Capital Area Championships 10/18/19

Link to NHCC’s “Meet Hub”, with results, photos, videos, and my write-up

My sister recently sent me a photo of her husband vacuuming their yard with a ShopVac. It seemed to me to be a strange way to rake, until she explained that he was collecting acorns for their pigs. It made me think - with all the acorns I blew off the course over the past week, was I just blowing away a fundraiser? “Feed the Hogs and Support MVXC! Make the Squirrels Jealous and Buy a Bag of Acorns!” If only. If you happen to have pigs, there are mountains of acorns lining the trail, courtesy of my 4 trips around the course with a leaf-blower (that’s 8 miles! - one mile repeats itself) and Thursday’s BOMB CYCLONE. If you want to plan an event that you want cancelled or postponed, I’d suggest the second-to-last Thursday in October. In the 8 years we’ve hosted the Capital Area meet, it’s been postponed twice and had torrential rain at least two other years. We are not known for good weather!

Anyhow, moving on to the racing…

The combined JV race led off the afternoon, and with 117 runners is the largest race held on our course (but is 8 runners smaller than Bow’s middle school XC team. How is that possible?). Every year I cover my eyes a little, as the front runners usually cross paths with the tail end of the race on a narrow trail. Adding to the excitement was the presence of four Bow runners who, mistook the race for a three mile dance party. This group was seen at various times running backwards, doing cartwheels, eating cereal, eating oreos, cutting parts of the course off, and making a human obstacle course for lead runners. It sounds funny writing it, but there may have been steam coming out of my ears watching it. The MV runners survived these obstacles and clearly took their running seriously, as most ran PR’s in their final race of the season (Plymouth, in case you didn’t get the earlier email, is short - 4848 meters, to be exact). Leading the way for MV was Oliver, putting himself out there as human sacrifice to try to break up Concord’s ridiculous pack and somewhat succeeded, placing only behind a million Concord runners and one Bow kid. And a huge PR! Nicole was the top girl, earning herself a spot as the alternate for future weeks courtesy of a big...PR! Carlie was just behind in a...PR! Now start there next year, Carlie, and improve from there. You are returning runner #5! Next across was Trevor...PR!, Theresa, Anna...huge PR!, MacNeill, Emmaleigh...PR!, Liz...PR!, Victoria...PR! And welcome to the sub-30 club, girls!, Ryan, Taylor...PR!, Aidan...PR?, and Mitchell, solid in his final XC race.

On to the boys varsity race, where favored Concord easily defended their title. But once again, a slew of PR’s helped MV to a solid 5th place showing and a 7th-place spot on the All-Time Team Time (since the course was created in 2012) list, with an average time of 18:38. Ethan led the way as he has all season, and improved his MV individual standings to 7th on the 2012 to present All-Time List. That’s varsity! Mark turned in his best time of the year, despite injuring his foot on the “improved by maintenance” bridge (new name: Old Man Bridge - there’s a story there). Here’s to a quick heal, States is only a week away! Speaking of old men, old man Christian ran a solid third on the team in his final appearance on the home course, narrowly holding off a hard-charging Isaac, who also broke 19 for the first time. Marshall PR’d as well to close out the team scoring, while a sub-20 effort (PR!) for Elisha ensured a solid tie-breaker. Despite going down early in the race (“I got up and I couldn’t see anyone”), Jack ran solid as MV’s 7th man.

Billed as a battle between regionally ranked teams, MV, Concord, and Hopkinton entered the race all ranked in the top 6 in the state. It was a mixed bag for MV, as Concord easily won, but the Pride eked out a 4-point victory over Hopkinton. With Kearsarge not attending, the individual title was up for grabs and Sophia9 took full advantage, running the third-fastest time ever on the course, and moving to 2nd on the Ravine Course MV list. The team time was very quick as well, taking over not only the top spot on the Ravine Course, but also the top spot for all MV courses. Sophia10 ran her best race of the year to take runner-up honors, while Emma hung on for dear life at the end to land in the top 10. Samantha ran strong to set a...PR! And move in to 8th on the Ravine Course list, while Madisyn also set a PR (I think?) to improve her 10th spot on the list. With Sophia10 and Emma already on the list, that means that we have 5 runners on this years team in the Ravine Course Top Ten List. After spending only one short course race in the 23’s, Violet jumped right into the 22’s and another PR, while Cassidy CRUSHED the course to move into the 23’s and set a...you guessed it...PR!

Plymouth John Sanborn Invitational 10/11/19

Results Here When Available

Today’s Challenge: Find Ethan and Mark!

