Freshman of the Year: 1. Lucy Srour - Winston Churchill
The Churchill team was not sure at first what they had in Lucy Srour, but it became clear that she was special when she finished 7th overall (1st Maryland runner) at the Oatlands Invitational in 19:15. She won races at the Bull Run Invitational and Great American Invitational before winning the individual Montgomery County title in 18:51.6. She was the first freshman to win a Montgomery County XC title in 8 years. She went on to finish second to Whitman senior Caroline Guiot at the 4A West Regional and the 4A State Championship, but last weekend she beat Guiot with a 13th place finish at the Nike Southeast Regional Meet in 18:25.4. It was the fastest 5k time by a Montgomery County runner this season and the fastest 5k time by a Montgomery County freshman since 2007. Srour is a competitive swimmer, but will run indoor track for Churchill.
Nora McUmber came to B-CC's team with some experience as a sprinter, but her endurance was quickly discovered. She starts every race slowly and cautiously, but picks off runners like nobody else in the final mile. She took over as the team's #1 runner at the Bull Run Invitational when she finished 8th in the elite race in 20:49 and clocked 20:09 at the Paul Short Invitational. After laying low for the first half of October, McUmber led B-CC to county, region, and state titles by finishing fifth in the county in 19:17.7, sixth in the region in 19:56.0, and eighth in the state in her return to Hereford in 20:18.3. At the Nike Southeast Regional Meet, she lowered her PR to 19:12.5. According to Coach Chad Young, she would like to add unicycling to her list of talents.
Taylor Kozam ran 19:59.6 in her first high school race at the Peter Geraghty Invitational and further impressed by outright winning the Mercersburg Invitational in 20:01. She clocked 19:00.5 at the Great American Invitational which was faster than Lucy Srour ran that day in a separate race and the second fastest Montgomery County freshman 5k of the year. She was fourth at the WCAC Championship and 7th at the MD-DC Private School Championship. Coach of 29 years, Tom Arnold says Kozam has the most efficient biomechanics of any freshman he has ever coached.
Although she had logged numerous races under 21:00, fans were not prepared for Kat McNeill's 10th place county championship performance in a season-best time 19:40.5. She was instrumental in B-CC's sweep of county, region, and state titles, also finishing 13th in the 4A West Region and 32nd at the state championship. According to Coach Chad Young, she is a pianist and a triathlete.
Her name does not start with "Mc" like the other B-CC freshman on this list, but Abby Fry was very much apart of the "McFreshman" squad which elevated B-CC to win county, region, and state titles. She missed a few early meets, but jumped in with the county leaders to finish 21st in the county in 20:12.6, 10th in the 4A West region in 20:18.4, and 20th in the state in 21:02.1. According to Coach Chad Young, she has a pet frog and enjoys yoga.
Lucie Noall missed summer training and the first month of practice due to injury, but had a truly impressive championship season. She was 23rd in the county with a season-best time of 20:19.6, 22nd in the 4A West Region in 21:11.0 to qualify for states individually, and 24th at states in 21:09.4, the fourth fastest Montgomery County freshman time at states this year. According to Coach Rob Burke, Lucie has been appointed team mom for 2012.
Nicole Ihrie was a key contributor to Whitman's early season victories at the Peter Geraghty Invitational and Oatlands Invitational. She had a monster performance at the Paul Short Invitational, clocking a season-best time of 19:43. She was set back by a hip injury which forced her to miss the Georgetown Prep Classic and the Montgomery County Championship, but she was able to finish up the season with her team at regionals and states.
Melanie Cirillo won the freshman race at the Maymont XC Classic and impressed locally by placing second only to Lucy Srour in the WJ, Wootton, Churchill tri-meet. She ran 20:12 at the Paul Short Invitational but was forced to miss the Georgetown Prep Classic and Montgomery County Championship with a hip injury. She qualified for the state championship individually with a 16th place finish and went on to place 59th at the state championship.
Annie McElvein had her jaw wired shut for most of September, but she was the top freshman and the second place overall finisher in the freshman/sophomore race at the Montgomery County Championship Meet with a time of 20:54. McElvein cheered from the sidelines in the post season as the first alternate for the state champion B-CC girls team. She rejoined the varsity squad to finish third on the team in 20:12 at the Nike Southeast Regional Meet.
Keegan Van Wert's season-best time came at the Montgomey County Championship where she finished 40th in 21:00.9, but perhaps she saved her best race for last. After QO barely squeeked into the state championship with a 7th place regional finish, Van Wert stepped up to second on the team to help QO finish 7th in the state. She was 43rd in 21:40.4. Her mother and uncle are cross country coaches at St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Potomac.
Photo by Eric Nealley
Super-Honorable Mention: Meghan Lockett
Meghan Lockett is a resident of Dickerson and is enrolled in the first freshman class at the George Washington University Online School. The untraditional high school path that she chose means that she will almost never race against Montgomery County runners which makes it nearly impossible to compare her to others her age. She competed against collegiate runners when she ran 18:24 at the Crimson Tide Classic in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and 19:07 at the Flrunners.com Invitational in Titusville, Florida. She clocked a time of 18:21 at the Hares and Hounds 5k XC race in Charlotte, NC. She won the small school division of the MD-DC Private Schools Championship in 19:16 and placed 21st at the Northeast Footlocker Championship Meet in New York. It was the highest finish by a Montgomery County runner at the Footlocker Northeast Regional Meet since MoCoRunning's Athlete of the Decade, Karen Pulliam, finished 17th in the year 2000.
Meghan was originally accepted to run at the Virginia private school state championship and the Footlocker South Regional Championship because her school is technically based out of Loudon County, Virginia. Both races later denied her entry into their races and she landed at the MD-DC Private Schools State Championship and the Footlocker Northeast Championship. By choosing an untraditional academic and athletic path, the Lockett family knew that it would face some challenges such as these, and also insisted that Meghan not take the spot of another girl on MoCoRunning's All-Freshman team.
