Meet of Champions

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And that’s a wrap!

The 2022 MVXC season concluded on Saturday at the Meet of Champions. Held in Alvirne while a bridge at Mines Falls gets repaired, it was a HOT day for November 5th. Samantha, by virtue of a HOT race last weekend, had the honor of representing MV at the meet. Joined by teammates Maddy, Kendra, Jessi, Sydney, and Holey Otie, as well as Mychal and Nathan, not to mention about ten million friends and family, Sam was well-represented. A lively bus ride shared with Newfound preceded the meet…lots of singing (by Newfound), and lots of Spot It and other card games (by MV) got us to the meet.

The race itself was a challenge in the heat - the kind of race you say afterwards “at least I made it, and at least I finished”. Many did not finish - the heat took its toll on all runners. Congratulations to Sam though, finishing her MVXC career at the Meet of Champions is sweet victory in itself and brings her high school harrier career full circle. Good luck in the next chapter of your running career!




Division II Championship

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— Scroll Down For Boys Write-Up —

Once again, what a meet! 

Our bus was scheduled for 7:30, which seemed a bit early for a 10:00 race, but we decided to leave it and get to Manchester early and establish ourselves. And more time spend with the team is more awesome team time! As it turned out, we were the first school to arrive to a frosty white Derryfield Park with the sun not quite on our chosen site. But in the end it was great, with the early arrival allowing us to take full advantage of clean porta-potties and giving us the opportunity to scout out Kendra’s “Wicked Kool Bike Trail”. All-in-all we had a nice stress-free morning leading up to the race. 

With perfect weather and fairly dry course conditions, times looked to be quick. And that turned out to be true as the girls ran a team time that was 1:45 faster than what we ran in good conditions only a month ago at the Manchester Invitational. Samantha crushed her final high school race at Derryfield, running a roller-coaster of a race that saw her at 13th on the first lap, dropping to almost 40th after the first hill, then motoring up to 26th place by the second mile. Then it was GO TIME, and she hammered home in 23rd place, accomplishing her “Shoot The Moon” goal from camp and securing a trip to the Meet of Champions next week while running her best time of the year. Lily was strong and steady as our number two runner, battling a hacking respiratory funk but staying brave and finishing in 39th position. Sydney, running as our #5 for the first two miles, flew over the final mile to place as our #3 in 41st, only 1 second off her PR. Next across was Maddy, who was a bit bummed about her performance, but did what she needed to do for the team, placing 46th overall and almost breaking 23 again. Wrapping up the scoring was Kendra, running the race of the day in 48th place, and PR-ing by almost a minute! That gave us 5 girls in the top 50, with a time spread (from 1st to 5th) of only 1:31 - the smallest of the day. That is a testament to how well these girls have been running together and their ability to work and run as a team. Jessi placed as our 6th in 79th place, getting under 26 for the second straight week, and Emmaleigh finished in 92nd place in her first State Meet and final race in an MV uniform. Thank you for all the miles, Emmaleigh!

All-in-all it was a State Meet and a year for the ages. Last year we placed 10th with one of the best runners in the state on the team. My big goal before the season started was to equal that placing, but I knew it would be a tall order. As the beginning of the season progressed it seemed like top-15 might be more reasonable (let’s be honest, we didn’t win many races in September), but the girls trusted the process and worked hard. That hard work and dedication started paying off in October at Thetford and has continued to pay off ever since. Endurance sports are a very slow-burn - think if we had another month! This is certainly the most over-achieving and most improved team I’ve ever coached - to finish in 8th place and send a runner to MOC’s from where we started in August?! Just awesome. It’s been such a pleasure to spend time with this group of athletes, and working with such flexible and understanding parents. What a year!

— Coach Irving

After arriving at frosty Derryfield Park, the boys staked out a spot in the sun to put in spikes and pin on their numbers. They strolled around the course to check out the mud at the half mile and their starting box. Then they settled in to relax and keep warm till it was time to warm up. Around 9:45 they got going for their warm up and out of nowhere a tree attacked Mychal laying him flat on the ground. The team rallied and finished their warm up checking in on time at the start and in good spirits.

