DII State Championship

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There was not a cloud in the sky the morning of the Division II State Championships. Definitely not “Kendra Weather” either, as we say, as the high for the day approached 80 degrees. Quite the opposite scenario of one year prior when the frost was so thick it looked like snow. Regardless, the team was fit and ready to run, cooled by the Gatorade towels that are brought out on hot special occasions.

The goal of the day was a top-ten finish, and after strides in the sparse shade and ditching the towels, the girls were off (from a great start position high on the hill!). By a half mile in it was apparent that everyone got a good start, with Lily and Maddy in the 30’s and Sydney close behind. Not much actually changed throughout the race, with the exception of Emily surging forward and BOTH of Keira’s shoes staying on (thanks Duct Tape!). Lily finished just out of MOC position in 29th, with Maddy only 6 spots back. Emily had the race of the day with the team’s only PR, not surprising due to the weather. We did accomplish the goal of a top-ten finish, and were only 20 points away from missing a team trip to the Meet of Champions. With 100% of the scoring team returning next year, I think we have found our goal!


Capital Area Cross Country Championships

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So…a week late with this one! In my defense there is a general write up of the meet posted on NHXC written promptly by yours truly, but not specifically for our team, the bestest team in the universe. So here it is…

The Capital Area Cross Country Championship is one of the oldest meets in the state, started in the late 70’s by my former high school coach (for two years), John Goegel. After running it for 30+ years he handed it off to myself, and we’ve hosted it at Merrimack Valley ever since (12 years or so?). I’ve been runner-up twice back in the 90’s, and I believe Coach Maxfield won it in 1988 or so. It is a meet with a lot of local history. 





The meet starts with the gender-combined JV race. There is a fair amount on the line, as typically placement at Cap. Area is the single largest determinant of the State Meet Varsity team (but not the only determinant), and JV times count. Certainly the top finisher is at least likely to be the alternate. But with many positions in flux over the season, while the top 6 were pretty set, the 7th and 8th spots were really up for grabs. The race was quick, with 3 of the 4 MV contenders setting season or personal bests, but the race of the day went to Nicole in a PR, her first time under 27! Now it was just a wait and see for the varsity race to determine her spot on the team. Also highlighting the race was the final race by our sole senior, Eliza, who ran a strong race and finished with a smile on her face! She received the traditional cactus to take to college or wherever her travels may take her upon graduation.






After a gap for the boys race it was time for the girls. Right from the gun it was made clear that the winner would have to fight off MV, as Lily and Maddy went right to the front with Sydney on their heels. The early pace did eventually cool off, but Maddy was able to ride the early rush to a whopping 0.49 second PR of 22:00.59. That was enough to place her as 10th on MV’s All-Time list for the Ravine Course (since 2012) and 19th overall in the race. Running an all-time PR, and only 17 seconds behind Maddy was Sydney, scoring a 25th place ribbon. Despite getting caught up in the cycle of frustration after her hot start Lily stayed strong and squeaked into the awards in 29th place, still running a respectable time in the process. Lily showed her perseverance today! Keira continued her fantastic fall campaign, taking another chunk off her time to solidify her spot on the team. It was a little bit of a wait for the 5th and final scoring team member to cross, but in the end it was Kendra just ahead of Emily. Both ran solid races, and Emily demonstrated great toughness by battling through a painful cramp. Reagan was our 7th and final runner, and despite running a fantastic first two miles finished just a bit slower than Nicole’s time, putting Nicole on the State Meet team. Reagan did run fast enough to stay on as our 8th alternate, a spot that’s been needed probably a third of the time over the years. Not a bad showing for someone who had never run XC before this fall!






Bow 10-11-23

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Fast times and sparkly cheeks were on the menu at our annual dual at Bow on Wednesday. Faced with a much shorter than usual bus ride, which meant listening to much less drama and saving our energy from that, the team arrived refreshed and ready to tackle the course in the beautiful fall weather. We had a nice course stroll and even included some disc golf practice on the trails before the race started. Maddy as usual provided some awesome ribbons, while Coach Irving pulled out a surprise…face glitter! Actually, it turned out to be FAST glitter!

The team looked sharp at the starting line, and looked sharp off the line as well, with a large group of MV girls zipping to the front. The race roughly broke down into three groups of three - Lily, Maddy, and Sydney up front, Keira, Emily, and Kendra a couple minutes back, and just behind them a group of Tessa, Reagan, and Nicole. Lydia took the role as race ambulance.