A nice cool day greeted the team as they rolled out of bed on a Friday at probably 10 or 11 am, uncaring of the fact that their coaches were trapped in a cinder block classroom learning how to deal with unruly students (or secretly scoring fictitious State Meets). Despite all the training, it was not needed today, as even the siblings on the team behaved themselves at Plymouth. The course at Plymouth (suspiciously fast, according to one eternally skeptical coach whom you all know well), was the third version of the Invite course over the past three years and was by far the fastest - despite two trips up the mighty “S-TURN” hill. Strangely, Sophia Reynolds ran the exact same time - to the second - that she ran last year to set the now-retired course record, v.2018. But I get ahead of myself…

We arrived early and brought ourselves on a course walk, during which Maddy, Cassidy, and maybe Sophia10 managed to catch falling leaves, ensuring them good luck for 2 ½ hours and making their success in the race to come a foregone conclusion. Despite the information sheet CLEARLY stating that the boys would run first, we discovered that in fact the girls were up first, toeing the line at 4:00 sharp. Off the course like a rocket, the entire field zipped down the hill and out into the very beautiful Plymouth trails. Sophia9 took the win and established a new course record, while Sophia10 closed well over the final hill to place second, giving MV a whopping 3 points after two runners. Emma re-established herself in the third position and finishing 5th, while mini-Emma (Sam-A-Lama (Samantha)) was only a few seconds back in 8th. Having the race of the day and closing out the scoring for MV was Maddy, racing in her VERY OWN BRAND NEW MAGIC SPIKES! They worked! Violet and Cassidy each ran PR’s (as did almost everyone else behind them) to place 6th and 7th on the team, and ensuring a spot in the varsity race at Capital Area next Thursday.

It was a similar sight in the boys race, with a PR here, a PR there, here a PR, there a PR, everywhere a PR, PR! Ethan blasted off the line with the big boys, eventually settling down and crossing in 13th place. Winning a surprise medal in 20th was Mark, while Christian, Marshall, and Isaac all ran great races to comprise MV’s top 5. Elisha and Oliver, again with PR’s, rounded out the top 7.

At the awards, they mistakenly announced the girls team winners...using the boys scores. And Kingswood was SO HAPPY to place third! A bit of a bummer for them. As it turned out, the boys placed an outstanding 4th, only two (TWO!) points out of third...or...as I typed that last sentence I looked over and noticed that there might have been a scoring error. I initially saw that they gave the boy from White Mountain (who only had one runner and shouldn’t have counted in team scoring) a team score. I rescored it removing him and a Lin-Wood runner who had also been left in, and got totally different scores, even more different than if they hadn’t scored those two. SO…(drumroll)...the correct score, Irving-Verified, goes Oyster River - 18, Bow - 74, Merrimack Valley - 115, Kennett - 124, and Kingswood 140 (not 110! Crazy). Congratulations on third, boys! That’s two years in a row they’ve messed up our score. We missed out on the world’s smallest plaque, but I’ll remedy that. Anyhow, the girls looked really sad when we were announced as 4th, which made things fun for me as I had already figured out the gender error. When the correct scores were given for the girls, they had backed up their top seed billing with a solid victory, 30 to 49 over a very solid Kennett team currently ranked 10th in the state. Overall, a great day as we approach championship season!

Champions!

Thetford 10/5/19

Boys Results Girls Results

Sarah’s First Race!

Marshall Marshaling A Kick

7:30 am bus departure for the last time for several weeks! The morning was beautiful as we headed north into the land of Fall Foliage for the Thetford Invite, the “Meet of Crazy Music”. With ten high school races divided into “seeds”, today was a day of opportunity for most runners.

Highlighting the Seed Five girls race was Sarah, in her first race of the year. Thetford may be a great cross country course, but it is NOT an easy one, so for Sarah it was trial by fire (hill). She did great, by the way, finishing as the second MV girl out of five and 64th out of 127 runners. You know who else did well? MacNeill, who brought her fast shoes and ran her best race of the year, by far. MacNeill placed 6th and earned MV’s first ribbon of the day, given to the top 15 racers in each race.

Sam-A-Lama in Second

On to the boys, where Ryan continued overcoming his illness to run a solid time, and Tim, CRUSHED his PR to finish 8th and earn the second ribbon of the day. Knocking on the door of varsity, Tim!

The girls Fourth Seed race saw the largest contingent of MV girls, an entire scoring team of 7. And in the end, with 4 in the top 30 they would have been the winning team. Anna had a particularly good race with (maybe?) a PR, as did Nicole, Cassidy, and Carlie, who finished the day as MV’s 7th runner. Finishing 6th on the day for MV in yet another huge PR AND taking the highest finish of the day in a race was Violet, placing second and almost going sub-24 for the first time.

The boys Fourth Seed was the only race of the day where MV entered and didn’t earn a medal, but it was only Jack and he still ran a very solid PR. In fact, when the dust settled he was only 9 seconds behind Elisha (in a different race) for a solid 6th on the team.

