Words to run by: Strong, tough, and important

By Emily Young

CARY, N.C. -- Those of you who have read or seen The Help are familiar with the mantra that Aibileen makes Mae Mobley repeat to herself: you is smart, you is kind, you is important. This past weekend, the varsity girls (running as the Bethesda Pine Trees due to Maryland rules about postseason competition) came up with their own version of this mantra as they prepared to face their toughest competition of the year at the Nike Cross Country Southeast Regional meet:

I am strong, I am tough, I am important.

Without senior leader Ava Farrell, the girls knew they had to use the strength they’d developed through their training to attack a difficult course because of their individual importance to the team.

The girls’ commitment led them to a very respectable 10th place finish out of 18 teams, making them the highest placing Maryland team in the championship race.

The mostly young and inexperienced Pine Trees made the trip to North Carolina determined to run hard and enjoy the experience. “This season we focused our training schedule around the state meet. Nike wasn’t something we thought seriously about until a few weeks ago,” said coach Chad Young. “We kind of looked at it as a reward for a great season and told the girls to run hard but to have fun and learn from it because we may make this meet the end goal of our season sometime in the next couple of years.”

The girls followed Coach Young’s instructions and ran some of their most impressive times of the season even though they didn’t train for the race. The Pine Trees’ first three runners, Nora McUmber (19:12), Laura Nakasaka (19:54), and Annie McElvein (20:12), all ran personal bests, while Hallie Jester (20:18) and Kat McNeill (20:29), runners four and five, ran their third best times of the season. Abby Fry, who ran the race with a painful hamstring cramp, and Caroline Leuba finished the race as the sixth and seventh Pine Tree runners, running 21:03 and 21:46 respectively.

McUmber, the Pine Trees’ top runner, led her team yet again despite feeling sick before the race. “Even though she was feeling a little under the weather when she woke up on Saturday, Nora still ran a great race,” said Young. “She has been so consistent this year, and she showed just how tough she is by running a PR on a hilly course on a day when she wasn’t feeling her best. I think in a year or two, after some more training and more racing experience, she could easily be up with the front pack in a race like this.”

Young also was extremely impressed with McElvein, who showed confidence and maturity in one of the few races she was able to run this season. Young called her performance “the biggest surprise of the day. … She went from not running the first half of the year because her jaw was wired shut, to being our alternate, to running a huge PR on her way to finishing third on the team. She really stepped up and made a significant difference in the team score.”

Nakasaka also entered Saturday’s race having recently battled back from injury. “Laura is just so determined in every race, and she never lets us down,” said Young. “Some runners lose their confidence when they first return from injury, but Laura never seemed to worry about how she would run after taking time off. She just went out and ran her way to a PR like it was no big deal.”

Now that the season is officially over, Coach Young is already thinking about next year when he hopes to take both the boys and the girls back to Cary. “I’d really like for this to become a new end of season tradition for both teams,” he said. With the amount of young talent that emerged from this year’s squads, this seems like a very real possibility. Congratulations to both of the teams.

B-CC girls win state championship, boys finish 12th

The B-CC cross-country girls’ team now has a new name: State champs.

The team (shown above in a photo courtesy of Julie Billingsley) won the state championship Saturday in a hard-fought race at Hereford High School, riding on the strength of a deep pack of talented runners to narrowly win the competition among the state’s top 21 teams. It was B-CC girls first cross-county state championship since 2003, and the first 4-A win since B-CC joined the largest high school group three years ago.

Just 16 points separated the top five teams, with B-CC beating runner-up and last year’s champion Whitman by eight points. In this team sport, the scores are compiled from the top five finishers – the sum total of the finishing places – and the victor is the one with the lowest total.

“At the end of the race, they knew they pushed as far as they could,” said Coach Chad Young. “They prepared well, raced it hard, left it all there on the course. They had nothing left when they crossed the finish line.”

The boys’ cross-country team also performed well, finishing 12th out of 24 teams, and also edged cross-town rival Whitman.

In the girls’ race, a top pack went out without a single B-CC runner.

But senior co-captain Ava Farrell led a second pack, and close behind her were freshmen Nora McUmber, Abby Fry, and Kat McNeill; juniors Laura Nakasaka and Caroline Leuba; and senior Hallie Jester.

Even though the team had won the county and regional races, the state competition posed new challenges. At one point, Farrell fell. Fry also tripped over a pole on the course, falling far back for a while. And McUmber was in roughly 25th place at the one-mile marker, a typical back-in-the-pack start for her but still it was enough to create knots in Young’s stomach.

The girls then stepped up. McUmber rallied to finished seventh overall, in 20 minutes, 18 seconds. Farrell came in next in 20:47 to finish 14th. Then: Fry, battling back, in 21:02 for 19th; McNeill, 21:21, for 29th; and Nakasaka, 21:31, for 34th. Jester was right behind in 21:33, for 35th place, and Caroline Leuba finished 66th in 22:19.

The finish: B-CC 103, Whitman, 111, Severna Park, 114, Dulaney, 117, and Wootton, 119.

“All five coaches were thinking after the race, ‘Did we do it?’ We were all really excited with how our teams had performed,” Young said. “I think we ran a great race, we ran as hard as we could, they ran with no regrets.”

Young said the girls knew that each of the top five finishes were equally important if they were going to win. “We rely heavily on having a tight pack, and that was key to our success,” he said.

Another key: three of the top five are freshman, a bounty that no one could have predicted at the team’s first practice before the start of the school year.
Young noted a couple of highlights from the race, two involving those freshmen:

On Fry: “Abby ran into a pole and almost fell down, and she was way back in the field for a while. As I was watching her, I didn’t know why she was so far back. But I later learned that the pole, which was marking the course, really slowed her down.”

On Farrell: “About 800 meters from the finish, she slid on some mud, fell down, and got back up. All the girls really ran with a lot of determination, and you could see Ava at the end really leaning into the hill, really gritting her teeth up the hill.”

On McUmber: “Some coaches from other teams commented to me, ‘She was so far back at the mile,’ and then they said how impressed they were with how she gradually picked off the field. She does it so casually it seems. It looks so easy for her to run up the hills, compared to how hard it is for almost everyone else.”

Coach Emily Young missed the race because of a family wedding. Chad Young said she was sad not to be there. He texted her after the results were announced.

“She was extremely excited for the girls and she relayed a message to them about how proud she was of the team,” Chad Young said. “It was great to have a woman on the coaching staff. She related a bit more to the girls, ran with them a bit more. I try to do my best with that, and so did (former coach Nathan) Herchenroeder, but it’s really good to have Emily there.”

In the boys’ race, sophomore Peter Horton led the way for the team, finishing in 17:50, for 45th place. Next was sophomore Nolan Ebner, whom Young called “the star of the day,” finishing in 17:56, for 48th place. Next were: junior Nick McGreivy, 18:02, for 59th place; senior Aidan Hennessey, 18:15 for 73rd; freshman Sam Baker, 18:22 for 77th; sophomore Matt Boden, 18:49, for 99th; and junior Thomas Horton, 18:57 for 102nd.

“Just like the girls, we have a solid pack of boy runners,” Young said. “The spread for the boys, from first to fifth, was just 32 seconds. That’s where the boys have a lot going for them. Yes they are young, and we don’t have a front of the pack runner – yet – but we have guys really competing out there.”

“Peter Horton led the team today,” Young said. “He had a great race. Nolan also ran extremely well and it was great to see him bridge the gap to the top runners on the team. The pack was getting tighter and improving a lot with each race this year.”

Young said one theme throughout the year for both teams was surpassing expectations that outsiders had of them.

“For the girls, a lot of people thought Whitman’s team would be the best all year,” he said. “On the boys’ side, nobody really had much faith in them early in the year. So they had a little chip on their shoulders, wanting to prove people wrong. And that’s what both teams did all year.”

The result for the girls is that there soon will be a new trophy and a new banner at B-CC proclaiming the 2011 team the 4A state champs.

