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.
Annie McElvein seems to be a very promising runner, after all she has barley even trained, and scored 2nd. Very promising indeed.
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