The gun went off and they raced up the hill. Everyone got off to a great start, Mychal and Oliver in the top 40 with Terrence, Ryan, Marshall and Ben just a little behind. As they approached the mile, Oliver had moved in front of Mychal in the pack and everyone else was within sight of them. Everyone looked strong as they headed up to the mile and the first big hill.

At the reservoir Oliver led the way making a move into the skinny trail down to the ski area. Mychal took a breath and chased him. Then Ryan, Terrence, Marshall and Ben appeared. They were within 30 seconds of Oliver and Mychal and looking strong, Ben running in the top 5 for the first time this season. Nate almost literally back from the dead pushing down to the ski area shortly after.

Then a tree put up a root and grabbed Oliver pulling him down. He rolled through it and got away with only a little trail rash. Mychal gained a little after the second tree attack but Oliver kept pushing and led the pair back down the hill. Ben and Ryan came through 2 miles next and attacked the down hill. Terrence and Marshall followed a little later by Nate and everyone was headed back down towards the finish.

Back on the field all the hard work was paying off. Oliver and Mychal were running together. They pushed to the line with Mychal finishing in 18:34 and Oliver 18:38. Having the race of his life Ryan finished a few seconds later at 18:45. Terrence as steady as ever finished next in 19:25 being chased to the line by Ben. Ben was the break out performance of the day in 19:29. Ben took almost 2 minutes off his Manchester Invitational time. Marshall finished 10 seconds after Ben and Nate completed his first full race at Derryfield in 20:36.

Aside from the tree attacks it was a great day. Oliver, Mychal, Ryan, Terrence and Ben all ran personal records at Derryfield. Everyone improved their Manchester times from September. The team was a much improved 11th from last year.

So many PR’s is the perfect way to end the season.


— Coach Reynolds





Capital Area Championships

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WHAT. A. RACE.  

You want to stay away from superlatives when making comparisons, but I can’t remember a race where the team exceeded expectations by such a margin. Let’s jump ahead and go through the results. Sam - a season PR by a bunch, and her best time since freshman year. Lily - actually passed Sam at the two mile mark, and ran a PR of about a minute and a half. Madison - PR of a minute and a half. Sydney - a PR of OVER TWO MINUTES. Kendra, a season PR of over a minute, and only about 6 seconds off her overall PR. Jessi, an all-time PR. Emmaleigh, just a few seconds off her PR. Anna - season PR, maybe an overall PR? Nicole - PR of a minute+. Lydia - PR of over a minute and first sub-30 race! Taylor was close to her PR as well. Overall 5th place out of 10 full teams (and 6 other non-full ones), beating teams that beat us earlier in the year and getting a team time average a whopping FIVE MINUTES (and 17 seconds) faster than our first (HOT) home meet on September 3rd. In fact, that average time (which is an average of the 5 fastest times) is the 7th fastest MV time average (of about 30) since the current course was created in 2012, and the fastest since 2019. The seniors sure went out in style!

The weather cooperated yet again, giving us a perfect temperature for racing. The course was fast and dry, even resulting in a course record on the boys side. While I wasn’t able to get out on the course too much due to race director responsibilities, I was able to see the front of the race play out a bit, and saw some great kicks by all the girls. We are putting all those strides to work! Capping off the day was a little recognition of the seniors; super awesome posters for all created by Jessi, nicely gift wrapped succulents from Maddy and Kendra, and the ubiquitous cactus - see if you can make it last until college! Seniors - thanks for all the years you have given the team; you are such a special bunch and are the reason why the team is so wonderful. Please keep in touch with us and come back and visit often!






Post-script - the next day. 