Words from a coach: Team bond sets stage for states

Coach Emily Young will not be able to attend Saturday's state meet. Here's a guest blog post from her to the teams:

The boys and girls teams are headed to the state meet on Saturday, and they both find themselves in a position that not many people expected them to be in at this point in the season. The boys, not even favored to finish top ten in the county at the beginning of the season, easily qualified for states by finishing 5th in the region. Tired of being underestimated, they repeatedly defied the expectations of their critics and made a name for themselves throughout the county and the state. I have no doubt that the boys will deliver another surprising performance on Saturday, providing a fitting ending to an inspiring season.

Unlike the boys, the girls were expected to be one of the top teams in the county, but they still constantly found themselves in Whitman’s shadow, a place that just about everyone seemed convinced they would remain. Everyone that is, except for the girls themselves. Like the boys, they were not content to have their talent underestimated, so they set their sights on Whitman and never looked back. Their hard work and determination paid off as they bested Whitman in their last two races, running smoothly and confidently to victories at the County and Regional Championships. If they can hold off Whitman and a talented Severna Park squad on Saturday, they have a very real and exciting chance to walk away as Maryland state champions.

While only 14 B-CC runners will be running this weekend, those 14 could not have gotten to where they are without the efforts of all 70 members of the team. This year’s squad was full of talented, dedicated runners who pushed themselves each day at practice and in races. Because they were all so determined to improve and because they all challenged each other to be better, earning a spot on the varsity team was not an easy task. The seven boys and seven girls running on Saturday are as good as they are now because they had teammates who forced them to fight for those top spots.

But it was not just the healthy competition that made a difference in the way the season played out. The friendships that evolved and strengthened over the past few months created a strong team bond and a positive atmosphere that set the tone for the late season success. At every race and during every practice, the kids supported each other and enthusiastically and proudly represented their team and their school. They knew how to work hard while still having fun, and as coaches, we could not have wished for a better group of kids to work with.

And finally, we owe so much thanks to all of the parents and fans who supported the team in so many ways throughout the season. From cheering at meets to taking pictures, coordinating fundraising and other events, providing snacks, hosting pasta dinners, and offering to help carpool, your efforts were invaluable to the team’s success this year, and they made our job as coaches infinitely easier.

I hope you will all come out one last time this Saturday to cheer on our teams as they represent B-CC at the state meet. Bring your signs, your body paint, your cowbells, and your best cheerleading moves and outfits, and let’s show these runners how proud we are of what they have accomplished!

States, here comes B-CC: Girls win regionals, boys fifth

Entering this year’s cross-country season, B-CC coaches Chad and Emily Young weren’t sure what to expect. Both the boys and girls teams were young, relying on freshmen and sophomore runners. At Thursday’s 4A regional meet – a step below the state championship – both teams grew up.

The girls’ team won the regional championship. The boys finished a strong fifth.

Both will be going to the states, and the girls have to be considered one of the favorites to win it all.

Chad Young, now in his seventh year as coach and generally modest in his praise, was effusive after the regional meet.

“We had quite the day,” he said. “The lead story is definitely the girls. They are really running with a lot of confidence. It’s a big difference from a couple of weeks ago when they won the county meet. Last time, they beat Whitman by five points. Today they beat them by 16.”

Their blueprint for success: A deep squad, a tight pack, and several runners stepping up their performance.

Young pointed out two runners in particular: freshman Abby Fry and junior Laura Nakasaka.

“Earlier in the year, Abby had hip pain and had to sit out for a while,” Young said. “She was really concerned that it would keep her from the varsity team. She has run really well this year, but today was her breakout race. It was a narrow start and Abby kind of realized it. She made a decision before the race to go out a little faster and that was a good decision.”

At the start of the muddy course, Fry and senior co-captain Ava Farrell went out with the lead pack. But B-CC’s other runners kept them in sight.

In the end, five B-CC runners finished within 41 seconds of each other, handily beating Whitman and the rest of the field. Freshman Nora McUmber finished first on the team, sixth overall, in 19 minutes, 56 seconds. Farrell was 7th overall in 20:04; Fry finished 10th in 20:19; Nakaska 12th in 20:33; and freshman Kat McNeill 13thin 20:37. Finishing sixth on the team, 15th overall was senior Hallie Jester, and junior Caroline Leuba finished 25th in 21:56.

McUmber started out with her customary slower pace and then finished strong. Farrell and Fry kept close to the leaders. Nakasaka, who sat out the county meet because of an injury, finished a strong fourth. “She makes the team really stronger,” Young said. “Having her back gave the team a lot of confidence today.”
Whitman runners finished first and fourth overall. Before the third Whitman runner finished, the top five B-CC runners were in.

“We don’t have a girl who is going to win the race yet, but we have this really tight pack and when we look at all the other teams that ran today we, by far, have the fastest group one to five,” Young said.

Why such depth? How did this pack develop?

Youth, said Young.

“On the boys’ and the girls’ side, we have a lot of freshmen and sophomores,” he said. “The three freshmen on the girls’ team started off with a lot of promise, but every single race they are improving. That has made our team better with every single race.

“For the boys, it’s the same thing,” he said. “We have a bunch of sophomores. Race experience for young runners is one of the things that help them improve really quickly. They just need to race. They need to figure it out themselves.”

In the boys’ race, B-CC learned just the day before that its top runner, sophomore Alex Riishojgaard, who had finished ninth overall in the county meet, was lost for the season due to a stress fracture in his foot.

“Not having Alex in today’s meet, meant we really weren’t sure we could qualify for the state meet,” Young said. “We had a little talk before the race, and I said that everyone needs to step up today. When you lose your top guy everyone has to run hard to make a difference.”

Freshman Sam Baker apparently took it to heart. Like Fry, he also went out harder than he had in past races. At the start of the season, he was running sixth or seventh on the team. But he had been steadily moving up, and on Thursday, he finished fourth on the team, 32nd overall, in 17:41.

Also taking it to heart: Junior Nick McGreivy, who had been the No. 3 runner on the team, finished first for B-CC, 23rd overall, in 17:20. Sophomore Peter Horton finished 27th in 17:31; sophomore Nolan Ebner was 30th in 17:38; then Baker; and senior Aidan Hennessey was 40th in 18:10. Sophomore Matt Boden finished sixth on the team in 55th overall in 18:34, and junior Thomas Horton was 71st in 19:09.

“It was fun to watch Nick today. He and Peter Horton battled a little bit,” Young said. “Nick ran with a lot of confidence and determination today.”
Young added: “These guys really stepped up. If they hadn’t, I don’t think we would have made it to the states.”

Since B-CC was designated a 4A school three years ago, this is the first time that both teams have qualified for the state championship meet.

“It really is an honor to make the state meet,” Young said. “It really is hard to get there. That’s the way it should be. We are very fortunate both teams were able to qualify. I’m really proud of them It’s amazing to watch these boys and the girls learning a lot about themselves. As coaches, it makes our job easy in some ways because they work so hard. We’re really lucky to have such great kids.”

The state championship will be held Nov. 12 at Hereford High School, northwest of Baltimore.

In JV races, many saved best for last

At the Montgomery County cross-country meet on Saturday, the top performers weren’t just members of the varsity team. Here are Coach Chad Young’s comments on several other impressive racers in the JV competitions:

In the JV freshmen-sophomore girls’ race, freshman Annie Annie McElvein finished second overall, in 20 minutes, 54 seconds. “She’s 8th or 9th on our varsity team, but on most teams she would be running on varsity. She has been very impressive,” he said.

Other top performances in that race: Sophomore Vanessa Shu, fifth overall, in 21:47; and Amanda Cohen, eighth overall, in 21:56.

In the JV junior-senior girls’ race, Young cited several runners, including senior co-captain Susannah Derr, who was third overall, in 21:56; junior Victoria Prevost, in 22:17, for eighth overall; and juniors Shayna Nash and Emily Hardgrove, who both finished in 22:30, for 11th and 12th places. Also, senior Claire Galasso ran 23:44 for 24th place, and senior Lilly Herrick-Reynolds who ran 25:54 for 65th place.

