Cardinals Cross Country enjoys 5k PRs at Delaware State - Strong pack finish helps team place 5th

September 13, 2025 - Smyrna, DE - The Cardinals men's cross-country team traveled up 95 North to compete against a strong contingent of HBCU's at Delaware State University. The Outreach and Research Center Farm offered beautiful acres of wide-open land, soft grass and corn fields. It is one of the best places to hold a cross-country meet. The 3.1 course is mostly flat with an easy out and back layout.

 

Head Coach Mark Pryor likes to use the 5k or 3.1 mile distance races to transition his young freshman athletes to the increase in race mileage to the college level. High school cross country across the US is traditionally 5k or 3.1 miles. But in college, the race distance increases to 8k or 5.0 miles.  In previous years, Pryor's use of the 5k college races helped introduce his young athletes to the more challenging competition over a familiar distance.

 

The teams who also traveled to Delaware State were looking to test their fitness level over a shorter distance as the season slowly begins to gear up. The list of HBCUs competing included Morgan State, Coppin State, Univ of Maryland Eastern Shore, Bowie State, Lincoln and Cheyney. Local Division-III school Neuman also lined up to race.

 

The mostly flat racecourse enabled athletes to start out much faster than usual without the fear of the distance or hills. An opening mile of 4:57 ensured the race would be fast. Sophomore Ronak Rami, who has raced at this meet in previous years, led his team and set the pace but what made Coach Pryor excited was to see his young freshman all behind Rami only seconds behind. One of the keys to cross country success is all the team's athletes running together as a pack.

 

Pack running in cross-country is a team strategy where teammates run together in the race offering each other encouragement, sharing the pace to improve team scoring and individual performances. The key elements include establishing goals before the race, avoiding a fast start, staying with the pack to conserve energy, taking turns leading, passing competitors as a unit and using the support of the group to push through the difficult parts of the racecourse.

 

Coach Pryor has worked hard to teach his young athletes how to run together as a pack and it is starting to pay off. Close behind Rami was his talented freshman teammates Ohene Obiri Yeboah, Elijah Walker, Malik Manzanera and Dallas Turner. Each athlete worked hard to stay together but with their own goals that they are sacrificing for the benefit of the team.

 

For Manzanera, this was his first college race. Dallas Turner is an 800m specialist who is gaining much needed strength from running cross-country. Both Ohene and Walker have been training well and look forward to continuing to improve. And their leader is Ronak who has the most experience and knows how to manage pace for 5k and 8k races from his previous years.

 

As each Cardinal runners crossed the line, the look of accomplishment swept across each of them seeing their teammates finish so closely together. Ronak and Ohene crossed the finish line together separated by just 2 secs. Ohene enjoyed a huge PR for 5k in finishing 18:24. His previous best for 5k was 19:30 in HS and 19:01 at Westmoreland CC two weeks ago. Manzanera was next to finish in a career 5k PR of 18:43 which is a :10 sec improvement from his previous 5k PR of 18:52. Elijah was next to cross the finish line in the 3^rd 5k PR of the day with 18:51 (Previous best was 19:06). And his teammate Dallas Turner enjoyed a :10 sec 5k PR improvement finishing in 19:25. What stands out the most is the spread between the team's 1^st finisher to the 5^th finisher was only 1:00. In cross-country, that is hard to accomplish and speaks volumes for the work this group has put in since August. 

 

 

 

 

The team scores showed the Cardinals of CCBC Catonsville post a very respectable 5^th place against NCAA Division-I level teams that have student-athletes who have competed on this racecourse many times within their 4 years of competition. Coach Pryor was very pleased at how his young freshman ran and the four Cardinals who improved their 5k career bests.