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.