Young made special mention of senior Alison Thomas, who has been injured for the much of the season with a stress fracture in her ankle. She is scheduled to have surgery soon. Her doctor cleared her to run in the race, and Young saw that she was in pain in the second half.

“She wanted to gut it out one last time,” he said. “You can see the pain in her face toward the end. It was an accomplishment to finish.” Her time was 24:04 for 27th overall.

In the boys’ JV freshmen-sophomore race, Young named several runners as having impressive performances, including: sophomore Sam Hainbach, 43rd overall in 19:07; sophomore Lucas Beck, 46th place, 19:13; freshman Dylan Johnson, 55th, 19:27; sophomore Conrad Jones, 61st, 19:35; and freshman Wyatt Donnelly, 68th, 19:44.
Young also said the team was heartened to see freshman Jack Ward run after an incident during school on Thursday in which he was hurt. “He was unsure whether he was going to run, but on Saturday he felt fine so he gave it a go,” Young said.

“The whole team was excited to see him out there. He became the team hero this week for being able to race.”
Ward did more than just race. He ran a PR in 21:52, 50 seconds faster than his previous best time.

Sophomore Kevin Flores, described by Young as very quiet, had been battling knee injuries all year and had run in the 28 to 29 minute range for the 5K races. But on Saturday, he ran 24:15. “He was so excited that he ran over to (coach) Emily (Young) with a huge smile and said, ‘I ran my fastest time ever!’ Just to see that emotion from him was a big deal.”

In addition, Jason Kohn also was battling injuries, and he ran with a distinct limp. He finished in 31:27, the second to last finisher. “He was so determined,” Young said.

In the boys’ JV junior-senior race, the six runners were: junior Thomas Horton, 18:29, 21st place; junior Greg Picard, 31st, 18:47; senior Alessandro Lallas, 34th, 18:54; junior Jacob Bennett, 41st, 19:09; senior Ethan Ebinger, 76th, 20:40; and senior Schuyler Parsonnet, 84th, 21:16.

“For Ethan and Schuyler, both of them had been injured most of the year, but they still worked hard in practice when they could,” Young said. “It was good to see them out there in their last race.”

Here is a list of PRs set Saturday for the team. In all, 19 boys and 15 girls set personal records. They are:

Sam Alston 21:30
Sam Baker 17:29
Lucas Beck 19:12
Matt Boden 18:03
Ethan Ebinger 20:39
Nolan Ebner 17:19
Kevin Flores 24:15
Bill Foley 21:35
Sam Hainbach 19:06
Aidan Hennessey 17:42
Peter Horton 16:45
Conrad Jones 19:34
Alessandro Lallas 18:53
Liam McGowan 20:27
Nick McGreivy 17:09
Kyle Nakasaka 21:22
Alex Riishojgaard 16:23
Jack Ward 21:52
Paul Witten 20:39

Alyssa Alfonso 24:13
Sarah Bien 23:57
Marieanne Bonnefoy-Campusano 30:58
Francesca Faccone 23:36
Ali Friedman 30:05
Abby Fry 20:12
Hadara Goldsmith 24:53
Hallie Jester 19:48
Tess Joseph 25:16
Annie McElvein 20:54
Kat McNeill 19:40
Nora McUmber 19:17
Elaine Otieno 23:56
Victoria Prevost 22:16
Vanessa Shu 21:47

Photo blog: County meet

Here are some photographs of B-CC student-athletes at Montgomery County's cross-country championship. B-CC girls finished first out of 25 teams, while B-CC's boys finished fourth of 25.

B-CC girls win county meet, boys finish strong fourth

GAITHERSBURG – On a crisp autumn day, over the course of a morning at the Montgomery County high school cross-country championship, B-CC’s boys and girls teams both beat expectations, thanks to a long list of personal records, a coach’s sideline exhortations, and one runner’s dramatic finish.

First, Saturday’s news:

B-CC girls won the county meet, the first such top finish in Coach Chad Young’s seven years running the team. They narrowly edged arch-rival and reigning state champ Whitman.

B-CC boys finished fourth out of 25 teams, a high point so far in a season that has dazzled observers. In preseason, a MoCoRunning.com poll didn’t list the team in the top 10 in the county, and a poll just a week ago put them as the No. 10 team.

In the girls’ race, the drama started early. Young decided that Junior Laura Nakasaka should sit out the race due to a lingering shin injury. That sidelined B-CC’s No. 2 runner and, Young said, considerably lessened B-CC’s chances to win.

“The girls didn’t worry so much about Whitman,” he said. “They just ran their own race.”

Senior Ava Farrell shot out with the lead pack. Freshmen Nora McUmber and Kat McNeill were in roughly 20th place at the first mile. Behind them: senior Hallie Jester, freshman Abby Fry, junior Carolina Leuba, and senior Claire Cohen.

Farrell started to slowly drop back from the lead pack. McUmber picked it up, lengthening her stride and passing Farrell about 2.5 miles into the 3.1 mile race. McUmber finished fifth overall in 19 minutes, 18 seconds, a PR. Farrell was right behind her, in 19:28, her fastest time of the year, for seventh. McNeill was next in 19:40, a PR, for 10th.

Then came Jester, the senior who is running cross country for the first time.
Six hundred yards from the finish, Young yelled out to her as she passed, “Catch that pack ahead! Give it a shot!”

A pack of four runners were 15 to 20 yards ahead of her. Jester picked up the pace, passing two Whitman runners in the pack, and finished in 12th place overall, in 19:48. The Whitman runners finished in 14th and 16th place. B-CC ended up winning by five points, meaning that Jester’s kick was a difference maker.

“The race came down to Hallie’s final kick,” Young said. “She was so determined to catch the girls. She hunted them down, passing enough girls to make the difference in the meet.”

Still, he added, “it’s a team race and everybody ran really well.”

Fry finished in 21st place, in 20:12. It was the first time in Young’s seven years of coaching that four girls had finished under 20 minutes. Her finish also meant that three of B-CC’s top five finishers are freshmen. Finishing sixth was Leuba in 21:20 for 47th overall, while Cohen finished in 21:52 for 66th-place.

In the boys’ race, all seven runners ran PRs.

The team’s top three runners – sophomores Alex Riishojgaard and Peter Horton and junior Nick McGreivy – started strongly. Riishojgaard went through the first mile in about 20th place, and gradually picked up his pace, finishing in 9th place overall in 16:24, or 47 seconds faster than his PR. It was the fifth fastest time registered by a B-CC runner in Young’s seven years as coach.

Second was Horton, finishing in 16:46, for 20th; that time was the eighth fastest time in Young’s tenure. McGreivy came in 34th place, in 17:10.

Next were sophomore Nolan Ebner in 17:20 for 42nd overall; freshman Sam Baker in 17:30 for 51st; senior Aidan Hennessey in 64th place, 17:43; and sophomore Matt Boden in 18:04, for 83rd place.

The next race will be the 4A West regionals competition on Nov. 3. Qualifying teams will then go to the state championship.

Young will select 10 to 12 from both the boys and girls teams to continue training for the regionals (although just seven will race). For the rest of the team, it is time for a well-deserved break.

Tomorrow: Look for an account of the JV races at the county championship.

"I attacked the hills. With my spikes."

The cross country team ran over the river and through the woods in an effort to tackle a hilly and daunting Smokey Glen Farm course on Tuesday afternoon. Except instead of a river there was a creek, and instead of woods there was a Christmas tree farm. While Christmas trees are usually associated with presents, family, and holiday merriment, the team formed some new associations, namely pain, agony, and sweat. And though the unforgiving course seemed more like a lump of coal in their stockings than a neatly wrapped package under the tree, they soon discovered that the feeling of accomplishment they felt as they finished the race was a far better present than anything they could ever hope to find under a tree (parents, this exempts you from ever buying holiday gifts again). Sophomore Amanda Cohen summed up her proud feeling of accomplishment after the race saying, “I felt like blahhhhh on the hills, but I attacked them. With my spikes.”

