Coyote Invite wins begin season's homestretch

By Barry Levine

With a 2 week training break before the Montgomery County Championships, it’s a good time to reflect on the season to date.

With their win at the 11-team Coyote Invitational, the boys’ team showed just a glimpse of its post-season potential.  Junior Peter Horton continues to run with the top 5-8 runners in Montgomery County, and Alex Riishojgaard has cut the gap to Peter to less than 20 seconds in the last two meets.  In almost every meet this year, classmate Nolan Ebner has been about the same distance behind Alex.  This strong junior trio gives B/CC a strong foundation for scoring in larger meets. 

Supporting the trio to date has been the partnership of Boden & Picard.  That would be junior Matthew Boden and senior Greg Picard.  They have been separated by less than 16 seconds in every race so far, and you can’t be sure who is going to come across first.  At the Coyote Invitational, it was either Boden’s sprint past a Quince Orchard runner in the homestretch by 2 seconds that give B/CC the winning point in the meet (74-75), or it was Picard’s sprint ahead of a different QO runner by 5 seconds that determined the outcome.

That was typical of the boys’ season to date, with multiple 1-point losses and wins.  One thing that would make a difference would be good health.  The season started out very promisingly for senior Nick McGreivy, who ran between Horton and Riishojgaard in the opening meet against Wootton at Candy Cane.  Similarly, it was great to see sophomore Sam Baker back running at the Coyote.  Their contributions would help create an incredibly strong core team for the post season.

Standing right behind this group includes varsity stalwart Sam Hainbach and fellow juniors Leul Assamenew, and Conrad Jones; sophomores Kyle Nakasaka and Liam McGowan; and freshman Chris Wilks and Colin Cowie. 

The girls’ team enters the postseason with high expectations.  Undefeated against Montgomery County competition, the girls have proven themselves against great out-of-state competition too, finishing second of 43 teams at Paul Short and second of 38 teams at Oatlands.  Senior Laura Nakasaka sets the consistent tone for sophomores Caroline Beakes, Abby Fry, Kat McNeill, and Nora McUmber,.  But more than consistent, each of the top five has been spectacular at times:  Nakasaka’s top 25 medal at Oatlands, McUmber and Beakes both finishing within 21 seconds of Montgomery County’s top two returning runners Abbey Daley and Lucy Srour at Coyote, Fry’s second place finish to open the season at Candy Cane against Wootton, and McNeill’s continued return to health with a top 10 finish at Coyote. 

The girls’ team has depth too.  Senior Emily Hardgrove and juniors Amanda Cohen, Angie Peterson, and Vanessa Shu guide yet another group of (not-Mc) freshman including Marie Caspard, Abigail Levine, Lauren Kronheim, Lily O’Dowd, and Annie Sharkey. 

Both teams have excellent post-season potential.  Their training between now and October 20th will go a long way to determinng the outcome.  Good luck!