Division II Championship
/
— 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