Led by senior Ava Farrell, the girls fought the hills and ran their way to a first place team finish. Farrell, who was almost disqualified for boldly defying the meet official’s order to remove her earrings, finished third overall in the race. B-CC’s next three finishers were the McFreshmen- Nora McUmber, Abby (Mc)Fry, and Kat McNeill. Annie McElvein, McFreshman number four, also finished an impressive 9th on the team behind a talented pack of Caroline Leuba, Hallie Jester, Laura Nakasaka, and Angie Peterson. When asked about the McFreshmen’s performance today, Coach Chad Young commented, “they ran McFast.” Also running fast today was Freshman Ali Friedman. Despite the steep, relentless hills, Ali ran almost a two-minute PR, and she was the only member of the B-CC team to do so.

The boys began their day with their new pre-race ritual, a motivational speech from Captain Greg Picard. They each took a knee around their revered leader and eagerly absorbed his every word. His speeches, now famous among B-CC athletes, coaches, and parents, have been proven to add speed to legs and courage to hearts. Coach Young is “sure his speeches will be his legacy” and hopes that someone “will be able to fill his shoes once he graduates.”

With Greg’s words in mind, the team took to the course with aggression and determination. Alex Riishojgaard and Peter Horton stepped up once again as B-CC’s top two runners. Captain Nick McGreivy, whose positive attitude and leadership have been vital to the team’s success this season, finished a few short seconds behind Horton. Nolan Ebner and Aidan Hennessey battled it out for the number four spot on the team, with Ebner barely edging out Hennessey. According to Coach Young, “Aidan and Nolan make the team better by fighting for that fourth spot.” The team’s efforts earned them a third place finish out of six strong teams.

The only PR on the boys side came in the JV race as Bill Foley ran 8 seconds faster than he has all season. Senior Ethan Ebinger led the way for the boys in the race despite questioning whether or not he could run the race at all due to injury. Kyle Nakasaka also turned in an impressive performance in the JV race.

The final B-CC runners that deserve recognition are Solomon Goldfarb and his crew of injured reserves. Goldfarb and Senior Alison Thomas gather the injured each week at meets and assign them jobs for the races. These unsung heroes of the team record times, hand out numbers, and execute their best cheers in an effort to support their able-bodied teammates. Their positive attitudes in the face adversity set a great example for all, and their often-unnoticed contributions are vital to the team’s success.

The team will be back in action on October 22nd for the County Meet at Gaithersburg High School.

Moments in a cross-country season: ‘I didn’t die on the Dip’

At a team gathering and fund-raiser in Mamma Lucia’s restaurant Thursday night, just past the mid-point of the B-CC cross-country season, several runners talked about important moments for them this year. A sampling:

Conrad Jones, a sophomore: “Everything came together for me at Bull Run, which is one of the most difficult and interesting courses. I didn’t end up running my fastest race, but I felt like I was running one of my best races. There were lots of challenging hills and lots of people that you have to pass. Finishing Bull Run is very gratifying. It’s immensely gratifying. You feel like you have overcome one of the most difficult courses.”

Sarah Bien, sophomore: “My practice today on the track was the most important. I did a normal workout instead of a newcomer workout. In the beginning of the year, I really struggled with the easy workout (which could be two 500-meter runs). I feel like I’m really running much longer and much faster now.”

Greg Picard, junior: “The most meaningful moment for me was when I was elected captain. The team means so much to me, and they gave me an opportunity to be a leader this year. It’s made me proud that we are doing so well now. To me, being a captain means you are a role model. You have to lead by example. My goal is to inspire the younger runners to come back next year. Usually, many freshmen don’t return after their first year. But I want to make them fall in love with the sport. So far, so good. We have a very enthusiastic bunch of young runners and I’m proud of all of them.”

Shayna Nash, junior: “My best moment was when Coach said that I had worked really hard so they took me to the Paul Short race. It was really important to me. Even though the hard work wasn’t paying off in races, it got me little brownie points.”

Alison Thomas, senior (who is injured with a stress fracture in her ankle): “I’ve been injured most of the year, but I ran Bull Run. I stopped for a second during the race and my teammate Susannah (Derr) also stopped right in front of me. Coach Young told me to go over to her. Susannah told me, ‘Alison, we need to finish this race.’ It may be the hardest race I ran in cross country. But I had nothing to lose. So I ran the last mile and a half. I was slow, but I needed to prove to myself that could do it.”

Aidan Hennessey, senior: “My last meet was the best because the person who normally beats me (Nolan Ebner) didn’t. The race was like just keeping your eye focused ahead. It was constantly being in the moment. I didn’t worry about the what ifs. Now I feel much more comfortable in the races.”

And then there were freshmen Annie McElvein and Kat McNeill, sitting next to each other at the restaurant. They talked about their favorite moments in a back-and-forth dialogue.

McElvein: “The Dip. That was the moment. The Dip is in the Bull Run course. This is what I’ve been training for. There are a lot of stories behind it. A lot of upperclassmen talked about how hard it is.”

McNeill: “It’s a decline and then it’s a climb up. And you do it twice.”

McElvein: “Yeah, twice. When I was walking it beforehand, it looked really hard. But running it was easy.”

McNeill: “It was helpful for everyone to say it was terrible because it was easier than it sounded.”

McElvein: “Honestly, I didn’t think it was that bad. Everyone said, you die on the Dip. I didn’t die on the Dip.”

McNeill: “Neither did I.”

Strong team finishes, Jester 'on a mission'

With deep squads of freshmen and sophomores and several seniors stepping up, B-CC’s boys’ and girls’ cross-country teams posted their two top performances of the year in recent days. At the Paul Short invitational at Lehigh University on Friday and at a meet against Magruder on Tuesday, the teams showed major improvement.

On Tuesday, in a meet that included four teams but counted officially only as a Magruder-B-CC matchup, B-CC’s boys beat the other three teams, including Whitman and Damascus. Beating Whitman by a score of 22-34 was particularly significant following Whitman’s easy defeat of a B-CC squad earlier in the season.

At the Magruder meet, sophomore Alex Alex Riishojgaard (17 minutes, 27 seconds), sophomore Peter Horton (17:41), and junior Nick McGreivy (17:49) finished 3-4-5 overall. Right behind them was another pack of runners finishing under 19 minutes: senior Aidan Hennessey (18:05); sophomore Nolan Ebner (18:06); freshman Sam Baker (18:38); and sophomore Matt Boden (18:55).

In the top seven, four are sophomores and one a freshman.

The team’s reliance on younger runners “could be part of the reason for the slow start this year,” said Coach Chad Young. “It’s really been impressive how they have improved. These sophomores were freshmen the year before in a team full of seniors and they weren’t asked to step up. Now they know it’s really up to them.”

Young asked the runners on the boys’ team on Wednesday whom they thought had the best race at the meet, and the runners’ consensus wasn’t a sophomore. It was senior Hennessey.

“The first couple of races he went out really hard, and halfway through he realized he had spent himself,” Young said. “As the season has progressed, he has gotten in much better shape. He and Nolan Ebner battled each other the whole race for the fourth spot on the team, and I think running with Nolan really helped him. We are relying on Aidan to do well and he’s stepping up and doing it. The guys were all proud of him.”

In the girls’ race on Tuesday, B-CC beat Magruder and Damascus handily, but lost by a single point to Whitman, 28-27. (Officially, the only competition that counted was the B-CC win over Magruder.) Whitman’s girls, reigning state champs, beat B-CC earlier in the year.

Young said while nothing official was riding on the B-CC-Whitman competition, “deep down you could see they did care how the meet ended up. It was a huge confidence boost for the girls. We’ve improved a lot, and it shows the girls aren’t scared to compete with them. It was a good day for us.”

Senior Ava Farrell won the race in 19:49, taking the lead from the start and keeping it the whole race. “She has had a couple of rough races in a row,” Young said. “But in this race she took off with the lead, and kept strong the entire race.”

In second place overall was senior Hallie Jester (20:21), and Young said she had the race of the meet for the girls.

