After last Saturday’s Oatlands Invitational Meet in Leesburg, Virginia, in which only a select group of runners participated, all of the Richard Montgomery cross country runners had a chance to test themselves at Bethesda-Chevy Chase HS this Tuesday. This meet was a tri-meet, meaning RM, BCC, and Walter Johnson ran on BCC’s 5,000 meter course at its neighboring Candy Cane City park.

The entire course was relatively flat and featured a significant amount of tree cover, allowing runners to enter the race with a good possibility of beating their personal best times. The course tracks predominantly through the woods neighboring the park, in which competitors run for about 1.5 miles before returning back the same way. The final part of the course is a lap around an open field, where runners are surrounded by supporters as they sprint to the finish.

The boy’s varsity team was without leader Rohann Asfaw for the first time this season. He had a minor toe injury, but Coach Rogers prevented him from running in an effort to ensure that the star athlete will be in peak physical and mental shape for championship season right around the corner. For Rogers, running Asfaw in a divisional race with the risk of injury was highly unappealing. The RM varsity boys were therefore led by freshman Garrett Suhr (4), senior Philip Miljanic (7), and freshman Nicholas Olano (12), all of whom ran their own personal records. This was enough to earn the Richard Montgomery boys second place of the three teams, losing to the home B-CC Barons, but handily beating Walter Johnson. Considering this race’s status as a divisional meet, it was largely a successful endeavor for the boy’s cross country team.

Although our girls came in last of the three teams participating, they still performed well coming off their stellar performances at Oatlands last weekend, where they had taken second overall. Junior Nefret El-Masry (3), freshman Michelle Campano (11), junior Jasmine De La Vega (12), and senior Madeleine Cheng (15) led the girls team. Just as the boys’ leaders had done, all of the girls’ leaders beat their season best time, with El-Masry, Campano, and Cheng all breaking their own personal records.

The girls were all helped by the strong performance of Cheng, who is one of the moral leaders of the team. When quantifying the value of her leadership, Coach Rogers pointed out that “when she runs well, all of the girls run well.” This impact she has on the team has not gone unnoticed, as she was praised with the first Rocket Award of the season after this meet. After her race, Cheng said that although she “was kind of tired the day of the race… [she] was also excited to run and see if [she] could drop some time, especially since [she had] been running a lot better compared to last year.” This optimism, when paired with her great levels of mental readiness before a race, is how Cheng was able to lead her teammates through example. She explained that before any race, she “listens to music… and kind of just sits there to get ready mentally.”

Looking forward to next week’s meet, Cheng said that she’ll have be as focused as possible in order to prepare for the incredibly difficult course that Wootton hosts. This course features the same monster hill run three separate times, no easy feat. With a break this weekend, the Richard Montgomery cross country team is counting down the days until they can show their mettle once again.