Boise ‘Enjoying The Ride’ Entering NXR Northwest

By Marlowe Hereford for DyeStat

Same but different is an applicable phrase for the Boise High girls cross country team this season.

The Brave are in the same position they were a year ago: Idaho 5A state champions and one of numerous nationally ranked teams registered for the NXR Northwest Regional Championships at Eagle Island State Park.

Boise is taking a different approach to Saturday’s meet located 12 miles away from their high school, however, by not thinking too far ahead.

“We thrive on making this a day-by-day-sport,” Boise head coach Aaron Olswanger said. “Last year, I think we had it in the back of our heads that we could qualify (for NXN). I think it stressed some of us out a lot. Entering this year, we’re loose and having fun and kind of enjoying the ride right now, especially coming off the state meet. We’re focusing on ourselves and our race. I think we’re really figuring out more about ourselves every time we race.”

Boise placed third at NXR Northwest last year behind Summit OR and Jesuit OR and reached NXN by later receiving an at-large bid. As loaded as last year’s NXR Northwest was with six nationally ranked girls teams including eventual NXN champion Summit, Saturday’s meet is on track to surpass last year. Boise, Summit, Bozeman MT, Jesuit, Lincoln OR and Timberline ID were all ranked in DyeStat’s Nov. 7 girls team national rankings, and North Central WA is also a team to be wary of since Allie Janke returned Nov. 2 and led the Indians to a sweep of the top three spots Nov. 9 at the Class 3A state final.

“I just hope the committee takes two at-large bids this year (from the Northwest),” Olswanger said. “I think we’re under the radar in the region and in the country. We thought the region was loaded last year. It’s even more loaded this year.”

Boise’s schedule allowed the Brave to face other nationally ranked Northwest teams earlier this season. Boise competed against North Central (sans Janke), Bozeman and Lincoln at the annual Bob Firman Invitational Sept. 21 at Eagle Island, placing third in the girls elite team standings, before traveling to Oregon a week later for Nike Portland XC, placing second behind Summit in the Jim Danner Championship girls race to lead a contingent of Idaho teams to top-five finishes. Fellow Idaho District 3 teams Mountain View, Timberline and Eagle placed third, fourth and fifth, respectively.

“Having a team like Summit in a race really brings out the best in everybody,” Olswanger said. “In my eyes, they’re the hands-down favorite again at NXN. They’re so deep. It will be super fun to see them again. We like the challenge.”

Boise’s 10th-place finish last year was the best by any Idaho girls team ever at NXN. It also made Boise one of two Idaho programs to make two NXN appearances, joining Couer d’Alene which went in 2012 upon winning NXR Northwest and again in 2014.

Idaho’s rise to the national scene, particularly with multiple teams being nationally ranked, has prompted curiosity about where Boise fits among the all-time best from the Gem State. Sugar-Salem head coach Brett Hill, who graduated from Malad High in southeast Idaho and has won a combined 45 state titles between cross country and track in his coaching career in Idaho, said he would put Boise above Coeur d’Alene.

“I would think they might be the best team we’ve had out of Idaho,” Hill said. “That Coeur d’Alene group was an outstanding group. I don’t think they performed at nationals the way they were capable of performing. Part of it was the weather was really nasty. However, I think Boise has been better at performing at bigger meets.”

Olswanger, who ran at Idaho State, has been in Idaho long enough to recognize the historic significance of what Boise has accomplished. He added that it is not something the team is dwelling on right now, but that opportunity will come later.

“We have not talked about it at all,” Olswanger said. “Our girls have no idea. We try to hide them from all that. We focus on one race at a time, getting better every day. It’s something we can probably reflect on after the season is over.”

Intertwined with not looking too far ahead is appreciating what Boise has right now, and Olswanger said Boise has ‘girls who love being around each other.’ Boise is youth-laden this season with one senior, Molly Elliott, in the top seven and numerous underclassmen in Rosina Machu (junior), Mikella Tobin (sophomore), Jamie Hamlin (sophomore), Annika Zuschlag (sophomore), Lydia Nance (freshman) and Andrea Cernuda, a junior who will run Saturday after missing the district and state meets.

“Our five, six, seven have been closing the gap,” Olswanger said. “Hopefully we can keep putting pieces together and improving. If someone is having an off day, we have three or four other girls to pick them up.”

He credited last year’s seniors, Maggie Liebich and Eve Jensen, who are now at Princeton and San Francisco, respectively, for being role models to their younger teammates, adding that his runners have made it a priority to attend summer running camps and enroll in Boise High’s advanced fitness course.

“I think we’re just trying to maintain our momentum from last year,” Elliott wrote in an email to DyeStat earlier this fall. “Losing those two girls was pretty hard because they were some of our favorites, but we’ve gained Lydia and Andrea and it’s been great to have them on our team.”

Hamlin, for example, went from being an alternate for last year’s state meet to attending three camps this summer and placing ninth at the 5A state meet Nov. 2 in Pocatello.

“They have totally bought into the culture we’ve created,” Olswanger said. “They’ve made it special in their own way. This year and last year’s group, they’re the most fun and goofy group, but when it comes to workouts and races, you won’t find a more serious group of kids. The girls know what to do in the offseason. They love the sport and are students of the sport. We really want to focus on that stuff.”

As for Olswanger personally, he is not taking anything for granted. Upon taking Boise’s head coaching job four years ago, he recognized the potential of the program and the direction it could take. Boise’s progression simply happened a bit faster than anticipated, he said.

“I’m just constantly amazed at the things that are happening with the buy-in with our program,” he said. “We’re planning on not letting this slip. Once you’ve been there once, you know you can get there again. We’re trying to set the bar high for Idaho.”

And if another trip to NXN comes down to at-large bids, Olswanger anticipates Boise being able to handle that again, if need be. While the wait for the official word over Thanksgiving break last year was ‘brutal,’ Olswanger said the Brave recognized that not every team had the opportunity to be in their position.

“Having that experience last year, if that came up again, I don’t think it would be as bad,” Olswanger said.