“She was on a mission,” he said. “She is really determined to be one of the top runners. As a senior, she realizes she has responsibility of being an upperclassman and it’s really important for her to step up and be a leader on the team with her running as well as being a good teammate.”

Three freshmen finished next for B-CC: Nora McUmber (20:28); Abby Fry (21:03); and Kat McNeill (21:24). Following them were junior Caroline Leuba (21:34); sophomore Angie Peterson (21:38); and freshman Annie McElvein (22:28).

Young was impressed with Fry’s race. “Abby had a hip issue for a little while early in the season, but she ran really great yesterday,” he said. “She was neck and neck with two girls from Whitman at the end. She passed one and almost passed the other. We showed a lot of depth and a lot of it is because of the freshmen we have, Kat as well.”

He said that the freshmen girls “have put a little put of pressure on the upperclassmen, but in a good way because it’s going to challenge them and help the team become better.”

At the Paul Short race, the highlight for Young and many of the runners wasn’t necessarily the race itself but the chance to see several former B-CC runners compete in college races over the weekend.

Among the B-CC alumni racing there: Eliot Gerson, a Vassar freshman; Trevor Stephens, a freshman at Juniata College; Darcy O’Connor, a sophomore at St. Joseph’s College; and Kathleen Tatem, a senior at St. Mary’s College.

“It was really fun to see them,” Young said. “It was good to show our runners how running lives on and goes beyond the four years in high school, and can go beyond the four years in college and be a life-long thing. It’s a great thing to encourage them to build a healthy lifestyle.”

For the race, briefly, six girls finished under 21 minutes, finishing 10th out of 82 high school teams: McUmber lead the way, followed by junior Laura Nakasaka; Farrell; Jester; McNeill; Leuba; and Peterson.

For the boys, who finished 24th of 44 teams: Riishojgaard finished first on the team, followed by Horton, McGreivy, Ebner, Hennessey, Baker, and Boden.

The next meet is Tuesday in a six-team competition at Quince Orchard.

With sprint at end, Riishojgaard wins

Alex Riishojgaard had a frustrating start to his cross-country season at B-CC. The sophomore had joint pain and had little energy for a couple of weeks. Doctors cleared him to run just eight days ago.

On Tuesday, in his second race, Riishojgaard (at right) won his first meet in his high school career, beating a three-high-school field in 17 minutes, 11 seconds. The other schools were host Damascus and Richard Montgomery.

Riishojgaard ran with two other top B-CC runners – sophomore Peter Horton and junior Nick McGreivy -- in a lead pack for much of the race and then took a large lead. Toward the end, a few runners challenged him, but Riishojgaard outsprinted them to the finish. Horton finished fourth, just three seconds back, in 17:14, while McGreivy (shown below) finished fifth in 17:32. All three ran a PR.

“Alex really broke out today,” said Coach Chad Young. “It was the highlight of the boys’ meet. Not only was it a win, but it was an impressive sprint at the end. It was fun to watch.”

Richard Montgomery edged the B-CC boys team by only three points, while B-CC finished ahead of Damascus.

Sophomore Nolan Ebner finished four on the team (12th overall in 18:05), senior Aidan Hennessey was fifth (18:14), followed by another pack of boys who finished impressively under 18:30: sophomore Matt Boden, junior Greg Picard, and freshman Sam Baker.

“The B-CC boys showed a little bit of depth today,” Young said. “It was a great day for us. They weren’t scared of their competition by any means. They were very aggressive. It was our best race of the year.”

B-CC’s girls handily won their meet even without top runners senior Ava Farrell and junior Laura Nakasaka. Both were held back because of nagging injuries.

Finishing first for B-CC was freshman Nora McUmber (third overall in 20:12), followed by senior Hallie Jester (fourth, 20:14), freshman Kat McNeill (sixth, 20:24); freshman Abby Fry (seventh, 20:25); junior Caroline Leuba (eighth, 20:56); junior Emily Hardgrove (10th, 21:21); and freshman Annie McElvein, (11th, 21:23).

Young’s take:

“Nora started way back, really slow, and as coaches we worried she was too far back. But even as a freshman, she knows what she is doing so well and gradually made her way up and wound up being toward the front. Hallie Jester, to me, she ran the race of the day for the girls. She and Caroline Leuba (above center) both sensed a feeling of responsibility as the race started. Caroline went out hard, and made sure that B-CC’s presence was known. She faded a little, but still finished eighth. Hallie (below left) came on strong toward the middle of the race and was very aggressive with a great kick to the finish line.”

After McNeill was Fry, competing in just her second race. “She was out for two weeks with hip pain and had done a few workouts,” Young said. “This was the first race she felt no pain. She can run for real. She’s a big help to B-CC’s team. She’s right there with the top freshmen on the team already. As the season progresses, as we figure out the identity of this team, Abby may be one of those girls who end up on varsity by the end of the season.”

Four freshmen finished in the top seven. The fourth was McElvein.

“I was talking to other coaches today about how when it comes to invitational meets choosing the top seven is not easy when you have freshmen who are start figuring things out,” Young said. “You don’t know how they will react. The other coaches were saying to me, ‘That’s a nice problem to have.’ It’s true. The girls are definitely in good shape as far as their depth goes. Now we need to make sure that they compete with the higher-end runners. That’s the tough part. If we can do that, we will be hard to beat.”

The next meet is Friday for varsity only at Paul Short Invite at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. Ten boys and 10 girls will compete.

At Bull Run, B-CC teams serve notice

At the Bull Run Invitational in northern Baltimore County on Saturday, one of the toughest courses in the state, B-CC’s girls and boys team both finished near the top.

The girls came in third out of 18 teams, the boys sixth out of 24.

The top finisher for either team was a freshman, Nora McUmber, who was eighth overall in the elite girls race in 20 minutes, 49 seconds. Coach Chad Young was impressed with her race as well as the depth of the entire team.

“Nora showed the state of Maryland who she is at this meet,” Young said. “She went out conservatively, slowly. She was way back but she gradually kept picking people off the entire race. It was really fun to watch.”

He said the girls’ team competed really well. The next four finishers were junior Laura Nakasaka (14th overall, 21:10); senior Ava Farrell (21st, 21:31); freshman Kat McNeill (30th, 21:50); and senior Hallie Jester (37th, 22:04).

Severna Park and Chantilly were the two top girls teams with 94 and 107 points, respectively. B-CC finished with 110. “It was really tight,” Young said. “It was a great showing at this time of the season. It’s really fun to have two freshmen so far to have the experience of being on the varsity team.”

Young also singled out Jester, who is running cross-country for the first time this year; she had run track for her first three years in high school. “Hallie had a really good day. She was really competitive,” he said. “The reason our team placed so well is that our fifth girl, Hallie, was in front of a lot of teams’ fifth girl. Things are going really well for her. She’s really improving in her races.”

In the varsity boy’s race, Young said he saw a big improvement at Bull Run.

“For our boys this was our best showing of the season so far,” he said. “The guys ran well and also we got one of our injured runners back,” Alex Riishojgaard, a sophomore.

Finishing first for the B-CC boys in the “large schools” race was sophomore Peter Horton (20th overall, 18:10), followed by Riishojgaard (25th, 18:24); junior Nick McGreivy (29th, 18:28); sophomore Nolan Ebner (41st, 18:54); and sophomore Matt Boden (61st, 19:19).

The time gap between the first and fourth runners, Young noted, was 44 seconds, “which is really great. A lot of teams are struggling to get a tight pack that we are fortunate to have. We just need that pack to improve as the season goes along.

“I was really proud of them,” Young said. “They are still finding out who they are because they are so young. They are starting to run with some confidence.”

In the JV races, the meet organizers did not score the competition so it was not possible to learn the teams’ finishes. But several individuals did well.

On the girls’ team, Young noted senior Claire Cohen (21:19), “who is fighting for a varsity spot;” and freshman Annie McElvein, in her first real meet of the year who started far back and fought her way to second on the team.

