Girls Cross Country 3-Peat NEPSTA Champions!

This past weekend, the girls cross country team won the NEPSTA Championship for the third year in a row! Coach Miguel Pizarro tells the tale of their victory:

Earlier this year, when it became apparent that none of the Division II NEPSTA schools would be able to host the championship meet, Division IV Hebron Academy, in Hebron, Maine, volunteered to host. Traveling overnight to a meet for the first time in anyone's memory, the Hopkins Cross Country teams posted impressive results.

Walking through the course the morning of the race, the runners and coaches soon realized that it would be a hard day, with very slow times.  While parts of the course were fairly flat, a huge part of the course, particularly at the end, was very hilly, with one particularly impressive climb (known locally as "the Wall.") A series of rhythm-breaking and leg-liquefying climbs and descents dotted the last mile, even as late as the finishing straight, which featured a brief climb so steep that many runners wound up needing to put a hand down on the ground ahead for balance.  Many runners reported never having felt so drained after a race, and most agreed it was the hilliest course they'd ever encountered.

The boys went first. After biding his time for a while mid-pack, senior captain Calvin Park made a strong move in the second mile to go into second place, which he was able to maintain until about 800m to go, when the hills took their toll. Fighting bravely, he was able to keep a position in the top 10. Senior captain Daniel McCabe followed closely in 16th place (in a field of 125 runners).  With their top-20 finishes, Calvin and Dan secured all-NEPSTA status, as well as a berth in next weeks NEPSTA all-star race, with runners from all four divisions.  The rest of the Hopkins varsity, James Regan-Mochrie, Johanan Knight, Grant Young, Jarett Poliner, and Micah Margolis, all ran heroically, securing a 6th place finish for the team, out of a field of 18 teams.  Not only was the field large, it was also noticeably deeper than last year's - there were very many excellent teams. This year's team, although missing the superstar factor of Matt Klein '12, was in many ways a stronger and deeper team than last year's, which finished second in the 2011 NEPSTA championship race.  Everyone ran as hard as he could and left everything on the race course, and the coaches could not be prouder of this hard-working and dedicated group of runners.

The girls' team, coming in as two-time defending champions, might have been favored by some other teams to win easily for the third time. However, graduation had taken a deep toll on 2011's "Magnificent Seven," which was the best girls' team in recent memory.  Added to that were lingering injuries to some of the remaining varsity runners, which meant that some of the girls were lining up knowing they were not as fit as they ordinarily would have hoped to be.  In the most dramatic example, sophomore star Hannah Springhorn was lining up for only her third race of the season, and first since early October, having done very little running in the weeks leading up to the race. With the benefit of some scouting reports on how to run the course provided by the boys' team, the girls lined up as hopeful, though not necessarily particularly confident, youths.  

The results were notable.  Closely following the race winner from Berkshire were Isabel Balcezak, Hannah Springhorn (able to run brilliantly on the hilly course despite such limited training), and senior captain Lucy Balcezak, sweeping the second, third, and fourth spots. Also in the top 20 was freshman Shira Bedford, in 17th place (in field of about 100). Having four runners in such low-scoring postition (low score is good in cross country) was an excellent sign, but it takes the first five runners to determine a team's score, and until the fifth runner came in, it could be anyone's race.  Suffield Academy was clearly a particularly strong team, putting two runners in the top 10, and a few in the 20s.  Senior Emma Speer, starting conservatively and picking her way forward through the field, finished in 44th place, which meant that Hopkins was assured of a fairly low team score of 70. Also running well were senior captain Kirsten Jorgensen and freshman Zoe Brodkin. Cross country, however, is a very hard sport to score on the fly, particularly as the field gets bigger, and since we didn't know the exact places of the Suffield runners (or even, at that point, of all of our own), the team and coaches were on pins and needles until the awards ceremony, which announced the team prizes in reverse order. When the second place plaque was awarded to Suffield Academy, with 91 points, the girls knew they had accomplished their biggest goal from the entire season.

For a two-time defending champion to defend its titles might not appear all that surprising, but this one took more grit and determination than the first two.  The previous year's (2011) team was so strong and deep that it wasn't necessarily crucial for every runner to run an almost perfect race to assure victory. Someone could have an off day, and things would still go well. This year, however, everyone lining up had to run close to perfectly. And essentially, everyone did.  Throughout the season, short-term success was often sacrificed for bigger goals.  Runners who might have been able to run in league meets were benched in order to have them healthy and ready for the NEPSTA meet in November, even if it meant knowing that the outcome of the league meet was in jeopardy.  Runners often completed workouts on the bike, instead of risking an ache turning into an injury, even if this meant not getting the best workout possible.  One coach sometimes felt that the team was being held together with scotch tape and hope, but the hope was rewarded in the best possible way, with back-to-back-to-back championships at NEPSTA, something that to our knowledge had never been accomplished by the girls' team before.  The girls should be particularly proud of their heart and resolve, as their coaches are.

Earning all-NEPSTA status for the girls were: Isabel Balcezak, Hannah Springhorn, Lucy Balcezak, and Shira Bedford, all of whom earn berths in next week's (11/17) all-star race at the St. Mark's school in Southborough, MA.