“I don’t get it, all you do in cross country is run. Who runs for fun?” We’ve all heard it, probably multiple times a week. And there’s not really an answer. How do you describe cross country to someone who just doesn’t know? How can you describe a run like we had today (sorry to those who missed it)? Today was the perfect XC run; here’s a recap: Pretty Loop - 4.5 miles. In an effort to make it more new, we ran through trails not used in 5 years due to new construction. To avoid trespassing, we ran down an overgrown trail where someone discovered a snake. Emmaleigh, the snake whisperer, picked it up only to discover it apparently “peed” on her, causing her to throw it at Kendra. Shrieks! Then it was off to the river, passing some manual train cars on the way. “Is this river salt or freshwater, Mr. Irving? Fresh? But it flows into the ocean, doesn’t it?” Real quotes. We found a beautiful point of rocks on the riverbank and named it “Awesome Point”, just downstream of “Awesome Island”, because Samantha gave a speech presenting the Awesome Award to Lily. Then it was off to continue the run, delayed briefly by a very scenic bench and climbing tree, where we will return for a photo shoot next week. Off to the trail, where at some point Sydney hit the dirt, and on to visit the cows. Then it was Kendra’s turn to wipe out, this time drawing blood and adding a third scar perhaps? The agony of the fall was soon forgotten as a discarded bike was discovered, at which point a very friendly elderly Asian man appeared out of nowhere, and with very limited English let us know it was a beautiful day and that we were all beautiful too. We gave him the bike. Back to the cows on another part of the fence, where we met a man with a bag of old pears that we attempted to feed to the very uninterested cows. Did we accidentally poison them? Google says no. One more time running up BFG, except for Sam who chose to run up the RBFG and made it somehow. So, just a 4.5 mile run in the woods. I do know we finished with very full hearts.






Bow - 10/12/22

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With the smell of fallen leaves cross country in the air, MVXC arrived at Bow for a mid-week duel meet, our first mid-week duel since the infamous “Meh” meet, aka Violet’s Demise. Initially it had the feeling of another meh kind of day, but the race had other plans…

Arriving in plenty of time for a casual course walk, Sydney quickly commandeered the disc golf disc that Coach Irving brought and threw threw threw threw, amazingly not decapitating anyone (although the one and only time a boys team member did we almost were not so lucky). A blast from the past showed up to cheer for the girls and take part in our warm-up - Bridget Tevnan - the eldest of the three Tevnan’s who ran for MV. A 2011 graduate now living in Reno, NV and now dipping her toe into the ultra running scene, Bridget was a member of two state runner-up squads, our only New England Championship qualifying team, and a member of the only XC team to ever win a state title - the 2006 Middle School Championships (coached by Mrs. Irving!). The number of alumni we have showing up at our races makes everyone’s hearts warm, and goes to show the life-long bonds we create and the special place that MVXC is. Seniors, you will ALWAYS be welcomed back! It’s not the end of the book, just a new chapter.

On to the race. Sam, winner of the Awesome Award at Plymouth, lit fire to the course at Bow. It was an inspiring run, going from 5th to 4th to finally 3rd place in her season-best time on a legit 5k course, and a tough one at that! Sam is BACK! It was like the course kept tipping downhill as she kept getting faster and faster. On that note, I do hereby proclaim and override any alternative decision by Sam and award her the Awesome Award for the second consecutive race.

I am losing track of PR’s, but I do know that Lily was close, as was Maddy, to also running season best times (again, Plymouth was short). Paired up, they were stronger together - as our XBox CTR racing character always says. Kendra hung tough with them over two miles and faded just a bit over the final mile, but still finished as our 4th runner, just ahead of Sydney - who has become a consistent presence in the top 5. Jessi and Victoria were another race-long duo and less than a minute back to round out the top 7. Emmaleigh only needed 9 toes to run a solid time, while Anna, on a brief break from country music concerts, finished with a very good time and a KILLER kick. There was a girl closing on her in the backstretch who Anna reduced to shambles and outkicked by about 100 meters. Nicole, Tessa, and Lydia finished one after the other, while Taylor wrapped things up for the team. Somehow she powered through despite not having her faithful friend from Bow this year to chat about their latest Pinterest discoveries. All in all, a very fun, enjoyable, and FAST day!