On the boys’ team, the top finishers were Dylan Johnson (20:52); junior Jacob Bennett; and sophomore Sam Hainbach. Nine freshmen boys ran in the meet. “They got a chance to run on one of the hardest courses in the state,” Young said. “It was a good way to learn how tough they are. Those guys were using a ton of effort on this course.”

The next meet is Tuesday at Damascus in a three high school competition; Richard Montgomery also will be competing. The meet starts at 3:30 p.m.

Girls win in dominant performance

B-CC girls’ cross country team went 1-2 Tuesday against Poolesville in its lone home meet of the year.

Then it went 4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13.

The girls took 12 of the first 13 places to beat Poolesville, a performance that Coach Chad Young said “was a confidence builder in some ways.”

Or, perhaps in many ways.

The boys’ cross country team didn’t fare as well, losing to Poolesville, which took the top three spots.

In the girls’ race, senior Ava Farrell won in 19 minutes, 53 seconds, followed by junior Laura Nakasaka in 20:01. Farrell rebounded from the Whitman meet last week in which she injured her foot. “She had no foot trouble at this race and she finished where she usually finishes – in first,” Young said.

The rest of the varsity squad (top seven finishers) were in order freshmen Nora McUmber and Kat McNeill; senior Hallie Jester; junior Caroline Leuba; and sophomore Angie Peterson. In all, 10 girls finished the three-mile course in less than 22 minutes.

“This was the fastest meet we’ve had this year by far,” said Young. “This meet helped us remember that most of the teams out there aren’t going to beat us, even if they have a good day. Now we have to make sure we mentally prepare ourselves for the tough part of the season ahead.”

Young said many runners did well in the meet, mentioning Peterson (below, No. 352) as a good example. Last year, as a freshman, she ran 24:04; on Tuesday her time was 21:18.

“She worked hard over the summer, and worked hard last year as a freshman,” Young said. “She has done a great job in figuring things out, and she’s become a leader on the team, even as a sophomore.”

In the boys’ race, the top finishers were sophomore Peter Horton and junior Nick McGreivy, who finished 4-5 overall. Sophomore Nolan Ebner was the third B-CC finisher (eighth overall), followed by senior Aidan Hennessey, sophomore Matt Boden, freshman Sam Baker, and junior Jacob Bennett.

With two of B-CC’s top boy runners sidelined by injuries, Young said there was opportunity for others to make the varsity squad. “The top guys have to break up the pack to give us a chance to win, and the guys who are normally 7-8-9 are now on varsity team and have to outrun the varsity runners on the other team,” Young said.

“They have to be less worried about making a PR, or the time they run, and be more worried about who they are running next to.”

Young praised Horton and McGreivy for again leading the team, and he said the others also competed well. Many set personal records. One was Boden, who finished in 18:33, nearly two minutes faster than his time a week before. Another was Bennett (right, No. 821), who ran track for the first time last year. He finished in 19:13, a PR by nearly three minutes.

“He’s a naturally talented runner and with a little more racing experience he will see a lot of improvement,” Young said of Bennett. “This could be a breakout race for him.”

At the end of the meet, the team’s juniors led a ceremony to honor the seniors on the squad.

For the girls, the seniors are: Claire Cohen, Susannah Derr, Ava Farrell, Claire Galasso, Lilly Herrick-Reynolds, Hallie Jester, Alison Thomas, and Molly Zinkgraf.

For the boys: Brad Connell; Ethan Ebinger, Aidan Hennessey, Alessandro Lallas, and Schuyler Parsonnet.

The next meet will be Saturday at the Bull Run Invitational Cross Country Meet at Hereford High School in rural northern Baltimore County. The course is noted as one of the most challenging cross country courses around, with hills, twists, turns, and a ravine called “The Dip.”

The race is divided into competitions according to school size and team ability. B-CC girls will compete in the elite race; the boys will run in the “large school” race. The day also features junior varsity runs. All B-CC runners can compete.

“We’ll get a real taste of the competition in the state and see how we stack up,” Young said.

First meet: A photo blog

'I was just fired up today'

No one knew what to expect from Nora McUmber.

The freshman B-CC cross-country runner had finished second on the team in one preseason scrimmage and then in the middle of the pack in a second scrimmage.

But in Wednesday’s first meet, against arch-rival Whitman High School, McUmber started out conservatively and then picked up the pace to finish second on the team, sixth overall, as one of the pleasant surprises for B-CC coaches Chad Young and Emily Young.

Overall, Whitman’s boys and girls won the meet handily. The Whitman boys scored 23 points to B-CC’s 36, while Whitman’s girls scored 20 points to B-CC’s 37. (Scoring is done by adding a team’s top five finishers and the winner has the fewest points; B-CC boys finished 2-3-8-11-12, and B-CC’s girls finished 4-6-7-8-12.)

While the final scores were disappointing to the coaches, they also saw many reasons to be optimistic for the season.

Among several strong performers were two girl freshmen, McUmber and Kat McNeill.
One pundit has already called them the McFreshmen of B-CC. McNeill finished third on the team, seventh overall, in 22 minutes, nine seconds. McUmber finished in 21:55. The top B-CC finisher was junior Laura Nakasaka in 21:23, good for fourth overall.

“It was really exciting to see those two freshmen girls step it up,” Chad Young said. “For most of the race, they were behind Whitman’s fifth runner, but then they closed the gap and went right past her. It was so much fun to watch them run.”

Before the race, McUmber said that Emily Young told her to stay focused and run hard. She said it helped.

“What Emily said really motivated me to try to do my best for the team,” McUmber said. “I was just fired up today. I had some Powerade before the race, and got pumped up.”

McNeill said she also became excited by another pre-race moment: “A group of freshmen runners came together, we talked and got pumped up,” she said. “The race went well. I started out slower than a previous meet and it worked well for me because I could run faster later.”

In the girls’ race, three senior Whitman runners and two B-CC runners – senior Ava Farrell and Nakasaka, a junior – broke out to a large lead for roughly half of the 5K course.

But Farrell, one of the top runners in the state, started slowing considerably halfway through, which immediately concerned Chad Young because of Farrell’s consistent high performance level. It turned out that Farrell had hurt her foot. She gutted out the race and finished eighth overall in 22:15. After she crossed the finish line, she crumpled to the ground and was helped to her feet.

“You could tell something was definitely wrong with her during the race,” Young said. “She wound up being very tough to even finish.”

He said Nakasaka ran extremely well. “She hung with the senior top runners at Whitman. She was not intimidated at all by them,” he said. Whitman’s girls are reigning state champs.

Finishing fifth on the B-CC’s girls team was junior Emily Hardgrove. Young said her performance was one of the highlights of the meet for him. She finished in 23:16.

“If you look at the summer mileage charts, she ran all the miles and gradually built up as she was supposed to,” he said. “It’s great to see the hard work start to pay off. It’s very, very impressive.”

In the boys’ race, junior Nick McGreivy (18:52) and sophomore Peter Horton (18:59) finished in second and third places overall, respectively. “They ran really well, a great race,” Young said. “Both were smart, very steady, very aggressive, and very competitive.”

The team started off with a handicap: Two of its top runners, junior Thomas Horton and sophomore Alex Riishojgaard, could not run because of injuries. It meant B-CC had little chance of beating a deep Whitman team, but it also opened the door for other runners to finish on the varsity team, the top five spots.

The next finishers were: sophomore Nolan Ebner (19:54); junior Greg Picard (20:17); sophomore Matthew Boden; senior Aidan Hennessey (20:24); and freshman Sam Baker (20:31).

Young gave special mention to Ebner. “He finished in eighth, but was 11th for much of the race, and gradually worked his way up to a scoring position,” he said. “He’s come along pretty strong for a couple of weeks. He’s in shape and really interested being part of the varsity team. He’s an important piece of our team if we are going to be successful.”

Two big events are coming up.

The first is the C&O Canal 5K at Meadowbrook Park (Candy Cane City) this Sunday at 8 a.m. Junior Greg Picard is organizing the race, and Young said he will be encouraging the teams to run it. The race fees will help repair and preserve the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park. Picard has a great tag line for the race: “Run 3.1 miles, preserve 184.5!” Here’s a link to learn more or register.