With no girls in the Third Seed, it was on to the boys, where the top 6 minus Ethan were all entered. Even while goofing for every picture on the course and recovering from his annual cold, Christian managed to run a very solid race, finishing only 17 seconds out of the ribbons. Highlighting the race was Mark, running a very consistent race to place 8th, earning yet another ribbon for MV.

Lots Of Sitting Around…

In the Second Seed girls race, Maddy and Samantha each got off to a great start. While Morty the Monster took his toll on Maddy (actually, the downhill portion), Samantha was a monster herself, moving from 20th to 10th at the mile, to 4th at the two mile, to second and then finally third at the finish, for a superb PR on a tough course. Steady forward progression, that is the way to race! Maddy did manage to beat the 2018 version of herself for the crucial 5th spot for the team.

In the boys version, Ethan was the lone entry, and got a fantastic start...for 50 meters. Clipped from behind (and there is a photo where you can see the actual moment), Ethan fell down and when he got up he was Dead … Last… in the race. Undeterred, he carried on and eventually managed to secure yet another ribbon for MV, this one for 12th place.

…And Laying Around

In the final race for MV, the girls First Seed, Emma and the Sophias were entered. Morty munched a bit on Emma as well, and the trail munched on Sophia10’s ankle (yet she still managed 11th place overall, not too shabby), but Sophia9 conquered Morty and all of the Thetford trail and competitors save two, including Division II’s current top seed. It came down to the kick!

As a team, the girls placed 6th, one spot out of their goal of top 5, while the boys placed a respectable 29th of the 52 teams entered.

Pembroke Duel 9/24, AKA Pride Invades SPARTA!

RESULTS HERE SOON

Fun Times On The Course

A Wednesday meet?! It felt strange, but sure enough a bus showed up and whisked us to the Land of the Spartans. The first victory was surviving the bus ride, as it was 90% bondo and 10% bus. The driver (not our normal one) said that this was the last trip before the junk yard for the bus. Lucky us. It brings to mind a certain unforgettable van ride to New Englands track (maybe Emma was there?) involving flat tires, seized tires, broken cupholders, being locked in bathrooms from the inside (unrelated to the van), and great Dominican music on a Connecticut mountaintop waiting for a tow truck at 9pm. The van in question was accidentally given to us that year, so I wonder...bondo-bus? Accident? By the way, parents, thanks for entrusting us with your children!

“Shades” Graham

At least it’s cross country you’re entrusting them to. While zipping to and fro today on the course I ran by the Pembroke football team practicing - varsity or JV, I don’t know. I have never heard so many F-bombs, S-bombs, B-bombs -- choose your bomb -- coming out of someones mouth outside of a movie. And this was the coach. One thing about MV - I have never heard anything like that from a coach, football or otherwise. It was pretty disappointing. Not to get preachy in the blog, but Sandu and I believe in a little breaking down, sure...of the body in workouts. But build up the mind. Always.

--Moving on--

A new course! We hadn’t run at Pembroke since our 2nd largest team, 2008. 11 years later, and my memory was a bit vague of the course, but it turned out to be quite a nice little course. Lots of hills, some grass, 200 meters on the track for spectators, not too bad! The girls discovered that the start line, which looked more like a hyphen, was precisely one Emma (with arms outstretched) long. And Emma discovered upon getting up that the paint was still wet. So...team bonding...everyone got a patch of paint on their right arm!

The Predators

The girls race was up first, as usual. It was temp workout day, with the girls choosing their paces. Sophia Rebenciuc chose FAST, and shot out to the lead and eventual win, fast-tempoing solo. Sophia Reynolds was the only one in sight at “80%” tempo, looking like she was starting to come down from altitude (the cold is getting better, maybe?). Emma, mini-Emma (Samantha), and Maddy ran as a trio, making things very interesting as MV was losing to Bow for the first 2 miles. 20th place...18th place...15th place...10th place...8th place...finally at the finish Emma took 4th, Sam 5th, and Maddy one Brochu twin back in 7th, for a resounding victory. Violet was the 6th MV girl, while Cassidy either PR’d or came close to finish as our 7th. One other highlight of the day was that today Sarah RAN a half mile!! Sarah suffered a stress fracture over the summer with a delayed diagnosis, and has still been to every single practice and meet. Today she started running, so it’s finally Sarah season!

The boys, on the other hand, discovered the line was one Mitchell long. And Mitchell’s uniform discovered the paint was wet. Oh well. A uniform with a story. The boys were up against a strong Bow team, and eventually did place second, but ran a great race none-the-less. I noticed a lot of forward progress, lots of MV uniforms passing other ones. That’s toughness, and we like to see it! Ethan led the way as he has all season, placing 4th. Christian was next, where he should be, even managing a kick. Speaking of a kick, Isaac kicked into third on the team today, just ahead of Mark. Rounding out the scoring was Elisha, followed closely by Marshall. I haven’t calculated the average team time, but through four it was our best of the year. Maybe through five, we’ll see.