While the race didn’t evolve much up front, there was a lot of movement in the next two groups, with a nice battle with Bow girls and Keira and Reagan.

At the finish, a runner from Bow took first place, but then it was MV 1-2-3, with Lily, Maddy, and Sydney all crossing within a minute of each other in solid times. Then came the PR’s. Keira across as MV’s #4, with yet another PR, and…EMILY!! with a 2-minute PR, skipping the 26’s entirely and running in the 25’s. She played the role as team hero, stepping up for our normal #5 Kendra, who finished just back as our 6th. Reagan is back for real now, as she also ran a PR and almost broke the 27-minute mark. Super-fast Tessa showed up today, also running a PR (that I didn’t notice until later, sorry Tessa!), followed by Nicole in yet ANOTHER PR. Bow is not a PR type of course, so these are good signs of things to come! Ambulance Lydia did her good deed of the day, stopping to check on a fallen runner (who was fine, but did need a ride off the course). In the end, MV nipped Bow, which is what we came here to do. It was a great day by everyone, and a good start to Fast Sparkles!




Thetford Invitational

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Results Links Girls Boys

On Saturday the team travelled to Thetford Vermont, site of the Thetford Trail Run. Thetford is to Vermont as Derryfield is to New Hampshire, and is a famously challenging course, home to Vermont’s State Meets as well as the New England Championships when they are held in Vermont. With it’s unique schedule of races, funky music, wonky t-shirts, and affordable food (free for coaches and bus drivers!) it is high on everyone’s favorite race lists.

Our day started early, with a 7 am bus departure. It rained a bit on our drive up and on the drive home, but other than a brief sprinkle during the course walk the day stayed surprisingly dry (and warm). We skipped the yurt on this years course walk, but did pay a visit to the trojan horse! Paying us a visit were several alumni - Ryan, Anna, Emmaleigh, and Sam, all from the class of ‘23; and current New Balance professional athlete Kristie from the class of ‘17. It is so great to have these reunions!

The races are broken up into 5 sections, based on predicted time. We had runners in the Seed 5, Seed 4, and Seed 3 races. Up first in Seed 5 was Eliza, Lydia, Nicole, Reagan, and Emily. Emily quickly demonstrated that she was there to RACE, going right to the lead pack and never backing down, eventually crossing the line in 6th, with a time that was almost a PR and earning the first ribbon of the day, given to the first 15 runners in each race. Reagan and Nicole were in the hunt for the first two miles for a top-15 finish, but Morty the Monster took his toll over the final mile. Nicole did squeak under the 30-minute mark by a whopping 4/1000ths of a second, finishing in 25th place. Reagan had a great first race back from injury, finishing just behind in 28th. Eliza ran a very smartly-paced race, finishing 51st of the 92 runners, while Lydia conquered the course a defeated 20 racers in the process.

Seed 4 had Kendra, Tessa, Kiera, and Sydney lining up. With reigning Seed 4 champion Maddy moving up to Seed 3 a new champion needed to be crowned. After a visit to Keira and Tessa the goats, the human Keira, Tessa, and the others were more than ready to go. 1/3rd of mile into the race Sydney had already taken the lead with confidence, with Keira and Kendra not far back in a chase group. A mile into the course it was a two-girl race with Sydney and another girl, while Keira had worked her way up into the top 10. A mile later, just before Morty’s Monster, Sydney had taken charge and was all alone in first. She had the look of a champion in her eyes. Keira was looking great in 6th, but the question of course was…the hill? Would she survive? The highlight of the day happened shortly after, as Sydney became the second MV winner of Seed 4 in the last 2 years, breaking the tape just over 24 minutes and earning a gold medal. Keira, meanwhile, did survive the hill, coming into view of the finish still in 6th and cranking out an awesome kick to snag 5th, good for the third award on the day. Kendra and Tessa each had a bit of a rough go of things, but survived to race another day. Their ability to keep going in the face of difficulties is a testament to their fortitude!

Lily (2nd), Emily (6th), Maddy (13th), Keira (5th), and Sydney (1st) show of their hardware

The Seed 3 race was our last race of the day, with Lily and Maddy representing the Pride. Lily had fire in her eyes, and was intent on taming Morty, who gave her some difficulties last year. After a good start in the top 10, Lily moved into solo 2nd and managed to stay there the whole way, earning our 4th award and second medal on the day. Maddy, defending Seed 4 champ, ran a strong race despite feeling a little less than perfect. Flirting with the top 15 the whole race, she eventually came out the woods in 14th and outkicked (and outleaned) the next girl to snag 13th place and our 5th and final award.

