Boys run to 5th place at county meet, Peter Horton 4th overall

By Chad Young

After a surprising fourth place finish in last year’s county championships, the B-CC boys team made it hard to enter this year’s meet unnoticed.  After Mocorunning fans predicted them to finish second behind Walter Johnson in preseason polls, the boys have struggled with injuries and have found it difficult to live up to even their own expectations.

Excited to hear the news that senior Nick McGreivy would be healthy and ready to make a comeback from an IT band injury in time for the county meet, the team also learned some bad news:  sophomore Sam Baker would be out due to his third stress fracture of the season, this time in his heel.  However, even with bad news, the boys team remained positive and excited for the opportunity they would have to compete at this year’s county meet.

In a pre-county meet pep talk, McGreivy reminded the team that the dream of winning a state title wouldn’t be decided by a stress fracture or any other injury.  He reminded the guys that they still had an opportunity to decide the outcome of each race. Unfortunately, the team didn’t quite meet the expectations of the fans that voted in the preseason, but some impressive individual performances helped to create some excitement in anticipation of a strong finish to the season.

Varsity Team Striders

As B-CC’s top finisher in each race this season, Peter Horton has competed with the county’s best, and he used his racing experience to pace himself on the first mile of the County Championships on Saturday.  A pack of four of the county favorites surged to the lead early on in the race while Horton remained calm and paced himself in a secondary chase pack. 

After the first of three loops, teammate Alex Riishojgaard made his way up to Horton and the two pushed each other in an effort to catch Wootton’s Josh Trzeciak from the front pack.  Horton continued to surge as he closed the gap to the third runner, Nick Simpson, from Einstein, but was unable to push past him on the final straightaway.

Horton ended up finishing in fourth place in a time of 16:05, which was good for his second fastest time of the season.  Riishojgaard finished just behind him in 9^th place in a time of 16:20, also his second fastest time of the season.

Nolan Ebner

Junior Nolan Ebner was the third B-CC finisher under 17 minutes, finishing in 22^nd place overall in 16:56, his second fastest time of the season as well.  Ebner has shown great improvement this season as he was 42^nd overall at this meet last year in 17:20. 

Rounding out the top seven were Nick McGreivy (17:42) in 58^th place, Matthew Boden (18:06) in 77^th place, Greg Picard (18:18) in 91^st place and Sam Hainbach (20:25) in 156^th place. 

The boys team placed a respectable fifth place overall behind WJ, Wootton, Einstein and Sherwood.

In the JV races, many B-CC boys took advantage of the fast course at Gaithersburg’s Bohrer Park and came out with their fastest times of the year, including Yuri Ivanenko in 20:01, Solomon Goldfarb in 20:21, Jack Ward in 21:52, Philippe Masson in 21:56, and Harrison Fang in 22:53.  Lucas Beck also made his season debut in 21:18.

Lucas Beck, Leul Assamenew, Thomas Horton, Conrad Jones, Kevin Flores, (Alex Riishojgaard in back)

Junior Leul Assamenew also ran a personal best time as he led the way for B-CC in the upperclassmen JV race in a time of 18:33, good for an impressive 16^th place overall. Kyle Nakasaka was the first B-CC finisher in the underclassmen JV race and finished in a personal best time of 19:21, good for 57^th place overall.

The boys team will look to continue its improvement and run at a high level at Clarksburg’s High Point Farm on Thursday November 1^st.  Races begin at 3:00pm.  The boys will need to finish in the top seven places to qualify for the state meet.