Fritz sets huge PR at Broadford Lake Park

Fritz sets huge PR at Broadford Lake Park
Tired Mountain Ridge freshman ‘didn’t want to let my coaches down’

By Kevin Spradlin
TriStateRunnur.com

OAKLAND, Md., Sept. 21 – Many coaches yell and scream during a cross country meet in an attempt to (a) get their voices heard above the other coaches yelling and screaming and (b) get their athletes to hear them above all the other shouts.

Mountain Ridge High School coach Norm DeRosa didn’t need to raise his voice on Tuesday at Broadford Lake Park during the annual Southern Garrett Invitational in Oakland.

That’s because DeRosa’s voice was directed at freshman Allan Fritz. Fritz was moving steadily along at the back of the pack. Near the 1.5-mile point just as runners made their return trip across the dam, there is a well-placed hill that affords participants a challenge.

And DeRosa spoke, calmly and clearly.

“Don’t walk,” DeRosa said. “Make me a promise. Don’t walk.”

Fritz later said he heard DeRosa “crystal clear.”

Fritz wanted to walk. He said as much after crossing the finish line with a personal record time of 27 minutes and 5 seconds – 2:45 faster than his previous standard.

“I was just tired,” Fritz said. “Yeah, I was dead. I wanted to. I didn’t want to let my coaches down, or my teammates.”

Fritz, who signed up for cross country – voluntarily – during a high school visit last school year while an eighth grade student at Mount Savage Middle School, was one of a approximately 20 or so Mountain Ridge runners who, at Interstate Classic in Clear Spring on Sept. 4, had never competed in a high school cross country race.

He had run around a bit while playing paintball and trapshooting but hadn’t run competitively since the age of 7.

“I really wanted to do this because I’ve always liked it,” Fritz said. “It’s been fun. It’s the one sport I wanted to play.”

DeRosa and fellow coach Tom Dawson put runners to the test early. Fritz said one of the first runs was a 9-mile long slow distance run along the Great Allegheny Passage. Beginning at the Frostburg Depot, runners headed northwest – up – the rail trail for half the distance before retracing their steps to the start area.

“I did pretty well,” Fritz said. “I didn’t walk.”

He didn’t walk up that hill on Tuesday, either. Oh, he wanted to. For half a stride, Fritz slowed, then resumed a steady pace. Because, with “a feverish grunt” serving as Fritz’s response, he made DeRosa a promise.

He wouldn’t walk.