The famous “Thetford Roll-Off” wrapped up the day for us, with the whole team rolling down a grassy hill then sprinting across a soccer field. Three-time winner Sam was present but not eligible to roll. Pre-roll favorite Keira showed why she was the favorite, crushing field to take her first win.

John Stark (Sidehill Wampus) 10-4-23

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Hot weather, team running, sidehills…it’s the SIDEHILL WAMPUS! Wednesday we raced at John Stark (our must-beat team at States this year) and tested out pack running and sidehilling. With Thetford on Saturday, and the temperature hotter than a billie goat with a blowtorch, we took a different approach to racing and did not focus on time, instead focused on pack running and pacing.

The start made the groupings a little complicated, as we only got two on the line, separated by three other schools. By the time the racers exited the track however, Lily, Maddy, Kendra, Sydney, and Keira (recently promoted to “squad” status) had found each other, as had Emily, Nicole, Tessa, and Eliza. The GoPro found it’s way into Maddy’s hands soon after, and the rest of the first mile was filled with brief interviews, exclamations, and many refrains of “Lily, slow down!” Either Lily has a hard time not going 100% all the time, or she really didn’t want to be interviewed. Ever the competitor, Sydney was always a shadow by Lily’s side, moving forward until reprimanded by Maddy, returning to the group only to stretch off the front again. By the mile and a half the pack was running in about 12 place, while the second group didn’t really retain structure for more than the first half mile or so. Once released, Lily and Maddy steadily moved forward, catching everyone save the first two to finish 3rd and 4th. Sydney was her usual minute behind in 8th, while Keira and Kendra raced together all the way to the line only 24 seconds behind Sydney. Mission accomplished!

Emily, in her first race with magic slippers (spikes), ran surprisingly close to her PR with little effort, followed by a sub-30 run by Nicole. Tessa, nursing some foot pain, was next across, while Eliza ran her best paced race yet to finish 20th. Lydia finished 24th to wrap up the racing for MV. Everyone survived the heat and the sidehills once again, but Lily came pretty close to being devoured by the “mouth” at the weird rock art instillation. Emily of course literally just dove right through.

Belmont Invitational

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Results Soon…

With no takers on our planned homecoming meet, we were faced with a 10 day gap in the schedule. As fate would have it, the Belmont Invitational changed it’s usual date in 2023, and we were finally able to run it again as a team for the first time since maybe 2015. Unfortunately it no longer gave out awards or the famous t-shirts, but it still gave us an opportunity to race a low-key race against mostly DIII schools, with a couple DII schools thrown in.

The upside-down start saw the boys out on the course first, with the girls second. The start was a rather chaotic, sudden affair, but the MV girls got out well anyways. Maddy, Lily, and Sydney tripled up and made up a chunk of the lead chase pack with a crew from Mascenic and a couple Newfound runners. Keeping it close was Keira, rocking the pink heart shades for lap #1. After one loop and one trip up the lengthy hill, the pack began to break up, although MV’s top three remained within 40 seconds of each other all the way to the end. Lily and Maddy both finished in the top ten, 9th and 10th respectively, so they earn imaginary t-shirts.

Sydney was only two spots back, and may have set a PR on the converted time. She also crushed her kick, as you can see in the photo above. Keira, not to be outdone, also crushed her kick, and in the process set a converted time PR for the second race in a row. 5th for MV in a time that was a minute better than her previous race was Kendra, who ALSO outkicked someone! Strides, strides, strides! Actually, it’s really about heart, and that is something our team has in abundance! A little gap back to Tessa, followed closely by Emily and Nicole, all under 30 and Emily with another PR. Lydia closed out the race for MV with her best time of the season. On to John Stark and the Side Hill Wampus!

Manchester Invitational

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A perfect early fall day presented itself for the largest race of the year, and the only NH race older than Capital Area - the Manchester Invitational. With every New England state plus New York represented it was an early opportunity to race the historic Derryfield Park course, home of the Division championships in a month.