Next Tuesday is B-CC’s only home meet, also held at Meadowbrook Park. The first race starts at 3:30 p.m.

B-CC cross country team hopes for fast start

Welcome to the blog for the 2011 B-CC’s cross-country team. We’ve covered indoor and outdoor track for the past two seasons. This is new terrain, even if with some familiar characters.

The first meet will be Wednesday at Whitman. More on that in a minute.

Coach Chad Young returns for his seventh year as head coach of the team. His long-time co-coach, Nathan Herchenroeder, is now on a two-year teaching contract in Paris. “The kids really loved him,” Young said. “We’ll miss him, but so far he’s really enjoying himself in Paris.”

No doubt.

Taking his place as coach is Emily Young (shown in the center of the picture at left), a former runner at the University of North Carolina who also coached track for B-CC runners three years ago; some of the senior girls on the cross-country team had her as coach when they were freshmen. For the last two years, she has coached runners at a West Virginia boarding school.

Chad Young already sees Emily’s impact: “She has done a great job in bringing toughness to the girls’ team, early on in the season,” he said. “It’s good to have a female coach to get a little more out of them, and she has already helped change the mentality.”

On Wednesday, Chad Young believes he will see several strong performances. He also expects surprises from a very deep girls’ team and a wide-open boys’ team that has 18 freshmen runners (double the number of girl freshmen on the team).

“We have a solid group of freshmen again this year,” he said. “In the past, we’ve had groups of girl freshmen come in a large pack. This year, we have this huge pack of freshman boys. Eighteen boys is a ton for us. They all have a really good attitude and they are all excited to start the season.”

He said Friday’s cancellation of a meet was a letdown; it was the only one of the year that featured just a freshmen race. Still, Young expects both boy and girl freshmen to have an impact on the varsity teams. The varsity squad, in many races, consists of the seven top runners.

For the boy freshmen, Young said that Sam Baker has posted the fastest times so far, followed by Wyatt Donnelly and Reed Crosson. Another promising newcomer is senior Alessandro Lallas.

For the girl freshman, Kat McNeill has already challenged some of the top upperclassmen in scrimmages, followed by Abby Fry and Nora McUmber.

“For the freshmen, it’s new to them,” Young said. “It’s not just going out and running 3.1 miles. It’s how they mentally prepare to go through this. It’s easy to run the first mile and easy to have a finishing kick, but what you do in between is really important.”

The boys’ team has just one of the top seven runners returning: Nick McGreivy. “The door is wide open, not for only sophomores, juniors, and a couple of seniors, but also for the freshmen. We don’t know what the varsity squad will look like by the end of the year,” he said.

At this point, Young said the top two runners appear to be McGreivy and sophomore Peter Horton (see in photo, McGreivy just ahead of Horton). The boys’ captains are all juniors: McGreivy, Thomas Horton, and Greg Picard.

The girls’ team, which returns its top 13 runners from last year, should be one of the top teams in the state, Young said.

“The top 13 are very talented, very competitive, and this year, the pack of girls has tightened up a lot,” he said. “Someone 10th on the team last year could be second or third this year because there are so many girls ready to step up and compete even within the team.”

Leading the way are seniors Ava Farrell, one of the top cross-country runners in the state, and Laura Nakasaka (in picture, Farrell is rear right and Nakasaka rear left). “Laura has really separated herself from the rest of the girls so far, and she and Ava could go one-two for the season,” Young said.

The girls’ captains are seniors Farrell and Susannah Derr.

Wednesday’s meet will be a good marker for them. Whitman High’s girls’ team is the reigning state champion, and it is returning most of its top runners. “On paper, everything looks like Whitman should be better than B-CC,” Young said. “Our girls will learn how they will fare this season even as early as Wednesday at Whitman. It will be a good test.”

The girls’ start will be at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at Whitman (the course is on the high school grounds), while the boys’ start will be around 4:15 p.m.

One last note: Please feel free to add comments to this blog. We’d especially like to get the perspectives of the runners themselves about what they see as important moments during the year.

State meet, day two: Three strong performances

At the second and final day of the Maryland state 4a championship Saturday, sophomore Brittney Wade and junior Ava Farrell were B-CC’s lone entries. Both had run the day before – Wade and Farrell were part of the 4 x 800 meter relay team that finished second, and Farrell had finished third in the two-mile.

Farrell was the first competitor on Saturday, running the mile. In the two-mile on Friday, she had hung back while a lead pack took off and she eventually caught them. This time she went out with the leaders.

“She decided to go with the top pack and stay as long as she could,” said B-CC Coach Chad Young. “The whole field settled in, maybe as a result that almost everyone was running multiple events, and the second and third laps were slower paced. Runners started to separate on the last lap, while Ava ran the same pace as she had in the second and third laps.”

She finished 10th overall, and she tied her PR, running 5 minutes, 14 seconds. “She gave everything she had,” Young said. “Usually she has a kick at the end, but she ran the first lap so fast it may have taken something out of her. She was happy with tying her best time ever; the competition was pretty elite.” The winning time was 5 minutes flat.

In the 400-meter race, Wade was seeded in the fastest heat. She finished fifth in 58.8 seconds in her heat, and seventh overall. The winner was Northwest all-American Olivia Ekpone, a senior who on Saturday ran the fastest 400 meter time in the country for a high school athlete so far this year, clocking 53.15 seconds.

“The way they staggered the runners at the start, with Brittney on the inside lane, made it seem like she was starting behind, so I think she tried to make up the ground early in the race and gave it everything she had. Her time was really good,” Young said.

In the final race, the 800-meter run, Young was a little concerned that Wade would not be at her best because of the lack of recovery time. In the regional meet a week earlier, the lack of time between the 400- and 800-meter races had hurt Wade; she ran the 800 meters in 2:24, barely qualifying for the state meet. It also meant that she was seeded Saturday in the slower heat.

That turned out to be a key factor.

In the first heat of the 800-meter race, one or two other runners challenged Wade, but she soon took control and opened up a huge lead, running 2:17.77. “She had nobody to push her, so it was a mental challenge for her,” Young said. “She had to race the clock the whole time, knowing that she was trying to take a place from girls in the other heat.”

And that’s how it unfolded. In the fast heat, another star Northwest senior runner, Britt Eckerstrom, won in 2:12. Wade ended up running the fourth fastest 800 meter time of the day – and her time was extremely close to the second and third place runners who ran in Eckerstrom’s heat. Wade finished just out of the medals.

“We were left wondering whether Brittney would have beaten them if they had all run in the same race,” Young said, adding that the B-CC supporters present all felt she would have had a good chance. “It’s a good learning experience for next year, but she did really, really well in this race.”

Young said all the girls who competed in states did an excellent job. “Everybody had very good days and it was nice to end the season that way. We’re proud of them no matter what, but we‘re so happy they finished the season so strongly.”

**

Writer’s note: Many thanks to Coach Chad Young for taking time after long practices and longer meets to then give an accounting of B-CC track teams’ performances. The stories over the indoor and outdoor season had drama, excitement, and reflected all the hard work of coaches and the team. It’s been a lot of fun to write them.

State meet: 'She knows how to race'

At the Maryland state 4A track and field championship today, B-CC junior Ava Farrell had to be a little tired lining up for her two-mile race. She had just run a hard opening leg for the girls’ 4 x 800-meter race. The temperature hovered near 90 degrees.

And then the gun went off and Farrell faced a new degree of difficulty: A pack of five girls shot to the front and immediately created distance with the rest of the field.

Farrell, ranked ninth in the state, had a choice. She could either sprint to catch the lead pack or she could stay within herself and run her own race. She chose the latter and it made all the difference.

Watching from the sidelines at Morgan State University, B-CC Coach Chad Young was concerned. “As a coach you worry a little bit, and hope your athlete will stick with them, but Ava made the decision not to go crazy with the first group.”

So she ran with a group of eight girls in a second pack. “It seemed like they were fighting to lead the pack, fighting for position, and no one seemed to be comfortable, all trying to figure out what was going on,” Young said.

