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!