WILMINGTON — If there’s one thing Brynn Crandell hates, it’s running in the rain.

But she wasn’t about to let a little bit of bad weather keep her from doing what she does best.

The Indian River High sophomore ran through the cold, wet and windy conditions Saturday afternoon to capture the individual state title in the Division II race at the DIAA cross country state championships at Brandywine Creek State Park.

“I hate running in the rain,” Crandell said. “That is something everyone knows about me, I hate running in the rain. So, I was worried going into this ... weeks in advance, I was checking the weather like, ‘is it going to rain, is it going to rain?’ I had already told myself, ‘OK, it’s going to rain,’ so I was trying to prepare for it.

“Then I thought that I can’t let all the training I’ve done go to waste just because I don’t like the conditions, so I knew I just needed to go into it with the mindset that I can win and no matter what’s thrown at me, I can take it.”

Coming off a third-place finish as a freshman at last year’s state meet, Crandell won the race this time around with a time of 19:37, finishing nine seconds ahead of second-place finisher Tiffany Herrera from St. Mark’s.

Crandell, the lone Division II downstate runner to place in the top 15, was one of just two girls on last year’s Indian River cross country roster, along with sophomore Heather Smyth. Now, a year later, she’s excited to see where the team is heading.

“It was surreal,” she said. “Last year we didn’t even really have a team — we had just two of us — so I’m just so glad we have a full team right now and we’re doing so well. I’m hoping we can really grow the culture here and I’m really excited for the future.”

St. Mark’s took home the Division II team title with 61 points, while ninth place Sussex Academy was the highest-placing downstate team. Indian River finished 11th while Lake Forest placed 15th with 404 points. St. Mark’s had second-place team finishes the last two years, but was finally able to capture the title.

Padua Academy ran away with the Division I team title, scoring 27 points and placing three runners in the top five, including first-place finisher Mary Dorsey with a time of 20:01. Sophia Holgado placed second with a time of 20:25 and Geneva Laur (21:14) finished fifth for the Pandas.

It marked the 22nd team title for Padua’s program and ninth straight dating to 2013.

Caesar Rodney’s Hannah Zura (fourth), Cape Henlopen’s Katie Kuhlman (sixth), Smyrna’s Alyssa Young (11th) and Caesar Rodney’s Madison Crossley (13th) were the four downstate runners in the top 15.

On the boys side, defending Division I state champion Cape Henlopen came up just short of a repeat, placing second with a score of 72.

Salesianum took home the team title with a score of 56. Sallies has 39 overall D-I team titles dating back to 1975, but it’s the first one since 2018.

Salesianum’s Ryan Banko took home the individual title, finishing in 16:35. It’s the senior’s second consecutive title after he won last year’s race at Killens Pond State Park with a time of 16:09.

Polytech’s Kenny Guy (17:19.4) and Matt Gatune (17:30) placed second and fourth, respectively, while Cape Henlopen junior Ryan Baker placed third with a 17:19.8. Junior Julian Calloway placed ninth and sophomore Joey DeGregory placed 11th to round out the three Cape runners in the top 15. Sussex Tech High’s Colin Kay placed eighth.

Polytech nabbed fourth place with 127 points and Caesar Rodney placed behind the Panthers in fifth with 133. Caesar Rodney had a pair of top 15 finishers, with sophomore Ian Cain finishing in 10th and sophomore Patrick Craig placing 14th.

Tatnall School grabbed the Division II team title, placing three runners in the top five. Tatnall’s Nicolas Pizarro (17:18) took home the individual title, while teammates Andre Latina (17:35) and Sebastian Pizarro (18:12) placed third and fifth, respectively.

Indian River junior Chase Sims placed second individually, finishing in 17:26. He’s the highest-placing boys runner in program history.

Sims was accidentally spiked by another runner early in the race, but he shook it off and kept running his way onto the podium.

“It feels really good, I am so excited,” Sims said. “It was really muddy and I got spiked, but I just tried to keep my mind focused on the Tatnall kids and tried to keep up with them the whole time.”

Woodbridge junior Ian Hayes (15th) was the only other downstate runner to place in the top 15.

IR was the highest-placing downstate school with a seventh-place performance. Sussex Academy (14th), Woodbridge (15th), Lake Forest (18th) and Delmarva Christian (19th) rounded out the downstate teams in the top 20.