Meanwhile, two of the five girls from the front pack slipped back. Farrell and two Whitman runners broke out. “They hunted down the two girls in between the two groups, and with two laps to go, Ava was sitting in sixth or seventh place,” Young said.

Then, with one lap left, Farrell picked it up. She and one of the Whitman girls broke out and ran into fourth and fifth place. At the last turn, the two caught Anna Ryba of Whitman, who was second in the regional meet the week before. Down the stretch, Farrell had one more kick in her, finishing third in 11 minutes, 31 seconds. It was three seconds off her PR.

“I was really proud of Ava to make the decision to run her own race, and not worry about how fast everyone was going out,” Young said. “She knows her body, she knows how to race, and she knows she can work her way back into a race.”

The finishing time, Young said, was secondary to how well she competed. “She really did a great job,” he said. “It was her best race she has had so far as a high school runner. She has so much experience now, she has patience and she has confidence as well. We couldn’t have asked for much more.”

But, in fact, the team did ask for a little more: running the opening leg in the girls’ 4 x 800 meter team. The team, Young said, was well prepared. “They weren’t too nervous, they were well composed,” he said.

Still, the race tested them in ways they hadn’t experienced before.

Farrell took off to the front of the pack with a runner from Northwest. They were one-two in the handoff, Farrell finishing in 2:21, her fastest 800 ever.

In No. 2 position, sophomore Caroline Leuba had a challenging race. Her counterpart from Northwest took off and broke away. Leuba went out hard the first lap, but started to slightly lose her pace on the second lap, and she and three other girls handed off the baton at about the same moment. She ran a strong 2:28.

The next runner, sophomore Laura Nakasaka, also had to battle. “She showed a lot of guts on her leg,” Young said. “She was running with three or four girls, and it looked at one point like a few of the girls would break away and pass Laura. She had to make a choice: hang on the pace or back off. She decided to stay with the pack and fought and fought and fought the whole time. She looked like she was ready to hand off the baton halfway down the straightaway.” Nakasaka finished in 2:27, tying her fastest time ever.

She handed it off to sophomore Brittney Wade, who, Young said, “made it look easy. You knew right away we were going to get second. She looked so smooth, kind of casually passed all three girls.” Wade finished in 2:16. The team finished second in 9:34, its fastest performance of the year.

“I think the girls were pretty excited,” Young said. “It’s one of those things. They have been very consistent in their times, running 9:35 or 9:37 a number of times. You kind of expect that they will run that every time, but every single race is different. You are not guaranteed to run that same time. Anything can happen. You can get nervous on the big stage with the state meet. It was 90 degrees out there today. And they did so well. They were pretty proud of themselves.”

“I think it sunk in when they got their medal: They were the second fastest team in the state.”

The excitement isn’t over. The state meet continues Saturday and three competitions will have a B-CC entry. Farrell will run the mile and Wade will run the 400 and 800 meter races.

In regional meet, success -- and heartbreak

It was the Ava, Brittney, and girls’ 4 x 8 show.

At the regional championship at Walter Johnson High School on Wednesday and Thursday, four B-CC girl athletes ran their way to the state championship next weekend.

Several others barely missed the cut in a competition marked by personal records set by a number of B-CC athletes.

The stars were junior Ava Farrell, who qualified for the mile, two-mile, and as a member of the 4 x 800 meter relay team; sophomore Brittney Wade, who qualified for the 400 meter, 800 meter, and on the 4 x 800 meter relay; and sophomores Caroline Leuba and Laura Nakasaka, the remaining two members of the 4 x 800 team.

In the 4 x 800 meter race, B-CC Track and Field Coach Chad Young said he orchestrated it with a strategy in mind. Believing that the team would almost surely qualify, he placed Farrell as the anchor – Wade usually runs last. That way, if the team was firmly in place to qualify, Farrell would not have to run her hardest and save something for the two-mile race that followed.

The strategy worked. Leuba led off, running 2 minutes, 25 seconds, putting the team in third or fourth place. Wade then set a blistering pace, finishing in 2:16. Nakasaka ran hard and finished in 2:29, and Farrell also finished in 2:29. The team finished second.

In the two-mile, Farrell ran with a pack of girls who went out hard in the first mile. She finished in sixth, out of the running in terms of place, but her time met the qualifying standard. She ran a PR in 11:28 to qualify for states. Farrell also qualified in the mile, running 5:19.

Wade, meanwhile, ran in the 400-meter race against stiff competition from Northwest, including senior All-American Olivia Ekpone. Ekpone won, but Wade emerged from a pack to finish second in 58.29. Two Northwest girls finished third and fourth.

In the 800-meter race, Wade, struggling somewhat because of almost no recovery time between races, fell behind but managed to pass a girl to finish fourth, good enough to qualify. Her time was 2:24.

As much as Young was happy about the girls’ performances, he was sad about a number of athletes who fell just short of qualifying. Still, he was impressed with their effort.

One athlete he singled out was sophomore Eugenia Wilson, a hurdler and sprinter who has come on strong in the last part of the outdoor season. Wilson fell during the 100-meter hurdle race on Wednesday, finishing out of the running. But on Thursday, in the 300-meter hurdles, “she rebounded,” Young said. “She just took off, and was determined to beat everybody. She was in the slower heat and was in the lead for the first turn, and maintained it whole way. We waited for the faster heat to finish, and we anxiously looked at our watches, hoping she would be in the top four.”

Wilson finished fifth. She missed qualifying by one place and one second. Still, she beat her PR in the 300-meter hurdles by an astonishing five seconds. “That’s enormous in a short race like that,” Young said. She finished in 47.78.

For the boys, “it seemed we were fifth place, or one or two seconds off qualifying time the whole meet,” Young said. “There were a number of PRs, but somehow we didn’t have enough to get over the hump this time. It was unfortunate, but at the end of the day the guys felt proud of how they ran.”

Among the top performances:

* The boys’ 4 x 800 meter team finished seventh. “It was a great race to watch,” Young said. “The whole team was into it.” The all-senior team, running in their last high school competition, was Trevor Stephens (1:59), Philip Catterall (2:04); Patrick Frampus (2:07); and Eliot Gerson (2:02).

* Two freshmen two-milers, Alex Riishojgaard and Peter Horton, ran well. Riishojgaard won the slower two-mile heat in 10:28, while Horton finished fourth in that race, in 10:35. Young looked back at the records of freshmen two-milers at B-CC over the past six years, and the pair had the two fastest times in that period. Gerson was No. 3.

* In the 800, Stephens ran 1:59.54 for fifth place. His time was 0.2 off qualifying for the states. “He ran a great race and looked so good,” Young said.

* In the mile, Gerson finished ninth, but set a PR in 4:31. He missed qualifying for states by only two seconds. “At the end of the race, he was happy because he knew he couldn’t have run any faster,” Young said. Two other runners also turned in strong performances. Catterall ran 4:45, or seven seconds faster than his PR, and Frampus ran 4:55, also a PR.

* In the 300-meter hurdles, freshman Nolan Ebner set a PR in 45.52, continuing his steady improvement throughout the year.

* In the shot put, junior Mike Nyarko finished 5th in 44 feet, six inches, a PR, and some seven to eight farther than his performances during invitational meets.

* And in the boys’ 4 x 400 meter relay, the team finished fifth in 3:30, but Young marveled at their effort and performance. “Everyone was on their feet watching this race, knowing it would be tough to qualify,” he said. Nana Twum Agyire ran aggressively, finishing in 52 seconds; Stephens ran a 51-second lap; Julien Dorsey kept it going in 53 seconds; and Weimu Dorsu finished strongly as anchor in 52 seconds.

“We did a great job all the way around,” Young said. “We took care of everything we could control. Not everything turned out exactly the way we wanted it, but everyone should be proud of the way we raced.”

The state championship meet will be held next Friday and Saturday at Morgan State University in Baltimore. The competition starts at 4 p.m. on Friday and 11 a.m. on Saturday.