The Providence senior appears to be fully recovered from her summer injury, and well on the way to achieving her high goals for the season.
Coming into the 2013 cross country season, we knew one thing about Providence: they were going to have tremendous strength up front. That was threatened, though, when Bianca Bishop went down with a knee injury, losing almost two months of running over the second half of the summer. Though she was able to race relatively early in the season, you could see the effect that the lost time was having...until this past Saturday rolled around, and she dropped a 17:50 at McAlpine. This was the potential that she saw after running 18:06 last fall, and then clocking 5:13 and 11:03 in the spring season. Based on the interview, I can say that she is still not satisfied with that time, either. The one silver lining from her injury is that she has less miles on her legs this season, and might still be in the middle of the steep improvement that most runners have earlier in the year. That might contribute to a good performance at a postseason meet, as well. For now, though, I am sure she is focused on making sure she has a chance to win an individual state title, and on trying to lead her teammates in the quest for a team championship. Though sweet, she also comes across as pretty intense, and a great team needs that in a leader, so I wouldn't count the Panthers out just yet.
Bianca Bishop's Athlete Profile
