Courtesy of Brian Beard

Seamus McDonough ’27 is off to a great start in his junior year for the men’s cross country team. He finished second in the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin (CBB) Tri-Meet and took home the title in the Maine State Championships this past weekend.

Being a collegiate runner wasn’t on McDonough’s radar until late in his high school career. From Homer, Alaska, McDonough grew up a competitive skier.

“I first started running when my parents forced me to do the local 5ks. I didn’t really take off at all until junior year,” McDonough said. “I did cross country to stay in shape for skiing, and then I got much better at running than I was at skiing.”

As he started the recruitment process, Bowdoin checked all of McDonough’s boxes for what he wanted out of his college experience.

“People make fun of me for saying this, but I just really like Bowdoin because of the food and the housing,” McDonough said. “And coming from Alaska, I didn’t want a college or a state that would be really, really hot when I was running.”

Even though cross country is an individual sport by nature, McDonough emphasized how his teammates have positively impacted his college experience.

“I love the team the most. It’s really cool just to have a bunch of people around you that also like to put themselves in pain for multiple hours a day and have fun while doing it,” he said.

Going into Saturday’s race, McDonough knew that the training he and the team had put in throughout the season thus far put them in a good position to place well.

“I really wanted to win…. I was close in the past, and I knew that it was probably a good goal to have,” McDonough said. “We have a really young team this year, a lot of [first years]. It was the first full 8k race of the season, so it was just about learning the distance and competing well.”

After the starting gun went off, McDonough settled in with the pack, maintaining a steady pace, especially in the first half of the race.

“I think a lot of people will get ahead of themselves and focus on racing from the start. But my goal going into it was to race the least amount of the race possible,” McDonough said. “I went into it, tried to hang back and just absolutely turn my brain off for a majority of the race and maybe turn it on right at the end, [while] hopefully still being in a position to strike. And I did exactly that.”

Courtesy of Brian Beard

McDonough stayed patient in his approach for the first three miles of the 8k race before kicking it into gear with around two miles left.

“I had been hanging back for a while, and I finally joined up with the lead group, and they were all breathing really heavily. At that point, I kind of knew that I had won the race. And then I [turned] my brain back on and I just started putting distance on everybody else,” McDonough said.

Wrapping around Farley Field House with stretches in the woods, the four-loop course is very flat in comparison to many other NESCAC courses. McDonough acknowledged how fun it was to have this meet on his home course and having one of his track teammates as the lead biker for the race.

“I remember in the final lap, Will Davis [’29] turned around and said, ‘Let’s go, Seamus!’ That gave me some motivation,” McDonough said.

All signs are pointing up in terms of the results McDonough can accomplish this fall season. He hopes to make the NCAA championship tournament for the first time in his college career, but acknowledges how day-to-day his sport can be.

“Making nationals has always been a goal of mine. It’s fallen through my fingers the last couple years due to injury and sickness,” McDonough said. “I can’t really even predict next week, let alone NESCACs.”