Nansemond-Suffolk Academy produced two all-conference cross country runners at the recent TCIS championships, while Suffolk’s Betsy Pollard of Isle of Wight Academy received the same honor at the recent Metro Conference championships.

Sophomore Chandler Bergeron won the girls’ 5,000-meter run with a time of 19:03.93 to claim a Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools championship in her first year with the sport.

“She did a great job, as usual,” NSA girls’ cross country coach Karen Norman said.

Given Bergeron’s performances all season, the expectations were high entering the conference event.

“We were hoping she would win,” Norman said. “She hasn’t been beaten in TCIS yet.”

“It felt good,” Bergeron said.

By placing among the top finishers in the field of 64 runners, she made the All-TCIS team, as did sophomore Gustav Berner for Nansemond-Suffolk’s boys’ team.

Berner finished seventh out of 66 runners with a time of 17:28.16 in the boys’ 5,000-meter run.

This is the second straight year Berner has made the all-conference team.

“It’s a pretty nice feeling,” he said.

“I felt sure he would make it,” NSA boys’ cross country coach Terry Crigger said. “I mean, he made it last year, and his times are better this year.”

Crigger noted Berner has a clear goal in mind during his high school running career.

“He’s a sophomore, and his goal is to break the school record which is 16:30-something, I think,” he said. “He’s motivated, he works hard every day.”

Representing Isle of Wight Academy, eighth-grader Betsy Pollard finished second in a field of 19 female runners at the recent Metro Conference championships with a time of 21:32.00.

“I felt pretty good,” she said. “I used a cadence running which is like using quicker feet the first two miles of the race,” facilitating a good start.

This helped her keep up with the leader.

“I felt really good at the end,” Pollard said. “It wasn’t my fastest time, but it was a good race.”

She was pleased to have made the All-Metro Conference team by finishing among the top 10 runners.

“I feel pretty good about it because this is my first year running cross country,” she said. “Usually I just do the track stuff, and I like cross country kind of better because you’re not just running in circles the whole time.”

Unfortunately, Pollard is currently on crutches, sidelined from running due, possibly, to a stress fracture or tendonitis in her foot. She is waiting to learn the details from a doctor.