Senior Nick Fransham brought home the MPSSAA 3A State Championship on Saturday, November 8. Fransham finished with a blazing fast 15:41.3 beating out second place runner, David Eisenhauer from Wilde Lake by a mere second. Fransham had a breakout year, winning first place in every race he ran except for the Barnhart Invitational where he finished fourth, but still shattered his personal record for a 5,000 meter.
Fransham broke his personal record for a 3-mile race on the year at the UCBAC conference championship, his finishing time of 15:24.8 is faster than any other time he ran in his high school career.
“I’ve improved quite a bit, turned out better than I thought I would,” said Fransham, “I dropped out of states my junior year due to a stress fracture, so I was very excited to run this year.”
Fransham outlasted his competitor in the home stretch.
“Last 50 meters I knew I had him, I heard the crowd yelling and I turned around and he wasn’t right on my side,” said Fransham. “I really couldn’t take it all in, it took me a while to realize what had happened.”
North Harford as a team finished 18 out of 23 schools at states for boys and 15 out of 22 for girls. Casey Welsh, junior, finished 55 with the best girls’ time at our school.
Fransham does plan on running in college. “I’m looking at Willmington, Mount St Mary’s and a few schools in Texas,” Fransham explained.
Students can look forward to watching Fransham again in the spring track season. Eisenhauer, the runner up, beat out Fransham in a track race last year so it could be the start to an interesting rivalry.
“The two mile is my best event, I’m a distance runner and I usually get better as the distance increases,” said Fransham.