Tri-meet battle with Sherwood and Quince Orchard

By Emily Young

The Boys

The home stretch at Wednesday’s tri-meet at Sherwood turned into an all-out battle for Junior Matt Boden as one of the home team’s runners challenged him to a flat-out sprint to the finish. Boden, undoubtedly one of the most competitive, determined runners in any race, anywhere, accepted the challenge and drained his muscles of every last ounce of energy as he kicked down the final 100 meters of the course in a time of 18:55. It was a thrilling finish, one that seemed almost too close to call, but in the end, the official results favored the Sherwood runner.

Junior Matt Boden

Unfortunately, Boden’s hard-fought journey to the finish, one that ended in an almost-victory, seems to mirror the fortunes of the boys team so far this season. They’ve logged quality miles and workouts, they’ve stayed late at practice to do extra stretching and circuit drills, and they’ve endured the pain of regular ice baths, yet they seem to be falling just short of victory on the course. The boys have been missing key returner Sophomore Sam Baker due to double stress fractures, and they were also noticeably without Senior Nick McGreivy on Wednesday (McGreivy reluctantly withheld himself from the race in an effort to control a nagging IT band issue). For one reason or another, things just haven’t fallen into place. There have been glimpses of greatness and big things to come, but they have yet to deliver their piece de resistance—that perfect moment when all of their efforts culminate in a beautiful, expectation-defying race, one that surprises their opponents but only reaffirms to themselves what they already know—they are capable of greatness.

Juniors Peter Horton and Alex Riishojgaard

Despite their growing frustration, there were a number of reasons to celebrate on Wednesday, including an individual win by Junior Peter Horton, his first ever cross country victory in 17:13, and a strong race by Junior Alex Riishojgaard, who finished just a few seconds behind Horton (17:18). Junior Nolan Ebner also showed that he is capable of hanging with the top pack as he pulled off a 4^th place overall finish in 17:31.  Ebner passed three runners in the last 800 meters and finished just two seconds behind Sherwood’s number one runner.

A secondary pack of boys has also emerged and shown they are figuring out the five kilometer race as they continue to inch closer to spots on the varsity squad.  The group, Leul Assamenew (20:24), Liam McGowan (20:53), Kyle Nakasaka (20:56), Conrad Jones (21:18) and Thomas Mackell (21:26), seem to be improving with each race.  Mackell’s time was good for a personal record by 30 seconds on a course which was deceptively challenging with many rolling hills.

The Girls

Sophomore Kat McNeill and Freshman Abigail Levine

The girls came away from Wednesday with two more divisional wins. Sophomore Caroline Beakes claimed another individual victory in 20:34 (despite having to retrace her steps after a wrong turn…), and Sophomore Nora McUmber inched her way up throughout the race to finish a close second in 20:37. Sophomore Kat McNeill (21:38) and Freshman Marie Caspard (21:42) each made their official racing debuts this season, finishing as the Barons’ 5^th and 6^th runners respectively. Freshman Abigail Levine (21:43) rounded out the top 7, crossing the line just over a minute after Beakes. Senior Laura Nakasaka (20:51) and Sophomore Abby Fry (21:16) also turned in impressive performances as B-CC’s 3^rd and 4^th runners.

Junior Amanda Cohen and Freshman Lily O'Dowd

Like the boys, the girls have a strong pack of runners, including three more freshmen, improving quickly and hoping to earn a varsity spot in the near future.  Lily O’Dowd (22:56), Amanda Cohen (22:59), and Lauren Kronheim (23:13) finished in 16^th, 17^th and 18^th overall respectively, with teammates Annie Sharkey (24:05), Vanessa Shu (24:10) and Emily Hardgrove (24:17) close behind.

The teams look forward to the Oatlands Invitational this Saturday where over 100 schools and almost 5,000 runners will compete in one of the most competitive meets of the season.