Plymouth Invitational

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With Holey Otie in attendance and leaves drifting from the trees, you knew it was going to be a good afternoon at the Plymouth John Sanborn Invitational. A touch on the warm side and a slightly modified course were the only negatives, which were soon forgotten as the chase for falling leaves consumed the course walk. Many were caught, ensuring good races for several runners. The scene of Madison’s 2021 Calamity was revisited, this time with no damage. After final spike adjustments and ribbon-tying the girls made the long walk to the starting line.

Buoyed by the prospect of a roll-off after the race, Samantha was full into competitive mode and back to leading the team through the trails, and all was right with the world. She fought up the hill to finish in 10th place, snagging the first medal of the day for the MVXC girls. Only 22 seconds back was Lily in 12th, who ran with Maddy for most of the race until the hill, where she used Moser Magic to reverse gravity and FLY up the hill and continue on to grab MVXC medal #2. Just another few seconds back was Maddy in 14th, only slightly tired from stopping to sign autographs - many had come out to see the Seed 4 Thetford Champ run the Plymouth trails. Now it was up to Kendra…20th! No, 19th! No, now 20th again! Or was it 21st? Well, since she finally didn’t WALK ;) it was indeed 20th spot and good for yet another medal. 4 medals for the team is quite a haul! Kudos to Kendra for giving Holey Otie the recognition he deserved at the awards ceremony.

Sydney was able to channel some residual Moser Magic and cranked the uphill to finish as the 5th and final scorer, locking the team into a solid 4th place on the day. Victoria and Jessi placed as MV’s 6th and 7th, with Jessi using the POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING. 

After fending the freshmen off from the free food table…Wait, girls!...it was on to the real competition of the day. The Great Thetford Roll Off, delayed one week, was on. While the odds makers had two-time defending champion Sam-a-lama pegged as the favorite, up-and-comers Sydney and Keira were not to be overlooked. The energy those two contain could possibly result in such a fast rotation that they would burrow into the ground. At the cowbell, however, it was evident that Sam was going out a champion, rolling with such speed and aggression that she continued rolling well beyond the stand-up flag and thumbing her nose back at Syd whose world was spinning far too rapidly to move. Keira did manage to close the gap at the end to finish as runner-up, but Samantha is now the FIRST EVER THREE-TIME THETFORD ROLL-OFF CHAMPION! Congratulations to you, Sam, and best of luck to everyone else next year.

Plymouth was a great meet for the MV Boys. We had eight healthy and racing resulting in 7 PR's and 1 Season's Best on the day. Right from the start the boys were running fast. Mychal, Marshall, Oliver, Nate, Terrence and Ben all at or near the front of the pack as they ran around the field and down the hill. When they came around after the first lap Mychal was running in 9th with... Oliver! Terrence was hot on their heels and Marshall another few seconds back. Just a little way back were Ryan, Nate and Ben. The top 7 within a minute of each other and looking great. Next onto the field was Holden well ahead of PR pace and running strong.

Up at the top of the hill near the ski jump the boys started streaming out of the woods for the finish. Mychal had held on to 10th in a strong finish with another PR of 18:35. Oliver came next followed closely by Terrence, both breaking 19 for the first time in big PR's of 18:47 and 18:57. Marshall grabbed the last medal in 19:32 (though he thought he was 21st). They boys earned 4 medals finishing 10th, 14th, 17th and 20th finishing within a minute of each other. Ryan finished with a big sprint and narrowly missed breaking twenty in 20:01. Nate was right there with him in a PR at 20:14 and Ben almost broke 21 finishing in 21:10 for the sixth PR of the day.

Finishing off a near perfect day was Holden, taking nearly 4 minutes off his previous best to set a new PR of 27:28!






Thetford Woods Trail Race

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The beginning of the fall foliage season saw us at Thetford, for our annual journey to the land of music, Morty, great t-shirts, and fun fast racing. A unique race with no JV or Varsity race, the race instead puts runners in 5 different seeded sections based on predicted time.

