Thetford, 10/2/21
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It was the first weekend of October, and after missing a year we were back in Thetford; home of the crazy music, Morty’s Monster, the greatest XC t-shirts, and one of the most honest cross country courses around. Being practically the first team to arrive, we took advantage of the snazzy post & beam dugouts by the ballfield and moved it, making cleanup a breeze. With a day consisting of 12 races, a dry place to hole up is a must.
The first race of the day was the girls 5th seed, and MV was well-represented with a whopping 7 athletes running. In fact, every single girl on the team started and finished the Thetford course, which is exceedingly rare for a team due to a variety of injuries, illness, birthday parties (insert eye roll emoji here - kidding/not kidding). I’ll have to search the annals for the last time that happened. With 138 racers in the 5th seed, Liz’s goal of a top-15 place for a ribbon was ambitious. About 18th after the first mile, she moved up to the 15th spot after two, and flew home to place 11th (the highest place in a race by any MV athlete all day). Unfortunately, the ribbons this year only went to the top 10, but in the end she walked away with the AWESOME award, so she was well-compensated! Not far behind and flirting with the top-15 throughout the race was Emmaleigh with a fantastic effort. Third in the group and breaking the 30-minute mark on the difficult Green Mountain course was Anna, followed by Lydia in one of her fastest races to date. Next across was…Juliana!?!?! Completing her first race since the beginning of September, she looked cool, calm and collected until the final stretch, when she blazed by several competitors. Way to go! Sofia and Taylor rounded out the running for the Pride, encouraged across the line by the eclectic and exciting soundtrack of Thetford.
The fourth seed girls race saw 6 MV uniforms on the line, and was the largest girls race of the day with 149 runners. Kendra paused her patented “Kendra Shimmy” long enough to race a 5k, and absolutely crushed the course, running a PR of a complete minute on one of the more difficult courses we run. Madison, after a tentative start, got the wheels rolling in the second mile and almost caught Kendra; if it wasn’t for Kendra’s downhill wings they may have finished together, both in the top 30. Violet placed next, and scored for the day as MV’s 5th runner as she continued her comeback. With no flat pavement to worry about, Alyssa was able to stay vertical for the whole race and cross the line a minute later, 15 or so seconds ahead of Jessi (who didn’t say a word to me during this race). Victoria wrapped up the 4th seed MV girls with a solid effort all the way through the line.
Skip to the second seed race, and Samantha’s turn to race. Looking a bit cautious at the get-go, she steadily appeared to gain confidence much to the dismay of the many, many runners she passed. When she kicked for the line it was as if she was just getting going. Just a few minutes later it was Sophia’s turn at the line for the seed one race. Pushed all the way to the edge, she nevertheless scored the best box…although it was hard to tell where one box ended and the next began as somebody managed to abscond with one of the Thetford marker flags. Be on the lookout, there’s a bounty. After a Kendra Shimmy for the entire field, the racers were ready to go and wrap the racing up for the girls. Sophia ran a very controlled and well paced race to place a solid 19th on the day out of 599 (couldn’t there have been just one more?) girls. A special thanks to Madison who trucked all over the course with me for the last two races, at one point kindly acknowledging that being a coach at a race like this is a LOT of running!
The return to Coach Walker’s favorite high school cross country meet did not disappoint. Though the weather wasn’t perfect, spirits were still high and everyone was excited to race on the beautiful trails of Thetford Academy. Kicking things off for the boys were the two freshmen Silas and Elijah in the 5th seed race. Silas led the duo with a great showing on a tough course. Elijah wasn’t too far behind, closing the gap to his teammate in the last mile of the race. In the 4th seed race, we saw another chapter in the rivalry between Trevor and Mychal. While Mychal courageously got out hard, putting himself in position to compete for a top spot, it ended up being Trevor as the first to cross the line for the duo with the strongest kick he’s had all season. In the final race for the boys, Ryan, Marshall, Oliver and Mark toed the line together in the 3rd seed. Considering how difficult this course is, the boys ran great times with Marshall, Oliver, and Mark all running in the mid to low 20’s. While Ryan’s usual pacing strategy didn’t quite pay off, he still finished tough to close it out for the day. The boys walked away with cool Thetford Invite t-shirts, muddy shoes, and a brand new soccer ball.