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.