After a very tough block of training the girls took a couple easy days following the Newfound Invitational and approached the race well-rested and ready to race. Our course walk included the traditional visit to the cannons and the team tower photo shoot, and a surprise visit from the local turkey flock. Once back Kendra worked the muscles on her fingers out with one dutch (NOT french Coach Irving!) braid after another, although brand-new braider Lily shouldered some of the load. And while the TP supply could have used some help, the porta-potties were out in full force, easing pre-race line-waiting stress.

Our first race of the day was the Girls B race (the freshman and C race each only run 2.1 miles, which is why we try to avoid those). We of course got our usual “random” line assignment of “way the heck down at the bottom of the hill in the mud and don’t complain”, but the girls were unfazed. In fact, once the gun fired it became apparent that this race marked a giant step forward for the team - everyone was running so well! Reagan started off the PR’s, with a HUGE (5 minute?) PR of 27:26. She discovered in the process that it is HARD to run that fast and took a while to catch her breath, but now you know you can do it! Next up with a massive best time was Emily, almost breaking 28 minutes in the process. Nicole also zipped under 30 for the first time this year, only a few seconds back in 28:45. That all-time PR is in reach! Eliza and Lydia each also ran season-best times and took steps towards the ever elusive 30 minute mark.

The girls Small School Varsity was our next race, one hour later. Hair braided, shoes tied and tucked, the team just LOOKED fast. There was something in the air. Lily got the race going with a 6:51 mile. 20 seconds back Maddy and Sydney ran through, with Keira and Kendra close to each other with a mile time just under 8 minutes. Over the next two miles Lily stayed solid in about the same place, while Maddy absolutely crushed the final miles (and the hills) to finish within 10 seconds of Lily.

Sydney couldn’t quite match Maddy’s hill climbs or the final mile push, but still finished over two minutes faster than last year. In the end, Lily ran an all-time PR of 21:50, a time that would have qualified her for the Meet of Champions last fall (but 25th of 25 places, don’t get complacent!). Maddy just missed the 21’s but still threw down her all-time PR with a 22:00, while Sydney ran a 23:02, a season best and only a few seconds from her all-time best. Keira, with perhaps the race of the day, skipped the 26th and 25th minutes all together, and powered across in a HUGE PR of 24:36. Kendra had the unfortunate role of keeping us grounded and reminding us that off-days happen; while her time wasn’t terrible it wasn’t what she would have liked. Take a lesson from her positive spirit after though, and her new-quit attitude during the race. Just a speedbump, we’ll push the accelerator down on Thursday! Tessa wrapped up the PR’s with her first trip into the 26’s, continuing her stellar season and making up for Wednesday’s glitch, when it was her turn to be mortal.

Team-wise we were a very solid 15th of 28 full teams (and quite a few incomplete teams) and despite graduating our top runner from a year ago managed a one minute team average improvement.

So to sum it up, we had 3 season-best runs and 7 (SEVEN!) all-time PR’s, and it’s only mid-September. I don’t want to say it’s the long runs…but they don’t seem to be hurting. Running fast doesn’t happen by accident and it’s so great to see the fruit of this team’s labor so soon! Let’s keep taking these leaps and bounds, the season is still young!

The boys had a near perfect day at Manchester.  Near perfect weather and some really solid training over the last 3 weeks came together for the boys to have their best team performance since 2018.  Manchester is a great mid-season checkpoint.  We still have 3-4 weeks of work to do, but we finally got to see where we are this season on the Derryfield course where we go for the D2 meet.  First however, was the Newfound Invitational.

At Newfound we had team goals to run as a pack and get some PR's for our fast improving second six.  Despite the very tough course we had near PR's from Sam Jensen and Cooper.  Overcoming the course were Jonathan and Sam Bush with Jonathan getting a 26 second best and Sam taking almost 90 seconds off his time and getting under 30 for the first time.

Those performances were just a taste of what was coming at Manchester.

The boys spent the morning checking out the loop at the top of the hill, the cannons, and the mud at the bottom while getting ready to go.  Sam Bush got the day started in the JV C 2.1 mile race, trying not to overdo it after his 5k pr at Newfound.  Sam was hoping to be under 19 but set the tone for the day finishing in 17:53 which projects to around a 26:30 5k.  Next up was the JV race featuring Sam J, Westin, Jonathan, Silas and Cooper.  Sam and Silas led the way starting off with sub 7 minute miles, followed closely by Westin and Jonathan up the hill.  Cooper ran his fastest mile ever before taking on the hill heading up at 8:03.  All 5 powered down to the ski area and back to get the PR parade started.  Sam J led the way with a 106 second PR of 20:47.   Westin came next getting credit for a PR of less than a second, but it counts, finishing 21:59.0.  15 seconds later Silas sprinted in with a time of 22:14.  It was an all time PR by a minute and Derryfield PR by 2 and half minutes.  After Silas came a red hot Jonathan.  After a big PR at Newfound he improved by almost 2 minutes again finishing in 22:14.  Rounding out the JV was Cooper getting comfortable under 28 with a time of 27:31.