Boys team continues to improve, but falls one point short

By Senior Nick McGreivy

Now in my fourth year on the team, it seems that usually early in the season, runners are starting to gradually improve, but are still a ways away from the times they hit at the county championship at the end of the season. So on the cool-down, when I was talking to the rest of the team about their races and how they ran, I was (and I’m not kidding) completely giddy with excitement over how well the entire team had ran. Looking at the final results only confirmed what I had heard, as it seemed that nearly everyone had run a PR, many runners having huge improvements.

The course was similar to our regular home course, except that instead of turning right at the end of the trail and taking the trail that goes alongside Rock Creek back to Candy Cane (I hope older runners would know what I’m talking about, and I assume parents would have no idea what I am talking about), we simply turned around at the end of the rocky trail and ran single file the whole way back.

On the boy’s side, we knew that Wootton would be a tough team to beat, after they handily beat us in a scrimmage and again at the Woodward relays. The final score was B-CC 29, Wootton 28 (lowest score wins). With a goal of winning division 1, after losing to Wootton it looks like to win our division Sherwood would have to beat Wootton and we would have to beat Sherwood at our next dual meet, a very possible scenario that I believe according to the rules would set up a three-way tie for first place.

On the girl’s side, the final score was B-CC 20, Wootton 37. The B-CC girls ran impressive once again, and look like the team to beat in division 1 at this point.

While the team discussed some of the more impressive performances at practice today, there were some individual performances on the boys side I wanted to highlight:

Junior Peter Horton

When Junior Peter Horton first joined the B-CC cross country team, he struggled to finish his first ever 5k, crossing the finish line dazed and exhausted in over 26 minutes. He steadily improved, and by his sophomore year, with a summer of training under his belt, he started to show his emergence as an elite runner during outdoor track as he dropped his times to 4:30 for 1600m and 9:46 for 3200m, good for 9^th place at the state meet.

On Tuesday, at our first home meet of the season at candy cane city, Peter finished in an incredible 16:16, second place to only the 800m state champ and 4:16 1600m runner Josh Trzeciak from Wootton who finished in 16:12.

Frankly, this kind of performance out of ‘Big Pete’ didn’t surprise me, after we had spent much of the summer toning our hips, perfecting our arm swing, and running over 50 miles a week. A 16:16 doesn’t come from raw talent or even simply the workouts we run as a team, it comes from his passion for improving as a runner and from the miles we ran over the summer.

Alex Riishojgaard ran the first mile more aggressively than he had in previous races this season, coming through in 5:13 and finishing in 17:00, good for second on the team and fourth overall.

Nolan Ebner ran a new personal best (PR), finishing the 5k fourth on the team in 17:12, 50 seconds faster than he ran at this course at the same point last year.  After an impressive track season in which he dropped his 800m time to 2:01.51, good for 6^th in the region, he seems to be continuing to improve. In fact, B-CC’s top 4 looked especially good after Tuesday’s meet, and Peter, Alex, Me and Nolan all are way faster than we were at this point last year.

Sam Hainbach put in the summer miles this year, running over 50 miles a week for much of the summer, and it seems to be paying dividends already. He ran 18:47, an impressive 20 second PR, especially so considering how early it is in the season.

Leul Assamenew  ran outdoor track for the first time last year, PRing by 18 seconds in the 800 in 2:19. We didn’t really know what we had with Leul this year in his first year in cross country, but his 19:23 was good for 8^th on the team and  over 4 minutes faster than his time at Woodward Relays.

Juniors Leul Assamenew and Kevin Flores, and Freshman Chris Wilks

Liam McGowan and Colin Cowie finished side by side, both coming through the line in 20:03. Liam ran a lot this summer, and his 20:03 is a 24 second PR from the end of last year and nearly 3 minutes faster than he ran at Woodward Relays. Though I don’t have the results from the preseason blue and gold scrimmage, this was a huge improvement for Colin, at least a two minute PR.

Chris Wilks, also a freshman, ran strong, finishing in a pack of B-CC boys in 21:29. Chris has shown a lot of desire to improve, which as a runner is one of the most important things you can have.

