Manchester Invitational, 9/25/21
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After a long year away, the Manchester Invitational, the largest meet in the State, was back in full force on the storied Derryfield Course. The course has been run in its current form since at least the early 1980’s, in fact both coaches have raced the hills of Manchester multiple times (Coach Irving’s PR there is 17:17, while Coach John’s PR at Derryfield is 17:00 - He must have had a good coach). The day was beautiful and the course was moderately dry, setting up for a great day of racing.
Coach John got things started early in the open race, placing in the top 10 with a sub-19 clocking of 18:56. Coach Irving regrettably had bus duty… First off the line for MV was Sofia G. and Lydia, running in the JVC race, covering 2.1 miles. They did great team running for the majority of the race, finishing within seconds of each other in the 21-minute range. Next up was the JVB girls, this time lining up for a full 5k. Also, in an exciting turn, we had a full JV scoring team of 5 runners! That doesn’t happen every year. After crushing all the hills, Victoria came across first for the team, running in the 6th fastest time of the day for the team. Emmaleigh crossed next, followed by Violet and Anna in close succession. The way these girls ran the hills was one for the history books, with a particular nod to Anna - a beast on the hills. Taylor wrapped things up for the varsity with a solid kick in to the line. After a break for the boys JV, it was time for the Small School Championships. With a bit of nerves and a lot of focus, they were soon off the line and up the hill. Sophia ran with the lead pack for a bit, eventually crossing the line in 12th, good for 6th place out of DII runners. Sam crossed next, while Madison overcame a case of the nerves to finish as MV’s third. Kendra continued her race-to-race improvement to cross next, while Alyssa ran her best race of the year (and picked up the awesome award for it) to place as the final scoring member of the team. Jessi and Liz finished within seconds of each other, wrapping up running for MV.
After witnessing Old Man Walker kick to the finish of the open race, the boys had their sights on some strong performances on the state meet course. While nerves were definitely heightened by the magnitude of the meet, it’s impossible to not get hyped up at the Manchester Invite. The first three to toe the line were Aidan, Silas and Elijah. Silas led the trio from start to finish of the 2.1 mile JV race. Behind him was Elijah, who made an aggressive move in the last 200 meters by passing a group of runners and kicking to the finish. Next, tearing up the final stretch, was Aidan Angus with his signature last minute sprint. However, Aidan may have underestimated the length of the finishing chute as the wheels started to fall off before he crossed the line.
The final race of the day for the boys team was the small school varsity race. Once again, the boys were instructed to run as a pack and shoot for sub-20. As they scaled the first big hill after the 1-mile marker, the top 3 boys stuck together like glue with Ryan trailing not too far behind them. After another enormous hill, Ryan’s pacing efforts came to fruition as he was the first to enter the long downhill portion of the course. The boys tore up the finishing chute, starting with Ryan in his first sub-20 performance ever (technically his time was 20:04, but he mistakenly stopped before the timing mat so we are counting it)!! Only 20 seconds behind him was Marshall in a blazing kick that separated him from the rest of the MV pack. Following him was a solid duo of Oliver and Mark, which put all top four boys under 21. Closing out the top 5 was freshman Mychal in a great run, just dipping under 22 minutes. Trevor finished it off for the Pride’s varsity team with a great finishing effort, despite the fact that his shoes had been soaked in mud from Coach Walker’s race earlier that day.