.
Both Smith and McLaren helped their teams to victory, as well: St. John’s, with three runners in the top 10, easily topped the rest of the girls’ Division II field, while the Royals won their first Division I boys’ title in recent memory.
“It was the perfect day,” Ramstein boys’ coach Michael Thomsen said. McLaren and “all the other guys ran out of their skins today.”
The Stuttgart girls, meanwhile, continued their dominance at the fall classic, taking home the Division I girls’ crown - a title they’ve had a near lock on for almost a decade. Stuttgart’s Tatiana Smith was the top finisher for the Panthers, placing fifth in 19:48.70. St. John’s also won the boys DII title.
The conditions on race day were ideal. Temperatures were in the 50s and there was barely enough of a breeze to ruffle a singlet.
The boys were first to charge out of the starting area and sprint down the course’s first hill at just after 12:30 p.m., beginning the first of two loops on Baumholder’s Army Golf Course.
It didn’t take long for McLaren to establish his place.
After only half a mile, he opened up a lead that grew monstrous: By the time he strode into the finish chute all alone, he had a 30-second gap on the rest of the field.
McLaren said winning Europeans was a goal he set four years ago as a freshman, when he finished 12th. The senior spent the next two years in the States, only to return to Ramstein last winter – in time to chase his goal one last time.
“I worked very hard for it and I’m very happy,” he said after the race. Crossing the line after McLaren was Naples’ Daniel Aleksandersen in 16:58.63. The effort marked a huge improvement from a year ago, when as a freshman he finished 17th.
Third in the race was another sophomore, Hohenfels’ Jeremias Serrano-Velez, in 17:06.86.
In the girls’ race, Smith surged to the lead from the race’s opening strides. The speedy junior took the first kilometer in 3:31, establishing a blistering pace that no one could match and setting up an uncontested finish.
“I ran hard,” she said. Beating her record time from last year was “pretty exciting,” she said. “That was definitely one of my goals.”
Ramstein’s Katelyn Schultz finished second, proving that a conservative start can also pay off. Schultz, a senior, let Smith go and hung back with the front pack for most of the race. With about a kilometer to go, she took off, crossing the line in 19:27.34 – the second best time ever run at Baumholder in a girls’ race – and about a minute faster than her time at Europeans last year.
“Oh my goodness, I’m so happy with my time,” she said. At the start of the race, “I didn’t want to burn myself out,” she said. “I just stayed with the pack until I knew it was time to go.”
To celebrate the end of the season, Schultz plans to eat – a lot.
“Brownies for breakfast, pizza for dinner,” she said. “Gorge on everything.”
