The Starting Five

James Finucane, a former Herald-Mail All-Area Cross Country and Track & Field Athlete of the Year, hasn’t slowed his pace in college.

Click here to check out the recent story on the 2008 Mercersburg Academy graduate.

Williamsport topped the field of 18 teams over the weekend at North Hagerstown’s 24th annual Hub Cup — Washington County’s largest and most prestigious wrestling tournament. It was only the fifth time a Washington County team won the title. Williamsport also won in 2002.

140-pound champion Trey Andree, of runner-up Waynesboro, was voted the Outstanding Wrestler. He edged Williamsport’s Kemper Baker 5-4 in the final, preventing Baker from winning a third straight Hub Cup title.

Here’s a list of all the team champions and Outstanding Wrestlers in Hub Cup history:

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Randy Buchman is a pastor at Tri-State Fellowship, a cross country coach at Williamsport High School and, apparently, also an often-frustrated fan during baseball season.

When new Orioles manager Buck Showalter sent “closer” Alfredo Simon to the mound to start the ninth inning Monday night against the White Sox, with Baltimore clinging to a 2-1 lead, Buchman was far from pleased, especially since reliever Koji Uehara had just blanked the Sox the previous two innings on merely 16 pitches. Why not keep him in the game?

Simon promptly blew the save, and Buchman was hardly surprised. … While Baltimore’s Brian Roberts ultimately saved the day with a walkoff homer in the 10th inning, his big swing wasn’t about to change Buchman’s opinion on the “closer role” in baseball.

Buchman, also a former sportswriter, has since sent me the following piece he wrote in 2005. Here it is:

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“There is no glory unless you put yourself on the line.”

That’s what my fortune cookie told me at the Hibachi Japan Steak House in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, on Thursday night.

Finally, 31 hours before the start of the Burning River 100-mile trail race, I had my answer.

“You’re going to try to run 100 miles? Why?”

I guess I thought it could be glorious.

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Below are the Tri-State area leaders heading into this week’s big track and field meets — regionals in Maryland, districts in Pennsylvania and the state championships in West Virginia.

A few all-time Tri-State girls records have already been set this spring — Chambersburg’s Jessica Whitmore in the 100-meter dash (12.08 seconds), Greencastle-Antrim’s Katrina Wright in the discus (139 feet, 11 inches) and North Hagertown in the 4×200 relay (1:43.40), while Jefferson’s Kaitlyn Clark equaled the mark in the pole vault (10-6).

(Click here for the complete list of boys and girls Tri-State and Washington County records.)

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The Cumberland Valley Athletic Club’s two team vans are pulling out of Hagerstown at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning.
Destination: Boston.
The event: Monday’s 114th running of the Boston Marathon, the Super Bowl of road racing.
Goal: Put Hagerstown on the map with a top-10 team finish in the men’s open division. (The top three on each team count for scoring.)
Last year, Mark Cucuzzella (2:37), Bret Mower (2:44) and I (2:47) scored an 11th-place team finish for CVAC.
While Mower is out with a foot injury, Cucuzzella and I are returning with even more teammates. They include Jaime Dick, Greg Sellers, Billy Walls, Tim Fisler and Tim Schuler.
Other Washington County competitors include Brandon Brown, Mike Connor, Linda Cronise, Timothy Harrast, Kay Harrison and Hector Martinez.
Overall, there will be roughly 25,000 runners.
And I predict that the men’s race will be won by an American (Californian Ryan Hall) for the first time since 1983.
The elite women start at 9:32 Monday morning, the first half of the main field, including the elite men, start at 10, and everyone else starts at 10:30.
All runners can be tracked during the race with live splits on the race Web site.
Team results can be found here.

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year.

Click here for the story by Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports.

Smithsburg senior Monica Hovermale, already in a class by herself among female wrestlers in Washington County history, joined the short list of four-time county champs Saturday at the 20th annual county tourney.

Here’s the list of four-time county champs with the year each achieved the feat:

Monica Hovermale (Smithsburg) 2010
James Reilley (Smithsburg)  2008
Bret Nalley (Boonsboro) 2006
Mike McGill (Williamsport) 2005
Wayne Boward (North Hagerstown, Williamsport) 2001
Ryan McDonald (Williamsport) 2001
Jared Myers (Williamsport) 1999
Kris Dietrich (Smithsburg) 1996
John Nogle (Smithsburg) 1995

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There are two new upcoming events in the area for runners (and walkers). And both seem like they should be instant successes.

This Race is for the Birds (actually four different trail races, ranging in distances from 1 to 7.7 miles) will be held April 24 in Shepherdstown. Click here for more info.

The Nick Adenhart 5K will be held on June 12 at Marty Snook Park in Hagerstown. Click here for the flyer.