An early arrival gave us the opportunity to take a leisurely course walk, which included a geocache discovery of a Trojan Horse by Kendra and Maddy (who actually missed seeing the massive horse in the woods despite being the one with the phone map). After touring Kendra’s woods house, it was back to the start for the races.

The first high school race, Seed 5, had the most girls in it. Blitzing out to the lead and blasting through to a new PR and a third-place medal was Sydney, again cutting chunks out of her run times. Just missing a ribbon in 17th place was Emmaleigh with another very solid run, while Keira was almost a minute back with a solid 24th place run. On to the Seed 4 race with four MV girls, and again we had a leader out of the gate. This time it was Maddy, and she never relinquished the lead, pulling farther and farther ahead to place first and break the tape in her best time ever. Running a back and forth race and also placing 17th, just out of ribbon-land was Kendra, but still staying solid with a sub-26 effort. Seed 3 and Seed 2 each featured one MV runner each, Lily and Samantha respectively. Both ran gutsy races and actually ran times within 5 seconds of each other to finish as our 3rd and 2nd runners on the day. Overall, the girls had their best finish of the season, 24th out of 34 complete teams, defeating 10 teams!



Manchester Invitational - 9/24/22

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Derryfield Park, the home of the Divisional Championships at the end of October, hosted the Manchester Invitational on Saturday, the largest cross country meet in New Hampshire and one of the largest in New England. The weather couldn't have been better, with temperatures in the 50’s and a cooling breeze. Our canopy wasn’t a big fan of the breeze, but it lives to shelter us another day thanks to Violet rescuing it at the risk of soaring off to Oz.




“Fast Braids”, a Manchester Tradition

With two girls absent and one on crutches due to a hole at Souhegan’s horse farm, we were able to place all runners in 5k races, the Junior Varsity “B” race and the Varsity race. After a casual course walk with our annual cannon and tower photo shoot, the JV girls lined up. A historic course unchanged since about 1980, this course is the true measuring stick used to compare races through history. And what a race the girls had on this day, highlighted by Emmaleigh’s all-time personal record! She looked strong and determined all the way through and almost slipped into the 25-minute range! Not to be outdone, Keira took over a minute off her PR to throw the gauntlet down at Sydney (racing in the next race), while Nicole and Tessa BOTH broke the big 30 minute barrier for the first time, although there were some fraught moments as the clock ticked ever closer near the end. While Anna didn’t PR she did run her best time of the season, while Taylor survived the EXCELSCIOR (high school) gang and a head cold to finish well.




An hour later it was the varsity girls turn. Knowing from the earlier races that the course was in good shape and times were quick the girls ran with confidence. Sam gave it a go and fought through fatigue to run a brave race as our third finisher - so important for team scoring. Surprising herself by running as MV’s #1 on the day was Lily, who was so concerned for Sam’s whereabouts that she was speaking complete sentences to the coach at the top of the ski hill. Who still has breath enough to talk there? She also PR’d, going well under 24 minutes for the first time. Maddy was next, with her best race of the year and not too far off her PR. She was a little frustrated after, noting that if she had run a little faster then her time would have been a little quicker…because that’s the way that works:) !! Chasing Sam and also running her best race of the season was Kendra, followed by a sneaky fast Victoria (also just a few seconds off her all-time PR). If the course was a hair longer maybe she would have won… Our 6th runner, running in her first varsity race was Sydney, picking up Keira’s gauntlet and tossing it back with almost a THREE MINUTE PR, running in the 25’s and completely skipping the 26’s and 27’s. I’m not sure if anyone ran that last mile as quick as she did - and the determination on her face made it look like she could mow anyone down. Jessi wrapped things up for the team with (I believe) her best race of the year as well. All in all a tremendous day for MVXC racing!

— Coach Irving

Boys Recap

The MV boys went into the Manchester Invitational a little anxious and down 2 teammates to illness.  It was a perfect day temperature wise despite the stiff breeze which at least was a tail wind up the hill from the start.  They started the day with Holden in the Freshmen race.  He’s been battling back from sore knees and ran a solid sub-20 effort that points him at a sub 30 in his next 5k.