Today was a great mid-week race workout day, now we have an unprecedented week and a half to train, train, train. Let’s do it!

Manchester Invitational 9/21/19

Results

NHCC Coverage

Maybe Gatorade Wants This Shot Of The Super Heros…

Emmaleigh And Her Support Crew

Contrary to popular belief, the freshman race was NOT the first race of the day at the Manchester Invitational. Instead, it was the Open Race, featuring Sophia Reynolds mom, Sarah. Sarah would get things off to a great start for MV by winning her division. She then exemplified the fortitude in MVXC’s motto by standing at “Lester Angle” for 8 straight races taking photos, before finally saving the life of an athlete from Spaulding. OK, she may not have saved a life, but she was very helpful and did save our Gatorade towel from heading to Rochester, never to be seen again.

The New And Improved Isaac. Check Out Former Coach Neilsen In The Background!

First up for the high schoolers was the Little Kid Race/Tot Trot/Freshman Race. We don’t usually run athletes in this race because it means leaving school earlier, but things worked out and people woke up so Emmaleigh, Victoria, and Taylor lined up in the girls race, while Jack and Trevor ran the boys. The first bit of good news, and it was very good news indeed, was that box #48 was actually at the opposite side of the field from where I had thought, not only giving the girls team an edge spot but the uphill edge, saving at least 6 vertical feet. The boys were sandwiched somewhere in the middle, battling with Bishop Hendricken for foot space. Each athlete tackled the 2.1 mile modified course admirably, with Emmaleigh leading the MV girls and Jack taking down almost half the field to lead the boys.

JVC was next, with Liz and Alexis representing the girls, and Aidan and Mitchell representing the boys. Also running the 2.1 mile course, Liz and Aidan led the way for MV, while Alexis experienced the joys of side stitches for the first time. Nothing like a sword in the side when you’re trying to run a race. It’s not helpful!

No Guts, No Glory!

On to the JVB race, where they would run a full 5k and the girls actually had enough runners to score as a team! Cassidy, Nicky, MacNeill, Anna, Violet, and Bea ran for the girls, while Tim was the lone MV rep in the largest race of the day, with 344 finishers. Good news for Tim, I believe he ran a PR, AND he survived the thundering herds in one not-smooshed piece. As for the girls, I believe they placed 18th of 24 as a team, but my JVB girls results won’t update, so I’m going off memory. As we try to narrow the huge gap from our 5th scorer on the girls team to the 6th, we’ve had 5 different runners land in the 6th and 7th spot - this time Violet was actually our 6th fastest of the day despite running in the JV race. Tim, for the record, was only 6 seconds from a varsity time.

The Way It Was Meant To Be. Perfection!

On to the varsity! For the girls, we finally found a use for all the Gatorade towels that gatorade sent us last year courtesy of Sophia Reynolds. The boys could’ve used them too, but they did not. We had two buckets of ice-water, with towels in them. The girls finished their warm-up and immediately draped the towels over their shoulders. It’s not the cooling of their core body temperature that led to their success, however, it was the intimidation factor of the Gatorade Super Heros. They actually looked pretty cool. Wearing their capes right up to the gun, the girls got off to a great start from their corner of the line. Over the course of the race, Sophia Rebenciuc would lead through the hardest section of the course, eventually ceding the top two spots but holding third. Sophia Reynolds was just behind in 8th, accomplishing the goal of a single-digit score while essentially running at altitude with her diminished breathing capacity. Take a look at the finish chute pictures of the next three girls; Emma, Maddy, and Samantha each had great kicks, passing all the bib numbers in those photos with them. Each one of those is responsible for the 4-point spread that resulted in a very surprising 2nd place finish, the best Manchester Invite finish for MV ever. Sam in particular kicked ALL-THE-WAY-TO-THE-LINE as evidenced in the NHCC footage from the meet. At the end of the day, the girls took second behind a school from Rhode Island, and just ahead of Division rival Souhegan. With the statewide merges, MV finished behind only Bishop Guertin (winner of the large school race) and Souhegan (they had a JV runner who would have been number 4 on their team, giving them the hypothetical win). Carlie and Theresa closed out the scoring for MV, with Carlie somehow running a decent PR (as did Maddie, a tough feat on a hot day on a hard course).

On the boys side, a couple were experiencing the colds that are coursing through the girls team, but still managed to race a very solid race. In the end, the illness probably accounted for 5 places in the Small School Race, but probably not any spots in the DII merged results (24th in Small School, 11th in DII merge). Ethan once again made a monster improvement over last year, placing in the top 50 and as the 25th DII runner on the day. Christian took over as #2, with Isaac as #3, an under-the-weather Mark as #4, and Marshall as the all-important #5. All this time I was thinking Elisha was the most improved over a year ago here, until I just went back to check his finish from 2018 and saw a photo of him and...Isaac! Holy moly Isaac, you took 3 ½ minutes off your time! Maybe it’s been like that all year and I hadn’t noticed, as it seems so normal to see Isaac up front. One thing is for sure, there has been some incredible improvement on this team from a year ago!

On to Pembroke!

Home Duel 9/17/19

RESULTS

Boys Start

“There’s a hole in the bridge, Coach Irving, Coach Irving,

There’s a hole in the bridge, Coach Irving a hole.”

Maddy Flying Home

I had actually completely forgot that I watched Elisha lose a foot through the bridge at the last meet until Alexis pointed it out yesterday. No big deal, buy decking, bring my homeroom down, and fix it. Of course, 7th-graders...managed to break another board, while discovering that what I thought was a hole in one board was actually a hole in two. So...3 boards replaced an hour before the meet, but...there was another one that would not survive the meet! My wife came to the rescue, and with the construction expertise of Nicky and Maddy, the bridge was restored just before the first course walkers came into view. Yay! Meanwhile, Sandu managed to mark the entire course and my trustworthy chute officials had arrived and were ready to go. The first race was won, the race to competently host a meet!

Anyhow, it was a wonderful day to race, cool and dry, and the runners were instructed to run or race however they felt. Some chose to tempo, some chose to race, while most of the boys team chose to HAMMER! Plymouth, Windham, John Stark, and Souhegan’s JV team were on the docket for the day (Souhegan never runs their varsity at this meet, they come and run a workout instead).

Sisters? Should Be. Sam and Emma Finishing.

For the girls race, Sophia took it out quick, although around the halfway mark I asked what percentage she was running at - 80, 90, or 100? She looked at me like I was joking and said “neither”. When asked later, she said she was running at “55%”. This from a girl who won by 66 seconds and moved up to 5th in the All-Time Ravine Home Course List. Maddy was the next across, fully racing to make up for her DNF on Sunday. Clearly recovered, she came three seconds from her all-time PR! The next two in the race were Emma and mini Emma, aka Samantha. Running to plan, they cruised easily past probably 20 girls over the last two miles, making things look a lot better for the team score than it looked at the mile mark (although a team win was certainly not in the list of goals at the start). With elder Sophia absent, a new 5th place runner was needed to secure the team score for MV. And that place went to...Violet! Almost breaking 24, it was a great race for her, and a huge improvement from Sunday. Behind Violet, most of the girls ran season bests - it was just that kind of a day! The team win did go to MV after all, putting a cherry on top of a great day. Surprisingly, the scores added up to the fourth best team time on the current course (since 2012), about 30 seconds better than the last meet.

Marshall Going Sub-20!

The boys had decided as a team to take advantage of the good weather and make a race of it. After a fast start that saw things pretty evenly balanced between Windham and MV, things settled down with a Windham trio leading with Ethan stuck on behind, trailed by Mark. Ethan continued his fantastic fall, running his best time on the course and scoring a 9th spot on the course All-Time list. Congratulations to him! Mark raced a great last mile, breaking 19, very impressive for a freshman. Isaac continued to lower his time as well, while Marshall broke the great 20 minute barrier for the first time, tying Coach Irving’s 9th grade PR. Although Marshall, you really have to do it at Manchester for it to count! Wrapping up the scoring was the one guy with specific instructions, Christian, who for the record followed the instructions perfectly. When the dust settled, Windham had rather destroyed the field with 17 points, but MV was next with 57, defeating Plymouth, John Stark, and Souhegan’s JV (phew).

Jack Racing To Another PR!

Bobcat Invitational 9/15/19

Girls Varsity Results Girls JV Results

Boys Varsity Results Boys JV Results

Boys Junior Varsity Takes Off, Led By Ryan

John Stark Sidehill Wampus 9/10/10

Results

Boys Pack Post-Energy Bar

Sidehill Wampus

Sidehill Wampus time! Based off a Coach Neilsen (former XC coach, current track coach) tale of an animal with two feet shorter than the other two, the Sidehill Wampus is our name for the John Stark course, where sidehilling is the name of the game. A rather flat course, but lumpy, rocky, rooty (right Elisha?), and sidehilly. XC at it's...most angled. A small Tuesday meet, the teams included the host, John Stark, Pelham, Sanborn, and West. On the girls side MV and John Stark were the only teams with enough runners for a full team, however, while all the teams scored for the boys with the exception of West. By the way, when Googling “Sidehill Wampus”, the 3rd image result was a team picture (through a traffic cone” of the girls team 2 years ago, and the 9th image was last year’s captain, Maizie. Maybe she IS the Wampus!

Off to the races!

The girls took of first, with a goal of keeping all the top 5 together as long as possible and still snagging the individual win (it's just nice to win). They managed two miles and every competitor save one, looking like Pac Man gobbling up fruit as they picked off one runner after another. Breaking apart at the two mile mark, Sophia, Sophia, and Emma crossed the finish as a united pack of one, confusing the chute officials. I can look at the film later to find out the truth...or not. Then the lone John Stark runner to break up the sweep, followed by Samantha and Madisyn in another tie. Final score, MV 17, John Stark, 38. Not a perfect score, but pretty close. Small factoid, we lost here last year 35 to 30. Great workout/race day by all the runners, with a special shout-out to Theresa, who continues to look like it's the easiest thing in the world, despite nor running for a week due to illness. She finished 6th, while Violet landed in the top seven yet again.

On to the boys race, where Mark blazed out in the lead, followed by Ethan. For a moment Christian was the last one on the course, as he dropped his energy bar and had to go back for it. Energy bar, you ask? I have no idea; all know is that Christian and the group he was running with managed to eat the whole thing by the finish. Looking for a bit like he might win the whole thing, Ethan eventually crossed in second, his best finish ever. Mark zipped across in 4th, not bad for a 9th grader! The rest of the crew, inspired by the boys pack running, decided on their own to give that a whirl and came surprisingly close to winning the meet (although they probably would have won otherwise, we coaches are happy they ran the way that they did, as it was fun for them, fun for us, and nice to build the team). Isaac unleashed his trademark-infringing (from Christian) kick to place as MV's 3rd, while Marshall outkicked Christian (merry early Christmas) for 4th to Christian's 5th.

To wrap this up, I'd like to give special recognition to the injured crew who show up every day anyhow to support the team or to try to run. We had a couple girls run part of the race and pull out, just to get a bit of a run in. It's never fun to stop, but perhaps better to try - that's bravery. There are of course those whose injuries keep them from the starting line completely - but they are still there, every race, every practice. Trust - you will each heal, and you will be all the tougher for it!

Great Glen Invitational 9/08/19

Results Link Soon…

Great Glen Champions!

What a beautiful backdrop for a successful day! Although Mt. Washington never completely came out of the clouds, the air was dry and the temperatures were cool, perfect conditions for some early season racing. After rolling out of the school parking lot at 6:35 (our best start ever!), two hours later we were at the course. Great Glen is certainly one of the most eclectic races in the state, with teams fro every corner of the state, including three of the largest and highest ranked boys teams (Keene, Pinkerton, and Nashua North), along with some of the smallest (Pittsburg/Canaan, Gorham, Profile). While the aforementioned boys teams were all ranked in the top 10 statewide, no top 10 girls teams were there, although Hanover is 4th ranked in DII and one of the states most continually successful teams.

Being an Invitational, the JV races started off the day. With the promise of a t-shirt to the top ten, Nicole and Carlie each got out to great starts. While she slipped to 11th with a mile to go, Nicole rallied over the final stretch to finish 10th and snag the first t-shirt of the day. Carlie ran a great race, finishing only 40 seconds behind in 15th. Smiley MacNeill (18th), and Anna "Herrmannator"(29th) each ran under 30 minutes, while Emmaleigh (30th), Alexis (35th), Victoria (36th), and Taylor (39th) rounded out the JV team.

We had five toe the line for the boys JV race, with Jack finishing as the top MV boy in 42nd place. Tim ran a great race to place 50th, as did Ryan in 59th. Aidan (81st) was successful in simply running, as it was his first run in several days, while Mitchell ran one of his best times ever to finish 82nd).

In the girls varsity, the team depth was not quite as intimidating as on the boys side, but Hanover had placed ahead of us earlier in the week at home, while Kennett, with it's massive roster, is always a solid team come State Meet time. Early in the race, the work we'd put in over the early season to operate as a team was evident, as 1/2 mile into the race the Sophia's were side-by-side in first, having put Tuesday's meet winner from Hanover in the rear-view. Not far behind was Emma and Sam (surprise!), and it was hard to tell who was happier - Samantha for keeping up with Emma or Emma when she realized Sam was right with her. The smile on Emma's face at that moment, knowing that a teammate was with her, was the highlight of the day for this coach. There was zero competition between them, only shared strength from knowing a teammate was near. Maddy quickly zoomed by, and at that moment it became obvious that it would be a good day, better than good if Sam could hang on. I was able to make it to near the 2 mile mark, and things were looking good up front. Sophia10 was about 10 meters ahead of Sophia9, and no one else was in sight. A slight misdirection by the leading Sophia, and they were back together again. Emma was still running well in 5th, while Samantha...was hanging on! 11th, but looking great! And Maddy was just behind! At the finish line, Sophia9 crossed as the girls winner, with Sophia10 crossed a few seconds later, giving up a bit over the final mile with a tweaked ankle. Emma crossed in 6th, while Sam had her breakthrough race (nice when it comes early!), catching one girl for good measure to place 10th and earning MV a total of 5 t-shirts. Maddy stayed strong to place 22nd, while Violet again had solid race for MV, finishing 45th, and Cassidy, a late addition to varsity due to Theresa's being sick, ran a solid race to finish 49th. In the end, the girls took home the 1st place plaque for the first time ever, and recorded a win over Hanover, something I'm not sure has happened before (is that possible?).

