Away @ Pembroke, 10/10/2020

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After a cool week of great running weather, Saturday dawned a little on the warm side. Regardless, the MVXC team was up early for a duel meet at Pembroke, well rested from a hard-fought battle of Nuke-em the day before.

In a change of order, it was boys first, girls second over the PA trails. The boys team left their watches at home and channeled their inner racers, earning their first win of the season. The start of wave #1 saw Elisha at the front of the pack with Oliver right by his side, showing off a new competitive edge that his coaches were excited to see. Marshall started patiently in the middle of the pack, calculating the most efficient tangents and splits in his head per usual. The rest of the boys in wave #1 packed up, not letting any green jerseys out of their sight.

If any injured runners are looking for a quick remedy, playing nuke-em the day before a race seems to do the trick seeing as every member of the injured crew toed the line on Saturday! This included the return of MV’s top runner Ethan, who joined wave #2. Starting a minute behind the first wave proved to be an advantage for Ethan as he caught up to his brother within the first ten minutes of the race.

One of the most notable differences between the boys on Saturday was the way each of them responded to the coaches during the race. When told to close a gap, Oliver and Marshall responded by immediately picking up the pace. The top 5 finished with 23 points to Pembroke’s 34.

Ethan, who finished right behind Elisha in a sibling sprint to the finish, took the overall win and dipped under 19 for the first time this season. Marshall closed hard to take 4th overall with Oliver finishing close behind. The finish of the day went to Trevor “I can’t kick, Coach” Latorella. With a Pembroke runner right on his heels in the final stretch, Trevor endured the frantic yelling of all three coaches as they tried to convince him that he needed to get to the finish first in order to earn the team win. Though we later learned that the win was already secured, Trevor still managed to hold off Pembroke’s #4 runner with a kick in the last ten meters of the race. The rest of the boys finished off the race strong, and gained valuable experience competing on a slower course.

The boys celebrated their first win by taking a picture with Uncle Spartan

(legend has it, Ethan and Elisha’s long lost uncle was frozen and turned into a Spartan statue, destined to watch over the Pembroke Academy campus forever).

The girls race set off in one wave down the track, around the softball field, and into the woods. Sophia was soon out of sight of everyone, on her way to winning by one of the largest margins in memory, slightly over 5 minutes. A pack of three Pembroke runners were the next to cross, followed by Carlie who ran a well-paced effort and was able to run down PA’s 4th runner. After the 4th Spartan came the duo of Alyssa and Victoria, who for the second straight race ran side-by-side the entire way. Teamwork makes the dream work! Victoria managed to outkick Alyssa this time around, evening out the finish order. Fair is fair! Finishing fifth for MV was Violet, who came from out of nowhere over the final mile. That pace for the first two miles and she may have been on Sophia’s shoulder! Next in was Liz, who along with Violet was able to run down and past PA’s 5th runner. Liz, as the 6th runner, may not score on the day, but does serve as a displacement runner, knocking back the score of PA’s 5th. Emmaleigh, over a hard-fought final half mile, also managed to catch and pass the 5th Spartan, but the home crown was able to urge one final charge out of the competition, who managed a last-ditch kick to finish just ahead of Emmaleigh. Trinity and Taylor emerged from the woods less than a minute apart to round out the day for the Pride.