The varsity boys finally got their turn and made the most of it.  Derryfield spoke up on the first loop of the park with Nate getting flat tired either by another athlete or the mud, it wasn't clear which.  They boys powered through and Mychal led the way through the mile in 5:40 (wearing an invisibility cloak, I still haven't seen him on the race video).  Next through the mile are Ben G and Nate with his heel still out on the right side in 6 flat followed by Ben N and Tony at 6:16 and Chris right there in 6:32.  On the way up the hill Nate flips off his shoe and can be seen carrying it over the top before stopping to put it back on.  They made the return trip to the lower park with all shoes on and running fast.  Mychal finished strong with 50 second all time and Derryfield PR of 17:45.  Ben G and Nate reconnected after Nate put his shoe back on and battled to the line with Nate winning on a lean and both getting times of 19:01.  Ben G notched a 12 second PR and set a solid Derryfield baseline.  Nate set a 30 second PR and a 90 second best on the Derryfield course.  Ben Newton and Tony were next pushing hard to the line in 19:35 and 19:36.  The first time under 20 for Tony and a season's best for Ben just 6 seconds off his all time and Derryfield PR.  Chris closed out the day with an all time PR by almost a minute finishing in 20:58 also setting a great Derryfield baseline.

What a day.  The boys had 10 out of 12 season's best, with 9 of them being all time PR's.

As a team the boys finished 16th of 37 teams and a bunch of incomplete teams.  They had a top 5 average of 18:59 which was 53 seconds better than last year.  It was the best team avg since the 2018 team (18:36).

Newfound Invitational

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Roots! Hills! Sidehills! Creeks! Mud! More Roots! The WALL! It must be the Newfound Invitational! Tough courses make tough runners, and we increased our toughness on Wednesday. In our second trip to this low-key meet the weather was great, the competition was fast, and MV ran TOUGH.

Sydney quickly demonstrated that she had rolled over a new leaf, as she joined Lily and Maddy near the front for the first time this season. Lily is a fan of hills, it seems, and demonstrated that by absolutely CRUSHING the last 3/4 of a mile, putting big time on the girls who had been innocently racing along just in front of her. She probably took the wall in one giant leap. Lily crossed the line in 10th place, just out of the medals. In a role reversal, Sydney moved in front of Maddy and held that spot to the line to finish as MV’s #2, with Maddy gamely hanging on just behind. Sydney earned the AWESOME AWARD for her run! And in great news, Kendra weather is back! And Kendra finished a solid 4th in 28th overall. Keira once again ran into the team’s top 5 (we like this pattern) about 30 seconds back of Kendra, while Tessa ran bravely for 2 1/2 miles but had to pull over due to some breathing issues. This put Nicole and Emily into the top 7 “varsity”, and they each crept closer to the 30-minute mark. Reagan was next, and most definitely had the fastest final 400 of anyone. If she always runs that fast within sight of a finish line she’ll make a heck of a 2-miler in track! Eliza stayed going in the right direction today to finish strongly, followed closely by Lydia, running her usual consistent race.

After the race it was off to cool-down and create a most-excellent “scream tunnel” at the Wall, wrapping up a fun and successful day.

Souhegan 9-12-23

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Results Below In Images

Our first away midweek meet saw us down in Amherst, at Souhegan’s home course of Freestyle Horse Farm (much to Lily’s delight). A very pretty course, but not spectator friendly, it follows a course also used in cross country horse racing. Not easy, but not particularly difficult either. The temperature was a little warm, but not terrible.

Souhegan and a partial St. Thomas team were our competition, and with instructions to hold back a little over the first mile the duo of Maddy and Lily held the lead anyway, as apparently Souhegan was doing the same thing. A St. Thomas girl was hanging in the front with the MV duo over the first mile, although she would later finish over a minute back. Perhaps daydreaming she was actually a horse, Lily won her second race of the year holding off a late charge from Souhegan’s top runner. Maddy finished a strong second, with Sydney 11th, Kendra 15th, Keira 16th, Tessa in 17th, Reagan closing in on the 30-minute barrier in 20th, then Emily in 21st, Nicole in 23rd, and Lydia in 29th. But…where is Eliza? Was she devoured by the Lily-eating Souhegan cactus pricker-bush? Luckily no - after giving it her all and then some, she became slightly disoriented and was found running the course BACKWARDS…after being only 1/2 mile from the finish. A great mid-week run by all, and on to Newfound!