On to the boys race, where the big guns from Keene, Pinkerton, and Nashua North were ready to roll. The MV boys could've cared less who else was lined up, they just wanted to run. These guys have done nothing but impress us with their racing ability, and today was nothing different. Ethan ran a fantastic race, never backing down and ran a crazy fast time, blowing away his PR to run a 17:48 in 16th. He was also only the second DII runner to cross the line, and that's only because he got nipped at the line by a Hanover runner. The rest of the boys were not far behind either, as each had their best race to date. Christian used his trademark kick to fly by 5 or 6 runners over the final meters to finish in 35th, while Mark was just behind in 38th, running under 19 for the first time. As a freshman! Breaking 20 for perhaps the first time and finishing 4th for the team was Isaac "Space Bear", with his own kick, and finishing as MV's all-important 5th runner in 20:22 was Elisha. Barely a second back, and knocking on the door of the 20-minute barrier himself was Marshall, while Oliver demonstrated that he belonged in the varsity race, breaking 22 minutes and placing 79th. The boys placed 6th of 13 scoring teams, once again surpassing expectations.

T-Shirt Winners!

Home Duel 9/03/19

Results Link Girls

Results Link Boys

The Boys Start

Cassidy Gunning For Home

Bees, Bees, BEES! Actually, some sort of ground wasp, but you get the picture. Course is marked, volunteers are arranged, schools have showed up...and bees on the course. Not just a couple, either, but BILLIONS! Especially after Sandu tried to plug the hole with sticks. Kudos to him for bravery! Also kudos to the sacrificial middle schoolers who “discovered” them. It would have been worse on a course walk! By the way, kids, it’s never the first one through who gets stung. Moral? RUN FASTER! In the end, we had several heros who saved the day for us. Sarah Lester, SRen’s mom, who donated two cans of wasp killer to the cause, then Rebekkah Herrmann, who not only donated two more, but stayed there for half the girls race to stand guard. Also, another shout out to Sandu, who sacrificed with another sting while spraying (I escaped unharmed, and I thought Sandu was faster!). To the best of my knowledge none of the 185 athletes were stung! A final shout-out to Lee Laughlin and Leah Fallon, who dodged sweat showers and the occasional regurgitated lunch to record names at the end of the chute. Thank you!

Emmaleigh Unleashing a Monster Kick

On to the races. Joining MV was Lebanon, making their return to DII, the Bow Army (there’s so many!), Plymouth, and perennial power Hanover. Once again for the girls, the game-plan was to continue to work on team running, and getting stronger as a unit. And once again, the girls responded wonderfully, storing their egos and quest for individual glory, saving it for another day (Saturday?). Today the race played out similarly to Friday, with the front pack hanging tight through the mile, before slowly whittling down to SRen and SReb (I’m trying out new nicknames each week to see which one sticks). The slight difference was the sprint was for second, rather than the overall win. Both laughing as they came down the final straight, SRen turned her jets up just a hair more to get the call at the line. For the record, it was track coach Mullen who made the call, and not SRen’s dad. We think. Emma rolled in mere seconds later, all strangely close to their time from Friday on a much more rough day/course. Things changed soon, however, as Samantha cruised in at 4th position, almost 3 minutes up on Friday’s time. Maddy was 5th for MV, also taking a chunk of time off (4 minutes better than last year!). Behind the front pack, there was a second pack tasked with running together through the first mile who also did an exceptional job team running. Taking the 6th spot again was Theresa, improving almost 4 minutes from Friday, while right behind her was Violet, snagging the final varsity spot for Saturday. Violet was in a land of her own for much of the race, as I wasn’t sure where she would fit in, but now we know! Next in was Cassidy, improving a whopping 5 minutes, then Carlie (over 4 minutes improved), Bea (5 minutes), Nikki (2 ½), Anna (3 minutes), MacNeil (1 ½), Emmaliegh (4 ½), Victoria (OVER 5 minute improvement!), Liz (1 minute), and Taylor, who must really enjoy those tough hills and muggy conditions of the Apple Orchard. No worries Taylor, we’ll be back their soon!

Team-wise, Hanover won, although MV was very close behind (38 to 45). Once our 4th and 5th close it up a little, look out! And we will continue to take chunks of time off!

Determination!

