Jason Konrad, cross country coach at Camden County High School, had a pretty good idea who would be the No. 1 runner on his girls’ team even before the 2021 season began.
As an 8th-grader, Marin Bograd had competed on Camden’s junior varsity squad and consistently posted 5K times in the mid-21 minute range. She would have been the fastest varsity runner had she been eligible for that level of competition.
As a freshman in fall of 2021, Marin definitely made an impact for the Wildcats. She won three races, including the Tift County Invitational, where she broke the previous Camden girls record with a 20:15 finish. She also recorded the school’s highest-ever individual finish at the GHSA State Meet, placing 39th out of 210 runners in Class 7A.
“She’s got a strong work ethic,” Konrad says. “She came into the season in really good shape already, and that helps, because you can only get so far if come in out of shape. If you [start the season] in shape, you can be so much better.”
Marin has a twin brother, Asher, who was the top JV boys runner as an 8th-grader and ran in the No. 4 spot with Konrad’s varsity team this year. The siblings began running at an early age, and Marin discovered a competitive streak right away.
“My first memory of running was when I was about 3, racing in a fun-run turkey trot with my family,” she says. “I took it very seriously, because in my mind I had to beat my brother. We both enjoy running, and I like watching him succeed. However, because we are twins and both have an extremely competitive nature, we don’t usually run together [anymore].”
Marin says she began running regularly after her family moved to Guam in 2015. “We frequently participated in local 5ks that the military base hosted,” she recalls. She continued the pursuit when her family relocated to Camden County, where her father is a physician.
Konrad certainly is grateful the Bograds landed at the Kingsland school. He attributes Marin’s success to a combination of natural ability, hard work and a consistent training regimen.
“I always say, ‘If you’re 6-foot-4, you have a better chance of being the starting quarterback than you would if you were 5-7,’” Konrad says. “So there are certain intangibles that help. But she runs year-round, and that’s something I’m always trying to get my runners to do. And it’s not just running – they have to train and run hard [in the process]. She’s a really talented runner, but she’s also willing to put in the effort.”
Tift County hosted Class 7A’s Region 1 championship meet in 2021. For Marin it was a return to the scene of her record-setting time earlier in the season. She again dominated, winning the meet by some 45 seconds with a time of 20:26. Konrad thinks she could have been faster, but he had instructed her to strategically pace herself and ensure she didn’t burn out and lose the race.
In addition to her wins, Marin also recorded a runner-up finish and two thirds among her nine races. With her and No. 2 Alexia Vinuela leading the way, the Wildcat girls, Konrad says, “were much improved over last year – in fact, probably over the last 10 years, as far as our overall standing in the state meet.”
As a team, Camden finished second in the region meet to Lowndes County, but turned around and edged the Vikings by one spot at the state championships, where they were 24th out of 31.
Vinuela, a senior, finished 89th at the state meet, giving Camden two top-100 finishers for the first time since 2008.
“You kind of see where you’re going to be in track and cross country,” Konrad says. “If you’ve been running 20 minutes in a 5K, you’re not going to go run 17 minutes. Twenty-fifth was the best I thought we could finish, and we finished 24th and beat Lowndes, so I was pretty excited.”
For all the success Konrad’s freshman phenom enjoyed, she calls the 2021 season more of a learning experience than anything.
“Coming in as a freshman, I really had no expectations,” says Marin, who also plans to compete in track and triathlon. “I had a lot to learn about the sport and I give credit to my teammates and coach for helping me get comfortable. Helping contribute to the team’s success is just an added bonus to getting better in the sport of cross country.”
Written by: Allen Allnoch
Read more from this issue:
