Gig Harbor passes its final test at NXN

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

 
The first time Wolfgang Beck heard from Mahmoud Moussa was last April.

 
There was a message in Beck's Facebook page inbox from Moussa, and it read something like this:

 
"Hi Wolfgang. I see that you are the No. 1 guy on the Gig Harbor cross country team. Can you tell me a little about the training and mileage you do there?"

Beck quickly Googled the name and matched Moussa with Arcadia. He furrowed his brow. How should I respond to this? Is this guy trying to gather intel on our team?

So Beck wrote back what he called "an essay" filled with fabrication. We run 200 miles a week, Beck wrote, and swim an additional 50 miles. Sometimes we go on 100-mile bike rides.

"I totally fed him a bunch of BS," Beck said. "And I never heard back from him. Then, after our state meet (in May), our coach came up to us and said 'Guys, there's this kid named Mahmoud Moussa and he's serious about coming to Gig Harbor.' Then I was like, 'Whoa!'"

The Moussa family moved to the Puget Sound area during the summer and thus one of the most impactful transfers in NXN history shifted the balance of power between two of the West Coast's premier cross country programs.

On Saturday, Moussa became the first boy in the history of the meet to hoist the championship trophy two years in a row.

Gig Harbor became the second team from Washington to win the title, joining the 2008 team from North Central of Spokane.

There were no hard feelings about Beck's disinformation.

"(Moussa) fit into the team right away," Beck said. "He's been a great friend and a big part of this team's success."

On Saturday, however, it was the heroics from No. 5 Michael Hammer that saved the day for Gig Harbor and its elite-athlete coach, Mark Wieczorek.

Hammer ran onto the big pileup that occured before the first pass of roller-coaster hills and went to the ground. That bunch-up affected as many as 50-60 athletes but about a dozen were knocked off their feet.

Wieczorek saw the crash and estimated that Hammer lost 10 seconds.

It may not have been quite that much, but Hammer remained composed and quickly got re-engaged in the race.

"This win today, it most falls on Michael," Beck said. "It's his (race) that won it for us."
It felt good to everyone affiliated with Gig Harbor that Hammer got some credit for the championship. Because even with the transfer of Moussa, when the season began it looked for all the world like Gig Harbor was going to be great -- through four.

At the Sundodger Invitational in Seattle in September, the four front-runners -- Beck, Logan Carroll, Tristan Peloquin, Moussa -- ran a tempo and came across the line all together in the 15:09-10 range on a course measuring about three miles.

"The first time we went around this loop people were yelling at us, 'Go Gig!'' Beck said. "The next time we went around the same people were shouting 'Where's your fifth?'"

To Hammer's credit, he refused to let himself be the reason that Gig Harbor didn't win big cross country meets. He pushed himself to stay wtih the front four in workouts.

At the Washington state meet, Hammer was 29th.

"Michael came up really strong at state," Beck said. "He squelched all doubts."

Wieczorek, America's fastest high school cross country coach, said he covered "about four miles" cheering for his team during the championship race.

He wasn't so sure his guys had pulled it out.

"We might have gotten second," Wieczorek said as he pulled his team close.

Beck had a different view of it. After placing sixth overall, Beck had turned to watch the stream of athletes coming up behind him. He saw Carroll and Peloquin and Moussa ... and Hammer.

And he felt like his guys had pulled it off.

He was right.

Gig Harbor finished with 111 points. CBA of New Jersey ws second with 139 and Brentwood (Tennessee) was third with 174.

"This is more of a test than a competition," Beck said. "All of the important work is done five, six months ago. We were better today than we were at the state meet."

A team that planned for this all along, and suffered a potential mishap with Hammer's fall, still got it right.

"I love coaching these guys so much," Wieczorek said.