Next up was Sam coming back from a very sore knee.  His training has been good with some consistent 2-3 mile days.  He ran the 2.1 mile JV race to be safe and he made the most of it, getting off to such a great start that he was firmly and invisibly in the pack on the first lap of the park.  We found him coming down off the hill and he finished strong in 15:38.  

Silas had the honor of the first boys 5k of the day and he was fabulous.  He got off to a great start.  As he headed up the hill his Derryfield PR looked like it was in trouble.  Coming back up towards the finish tree he looked like he had it, and he finished strong for a 42 second Derryfield PR in a time of 24:47.

The big finale for the boys was the Small School Varsity race.  Marshall, Oliver, Terrence, Mychal and Ben lined up and excited to race at Derryfield.  They got off to a great start with everyone staying vertical in the mud and Oliver even smiling as he went through.  They got to the mile in less than 6 minutes led by Marshal with Mychal, Terrence and Oliver right behind.  When they came down from the hill Mychal had a little gap on his teammates and finished strong in 18:48 for a huge PR.  Marshall followed less than a minute later in 19:40 followed by Oliver in 19:47 and Terrence in 19:47.  Some great pack running.  Ben rounded out the day in 21:12.  Everyone had a seasons best or a PR.

— Coach Reynolds

Newfound Invitational - 9/20/22

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The Sam Stare-down. Sam and Lily vs Ceili and Addie (of Newfound)

A meet and a course new to us; very unusual and very fun! We used to go to the Belmont Invitational, but replaced it with the Thetford Invitational. While we would never not go to Thetford, everyone’s favorite meet, Belmont has been missed with it’s smaller DIII schools, tough course, and top-ten t-shirts. While Newfound may not have had the t-shirts, it did have a different mix of schools for a change of pace. Also it had Coach Irving’s daughter! - running for Newfound. Mrs. Irving did a great job meeting the requirements of beng a double fan, with a Newfound top and MVXC sweatpants.

Striking fear into the hearts of the team with tales of hills with names and rooty rocky single-track, not to mention an additional 150 meters, we arrived to find that all of it was…true. Not an easy course by any stretch, and certainly not a fast one either, but definitely unique and maybe even fun. Attitudes were much better than a week previous (we are RUNNERS, gosh darn it!), and pre-race procedures were smooth. A course that was surprisingly good for spectators, we saw Sam always in contention, always between 7th and 8th place, eventually claiming 8th place for the first MV award of the season. Her time was under the old course record of 24:11, breaking into the 23’s on a course that must run at least a minute or more slow. Wearing her new-to-her magic slippers (spikes), Lily ran the best race of her fledgling high school career to finish 13th, not too far ahead of Maddy, who declared that she “had a good time”. Interesting definition of a good time, but yes, all runners know exactly what you mean!  Our 4th runner, the hippity hip sore hipster Kendra, got to meet another Kendra for the first time EVER! You are welcome for the opportunity, Kendra-dra! 5th in, our final scorer on the day, was Victoria. Playing the silent ninja the entire race, she passed approximately 2,536 runners over the final 2 miles. A very solid time, we think, although as of this writing results are not yet in. Very solid runs were had by the rest of the team - it was a great day to be a member of the MVXC Pride Family!

Souhegan (The "Meh" Race) - 9/13/22

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A suspicious sky threatened just enough that weaker minds may have canceled the XC race, yet the tougher minds prevailed and the race was on! Although, judging by the majority view of the team that sentence needed to be followed by a frowny face rather than an exclamation point. “Every announcement I kept thinking (hoping) the race would get canceled!” was a common theme. This “meh” attitude led to plenty of “meh” races, but a decidedly non-”meh” speech in the following days by a certain coach. I wish I could quote it, although a certain phrase referencing structures built by beavers keeps getting quoted by those who were there. It was a movie moment. 

