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!