Bow, 9/17/21
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Literally my only photo from Bow!
Back to Bow, the second trip in two weeks! Another head-to-head dual, a dual-duel? With Bow showing great community in the wake of their recent tragedy, the crowds were out in force. MVXC pulled together and was able to contribute quite a bit to the family as well, making us coaches proud.
As expected, Bow’s Maya Brochu wasted no time zipping to the front, tailed only by Sophia over the first half of the race. While Bow was clearly in charge of the team placing, it was evident that our young team is improving quickly. Most runners were minutes faster than only a week earlier, and most impressive to the coaches was the fact that the MV runners seemed to be moving forward over the course of the race, bettering their position relative to Bow runners. Improve every year, improve every race, and improve more than other teams - that is the goal! Sophia eventually finished an easy second, while Samantha held on to 7th overall. Maddy, getting tougher every race, ran away from two competitors over the final mile to finish in 8th, while Kendra had the best race of her young career (and earning the Awesome Award in the process) to run a PR and finish as our 4th runner in 11th place. The very next runner, and only 30 seconds back, was another 9th-grader, Jessi. The future is looking bright! Violet and Victoria rounded out the scoring for the girls in 14th and 15th, respectively.
After a very last-minute race cancellation on Wednesday, the boys were rested and hungry for fast times on the Bow course. The return of our top runner also brought a fresh sense of competitiveness to the team which first became evident when Mark and Oliver made a mad dash to the front of the race after the gun went off. At the first mile, it was clear that Bow was going to run away with the win, but the Pride boys were still putting on an impressive show. One-by-one they turned down the hill and entered the 400-meter track finish, Coach Walker’s excitement growing with every consecutive Merrimack Valley uniform that came into sight. First, the trio of Mark, Ryan, and Oliver powered their way towards the finish within 20 seconds of each other. Next down the hill were Marshall and Mychal with a group of Bow runners on Mychal’s heels. Marshall was able to turn on the jets early and comfortably finished as MV’s 4th runner. Mychal chose a more theatrical approach and waited until the last 100 meters when a Bow runner began to push past him. As soon as he saw the challenger in his peripheral, Mychal broke out into a full out sprint, closing out the scoring for MV and ensuring that not a single runner broke up our top 5! Next up was Gage, taking the 6th spot in another strong performance and a solid time. A couple minutes behind him was Silas who snagged a shiny new PR and ran his best race of the season. Behind him was freshman Elijah who maintained a determined mindset for the entire race. Finishing it up for the Pride, and becoming the newest recipient of the Walker Award, was Nolan Gaudette. As a brand new runner, this was Nolan’s first time ever running a cross country race which is not an easy task. As he made his way to the finish, he was welcomed by a cheering squad made up of his entire team. This meet proved that the boys are capable of running as a strong pack. Once we start bringing the times down, we will be a force to be reckoned with.