Anyhow, the course was beautiful, on a horse farm with several ponds and miles of trails. And among the ho-hum races were several that stood out, particularly by Keira and Sydney (haha, I still have your whoopie pie, Syd!), and eventual AWESOME AWARD winner, Kendra! It is coming into Kendra season now, so look out! Only a photo of results was provided, but here are the final times and places:

Out of 25 racers -

  • 4th, Samantha, 23:40

  • 7th, Lily, 25:25

  • 8th, Madison, 25:31

  • 9th, Kendra, 26:36

  • 10th, Violet, 27:11

  • 11th, Jessi, 27:40

  • 12th, Victoria, 28:40

  • 13th, Sydney, 28:45

  • 14th, Keira, 28:50

  • 18th, Tessa, 32:44

  • 19th, Emmaleigh, 33:49

  • 20th, Anna, 33:50

  • 22nd, Lydia, 35:45

  • 23rd, Taylor, 38:04

  • 24th, Felix, 38:32

Great Glen - 9/10/22

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Results PDF Soon…

Lo, and on the 6th day the team arrived at Great Glen with much aplomb. Harken, is that cannon fire in the distance? Vikings, vikings! Beware the berserkers! Wait…’tis just musket fire. And nary a worry, as Kendra perfected knife-throwing on the warm-up through the ville. Over hill and dale the racers trod the trail on the course walk, undaunted by the “Dragon’s Corridor”, “Frenchman’s Curve” nor the much feared “Twister”.

Harken - it is time for the race of the Junior Varsity! And thus they were off, stampeding feet and beating hearts! Beware the Irving on the bike - lest you walk up a hill - he is everywhere! Finally, stampeding to the finish in record time comes our brave harriers in a group - Sydney, Emmaleigh, Anna, and Keira - the freshmen with gargantuan PR’s! The crown awaited with bated breath the arrival of the next…Tessa, and another PR! Lydia and Taylor strode forth from the dank woods to complete the episode.

Fear not, ye lovers of race, for another call to the line has sounded and it is time for the varsity! Off, to the sound of the bugle whistle - they bound down the lane like deer in the fall. Down the dale, up the hill, around frypan corner they flew, never quitting, never giving an inch. “This is madness!”, one squirrel shrieked. In the end it was Sam, with fire streaming from her spikes, crossing in a season-best time. Next, in a PR, it’s Lily, yelling “I scorn you, scurvy competitor!” as she flashes past everyone in the homestretch. Now Maddy, a lion running like a gazelle - through the line as MV’s 3rd! Now Violet, with her magic making the second half of the trail entirely downhill, overcoming great obstacles to finish as our 4th. Now, valiantly, Jessi and Kendra stride forth, having fought off bears (Newfound) and other beasts to surge across the line. And Victoria - nary 30 seconds later, stalking and hunting runners to the end. Three cheers for the Pride of the Valley!

Finally, it’s Coach Irving’s turn. Despite tremendous encouragement from the team, he loafed and loitered, stumbled and slid, until finally the line was there to receive his near-dead body. Straight to the water did he go, lest he should melt away into a pool of sweat.

A rapturious dinner was provided by Five Guys, courtesy of cows - both in beef and milkshake form, wrapping up another wonderful day in the mountains. Rejoice!

Coe-Brown - 9/7/22

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Due to bussing issues, it was practically still morning by the time the cross country team was dismissed for their second meet of the year; a 5 team “duel” meet at Coe-Brown. The weather was much better than meet number one, and our first trip back to the Black Bear course since COVID looked to provide some fast times.




Over the first mile Samantha was cruising along in 3rd/4th place, while not far behind Maddy and Lily, trailed by Kendra-dra, surprised themselves by hitting the mile mark in 7:30. Jessie also had a good start, while Emmaleigh was flirting with torpedoing her chances of running in the JV race at Great Glen by running as the 6th girl. Over the next couple miles to the finish the race worked itself out. While most girls did end up improving their time by minutes over last weeks “Scorcha!”, Sam instead did the impossible and ran the EXACT same time, down to the second, finishing 6th behind a trio of paced runners from Conant. Staying consistent and dropping under 25 minutes much earlier than last year was Maddy, placing 15th of the 54 racers. Lily kept it close to Maddy, finishing just over the 25 minute mark to take 17th. Moving up a spot was Jessie, snagging a top-25 spot, with Kendra the next runner across as our 5th runner to close out the scoring. Emmaleigh, perhaps realizing a t-shirt was on the line, was overtaken by a strong-running Violet in 33rd and a late-charging Victoria in 34th, leaving Em. as the 8th runner (in 35th), keeping the Great Glen t-shirt goal alive (I sure hope this is not the year they don’t offer them to the top 10!). Even if she doesn’t get a shirt she was still awarded the Awesome Award for her great run!