One of the more memorable moments of the meet for me was watching freshman Philippe Masson chase down a Wootton runner from behind, gutting out a strong kick to finish in 23:22, a new PR. Close behind Philippe was Harrison Fang, also a freshman, who cut 6 minutes and 24 seconds off his Woodward relays time to finish in 23:40.

Kevin Flores ran nearly 9 minutes faster than his woodward relays time in a PR of 24:08. Jason Kohn PRed by 2 minutes and 14 seconds, finishing in 24:34.

Other PR performances: Kyle Nakasaka, Andrew Witten and Nick Kettler.

Here is a Running Maryland interview with the girls team to sum up their efforts on the day:

(http://www.runningmaryland.com/index.php?option=com_jomtube&view=video&id=11679&Itemid=319)

I thought Mara and Amanda Cohen deserved special recognition because it’s their birthday today. Happy birthday ladies.

Link to results:

http://www.mocorunning.com/meet.php?meet_id=2511

Link to Analysis by mocorunning:

http://www.mocorunning.com/article.php?article_id=771

Girls race: (short version)

http://www.runningmaryland.com/index.php?option=com_jomtube&view=video&id=11677&Itemid=319

Girls race: (long version)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIAZKpKWmok&feature=results_video

Boys race: (short)

http://www.runningmaryland.com/index.php?option=com_jomtube&view=video&id=11678&Itemid=319

Boys race: (long)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVBh7xTIASg&feature=plcp

Freshmen help girls to victory at Woodward Relays

By Chad Young

The B-CC cross-country teams opened their 2012 fall season with an unconventional six mile relay race around the hilly Georgetown Prep golf course on Tuesday. Each relay team consisted of two runners who alternated laps around the one mile course. The schools scored points based on the sum of their top three relay finishes, and the lowest the score won. After each lap they passed a baton off to their teammate, and after all six laps were complete, the B-CC teams showed they are ready for the season to begin.

Nervous freshmen on the girls team joined forces with top returners as B-CC claimed three of the top six places in the girls relay race. The veteran pairing of Senior Laura Nakasaka and Sophomore Nora McUmber led the way for the girls with a second place finish after a tough battle with a talented pair of Churchill runners. Capturing 4th place was the team of Sophomore Caroline Beakes and Freshman Abigail Levine. Rounding out the scoring in 6th were Sophomore Abby Fry and Freshman Lily O’Dowd.

Sophomore Nora McUmber

Freshman Lily O'Dowd

Senior Nick McGreivy

The boys team, led by Junior Peter Horton and Senior Nick McGreivy, finished an impressive 4th out of 16 teams. Horton and McGreivy completed their shared six miles in 34:50, good for 3rd place. Juniors Nolan Ebner and Alex Riishojgaard finished in 36:16 in 11th place while Junior Matt Boden and Senior Greg Picard crossed the line in 38:38 in 30th place. The boys have come a long way since the beginning of last season and are quickly establishing themselves as a respected, hard-to-beat team in the county this year.

Senior Greg Picard

Junior Sam Hainbach

Sam Hainbach and Liam McGowan led the way for the boys in the 3-mile race that followed the relays. Hainbach went out with the leaders and finished in the top five of the race in 21:31 with McGowan just over a minute behind in 22:52. The boys had a large group come in under 25 minutes including Leul Assamenew (23:40), Kyle Nakasaka (23:45), Lucas Beck (24:05), Chris Wilks (24:18), Colin Cowie (24:27), Thomas Mackell (24:46) and Ben Martel (24:49).

Junior Sarah Bien

Sarah Bien and Annie Sharkey led the way for the girls. Bien finshed the 3 mile course in 25:51, with Sharkey just behind in 26:25. The girls team had a nice pack as well finishing just under 28 minutes including Vaenessa Shu (27:18), Tess Joseph (27:45), Ali Friedman (27:47), and Alyssa Alfonso (27:57).






 The Woodward relays are just the start to a much-anticipated 2012 cross-country season. The Barons will compete at home with the Wootton Patriots on Tuesday September 11th at Candy Cane City. The girls will race at 3:30pm with the boys to follow around 4:15pm. We hope to see you there!