On to the boys race, where we were just letting them race as this team is still such a big unknown. And what a pleasant surprise today was! Back in June we really were not sure what to expect from these boys, but probably not an opening meet like today! Ethan took things out scary fast, and while I didn’t see him at the mile and assumed he had ran himself into the ground it turned out he was just hiding. He not only ran fast, he ran his all-time XC PR (personal record), in the first meet! Ethan is officially our new face of what summer running can do...or is he…? Next across the line, healthy despite almost trying to get hit by a car or tossed out of Whales Tail, our Next Great Hope - Mark. I swear, Sandu has been talking about this kid since before he was born, and he didn’t disappoint, placing as our #2 and almost breaking 20 minutes in his first ever high school race. Next was an epic battle between Isaac (Space Bear) and Christian. What a kick! I thought from my vantage point that it was Isaac, but no, the senior pulled rank and got there first. If he had given one more high five in the race he might not have had it, but just enough was there. MV’s 5th runner was Elisha in 21:16, looking smooth and...wait, what? Elisha? 21:16?!? Every year I say “consistent summer running will take 60 to 90 seconds off your time”, assuming you weren’t a consistent runner before. It looks like I’ll have to modify that, as Elisha took a whopping 125 seconds off his best time on this course from last year! He is therefore the new face of summer running. Awesome! Anything is possible with hard work, people! Remind me to tell you what place Ethan got in the Middle School State Meet his 7th grade year. These kids make me proud. Speaking of proud, our likely next finisher was Marshall, but he did not race. But what he did do was show up and support his teammates, cup of ice to the mouth (minor surgery) and everything. Finishing in actual 6th spot for MV was Oliver, followed shortly by Jack. Connor had a monster kick of his own, catching 3 kids in the process. Tim went under the 30 minute barrier, while Trevor, Buffalo, and Aidan wrapped up the running for MV.

Kick Of The Day!

In the team scoring, Hanover once again took home the honors followed by a strong Bow squad. MV came in a surprising 3rd, defeating both Lebanon and Plymouth.

Oyster River Duel 8/30/19

Link To Results

Finding a Bit of Shade

Today was an interesting day. The boys got the day off while the girls got a fairly brutal introduction to high school cross country (of course, for die-hard XC-ers, that's the best kind).

So, to the South we went today, to race NH #4 ranked Oyster River, Portsmouth, and St. Thomas. What was a fairly pleasant day in Penacook was a muggy sweatfest in Lee, where the race was held. A brand new course, we were the first to ever race it and experience the wonderful rolling hills, muddy holes, and sweltering sun of the orchard. Bonus - winner gets the course record! What looks flat on Google Maps is Most. Certainly. Not. Beautiful though! The girls were first to the line, and after hollering their way through the season's first pre-race cheer (pretty sure some were lip-synching), the largest group of MV athletes to toe an XC start line were off. Executing the pre-race plan to perfection, Sophia9, Sophia10, Emma, Maddy, and a bonus runner in the form of Samantha formed a nice tight pack through the first mile, somewhere in the teens of the race. Not too far back was a second nice bunch, made up of Nicole, Cassidy, Bea, and Theresa. The rest were strung out through the field, looking alert and competitive. Shortly after the mile mark Sophia9/10 and Emma started carving up the runners in front of them, chit-chatting about the pleasant weather as they closed in on the front running Oyster River girls. It became pretty much every girl for herself behind them, with some (especially from other teams) just struggling to finish. By mile two, and one to go, the tandem Sophia's eased past the lone surviving Oyster River girl to take the lead, while Emma was not far behind with fight in her eyes. MV girls ran very strong up the hills today, although the top of the hills is another story (you know who you are :). There was another coach there who made sure to tell me one of her training "secrets" - "I train them to run over the top of hills." Um, thanks for the tip. That workout is coming. We have to keep some things up our sleeves. Maddy was continuing to run well throughout the race, as she is essentially the best hill runner in the world, while Samantha earned her "tough girl" patch and hero status on the big hill, not only overcoming a big moment of doubt, but then passing multiple runners over the final mile. That last mile by Sam-a-lama was the key to the team score at the end. And don't look back, because Carlie, fresh out of her two year retirement, was sneaking up on the entire field all the way to the line.

In the end, the Sophia's took 1st and 2nd (Sophia9 by a nose, although both were credited with the same score), while Emma followed closely, giving MV a 1-2-3 finish. Believe it or not, but Maddy ran over 2 minutes faster than her first race last year, and finished a very solid 14th. Samantha rounded out the scoring with a 21st place finish, amazing since a mile earlier it was a question of whether she would finish at all. Looking effortless down the final straightaway and placing 6th on the team was Theresa, barely holding off "firefeet" Nicole, who closed out the varsity scoring. Going 1-2-3 is hard to beat in XC, but there is still a gap that we need to work on back to the end of the scoring, and the results were uncertain. Finally, the tally came out...St. Thomas 4th with 67, Oyster River 3rd with 58, Portsmouth 2nd with 55, and MV coming away with the win with 40!