Sydney nearly broke the 30-minute mark and finished 39th, while Kiera ran a sneaky quick second half to finish only 11 seconds back in 40th. Anna  found time to race in between country music concerts and was the next across in 41st, followed by freshman Nicole, in 44th. Our final 9th-grader, Tessa, finished 46th, soon followed by Taylor (with a solid run!) in 49th, and Lydia in 50th, running her first race of the year. Great job everybody!

First Home Meet - 8/30/22

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Tuesday was MV’s first meet,

Running, racing in the heat.

The runners thought that they would melt,

It was the hottest temps they’d ever felt.




Racing past miles one and two,

One to go, almost through.

Finally they sprint across the line,

(Just ignore that finish time).


“Write it all in rhyme”, says my wife

I say “that will take my whole life!”

But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,

This will just take a little longer.

“On your mark, get set and go”

They were off, and none too slow.

At the front there was a pack,

With Sam in front, sometimes in back.

At the end she got third place,

Despite the heat a great race!

Lily was the next across,

Passing many like a BOSS.



Maddy and Jessie raced side-by-side,

When the trail was narrow and when it was wide.

They finished as our three and four…

Who’s our fifth to complete the score?



It’s Victoria! Across the last mile!

(it’s true that on the course I saw her smile).

Then Anna, taking the Awesome Award,

The colorful jersey is her reward.


Violet was our next runner,

Sporting a great haircut from the summer.

Then Kendra, not feeling the best,

But never quitting, never taking a rest.




Next was Sydney from Grade nine,

With Emmaleigh not far behind.

Keira, Nicole, and Tessa in a bunch,

Across the gravel, crunch, crunch, crunch.

There’s one left, Teresa’s here!

“Go Go Go!” the team does cheer.

Time for a slushie, time to cool down,

And one week from today…

Off to Coe-Brown!


Our times weren’t the best, but we gave it our all,

We’ll just keep getting better and faster this Fall!






Pre-Season!

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The 2022 MVXC season kicked off on the last “real” day of school with our first “Kick-Off Cookout” since 2019, graciously hosted by the Kimballs. Being a running team we of course started the festivities off with a run, followed by a TON of delicious food, some slip-n-sliding, and of course…the official game of the MVXC Team…Nuke-Em!

A long hot summer saw a couple of us meet up in Stowe for the 100on100 Relay Race. 9th-grader Lily and 12-grader Sam joined forces with Coach Irving, his daughter (Ceili, a 9th-grader at Newfound), and alumni Emma York (currently running for UNH) and Kristi Schoffield, fresh off her NCAA victory in the 800 Championships. Each runner ran three times for a total of between 14 and 19 miles. The team did very well, finishing about 22nd out of 80 teams. The entire team finally back together in August for the 17th Annual Pre-Season trip to the White Mountains. Rain, running, more rain, hiking, some more rain, a trip to Whales Tale (in the rain), and loads of food filled the week. Our hike up one of the Whites most infamous trails, the North Slide of Tripyramid, was very successful (and rainy), with only one set of tears and no need to call for a rescue helicopter. It’s always a win when everyone survives! Kudos to the athletes for having a great time despite the weather. Lots of Nike-em and Mafia distracted us, and ZERO bears for a change.

The final pre-meet event was the 2nd Annual Women’s Running Clinic, which saw the girls team go to Bedford for clinics on the mental aspects of running, elite panels, exercise and stretching, and everyone’s favorite, self-defense.