'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.