Great Glen 9-9-23

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Kendra crush

What fun! It’s the weekend and you have to be at school over an hour earlier than you do on a school day! The upshot is that every other early morning Saturday bus will seem late in comparison. By the time I (Coach Irving) met the bus at 7:15 up in my hometown of New Hampton, the entire bus was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to race.

Despite the dire predictions of scattered thunderstorms, the weather at Great Glen was great as usual, and only got better (despite a little too hot for my liking) with views of the Presidential range. 

With two races per gender on tap, the JV race was the first off the line, featuring a full scoring team of Eliza, Lydia, Nicole, Emily, and Reagan. Eliza got the early race glory, sprinting off the line to lead the race for at least the first 200 meters. Very few runners can say they led a race today, so that is an accomplishment! Reagan highlighted the end of the race when she ran into view of the finish line and turned on the afterburners. She put 40 seconds on the runners she was with in only a quarter mile! Something tells me that she is only going to get faster each race…

t-shirt winners, with Emerald, Ceili (both of Newfound), Maddy, and Lily

Following the JV boys race, it was the varsity girls turn. And what a race! Each year the base goal of every runner should be to be faster than they were the year before. In this race that goal was CRUSHED. The total improvement among the 6 runners who ran was 13 minutes and 54 seconds. I’ll indicate each runners improvement in parenthesis. Another thing I noticed was the lesson learned from our first home meet - this meet they all started out much more reasonably and without exception improved their placing as the meet went on. 

For the second race in a row Lily led the MV pack from start to finish, eventually finishing in 8th place in 22:59 (-1:13) and earning the first TOP TEN t-shirt in two years. Just behind her in 23:23 (-2:04) and also earning a t-shirt, thanks to her long-range kick, was Junior Captain MADDY! Sydney nearly cracked the top 20 in 22nd place with a 25:05 (-3:02). Despite the anti-Kendra weather, Junior Captain Kendra resumed her more-normal spot of 4th on the team, running a 25:41 (-1:10), keeping Sydney in sight the whole way. Look out though, because Keira continued her speedy ways with an all-time PR of 26:11 (-2:15). And again, not far behind Keira was fellow sophomore (and crazy tree/rock climber) Tessa, running another all-time PR of 26:54 (-4:12!). Those times are all just crazy good.

A yummy and well deserved late lunch at Five Guys concluded the day. Congratulations to all the runners, today was a great day and a testament to your good summer and fall (so far) of training!

For the boys, first up were Jonathan, Cooper, and Westin in the JV race.  All 3 were looking to improve in their second xc meet and first invitational.  They got off to a good start together but Westin pulled away on the rolling hills leading the JV with a time of 21:59.  An improvement of 3:47 from his first meet and the 7th fastest on the team for the day! Jonathan came in at 24:26, improving his time by almost 7 minutes.  Cooper made it a perfect day by finishing in 27:10, an almost 4 minute improvement and crushing his goal for the day of getting under 30.

After watching the great runs from the girls team the boys varsity was ready to keep the PR's coming.  We had three boys that had run Great Glen before: Mychal, Ben Newton, and Nate with Great Glen PR's of 20:00, 20:48, and 21:02 last year respectively.  The boys got off to a fast start and didn't look back.  Mychal came out of the woods first about 50 meters behind a group of 4.  He  unleashed a blazing kick all the way to the finish catching all 4 of them finishing in an all time PR of 18:33 going 40 seconds faster than the first meet this year and 87 seconds faster than his time last year.  Next in for MV was Ben (Jammer) in 19:13.  Improving by 1:43 from the first meet.  He was followed closely by Nate running an all time PR of 19:31 and a minute faster than the home meet.  Tony and Ben Newton came in shortly after Nate and separated by only 10 seconds.  Tony finished in 20:30, improving by 23 seconds.  Ben finished in 20:41 setting a Great Glen PR and taking 44 seconds off his home meet time.  Chris and Sam finished the scoring with two more all time PR's.  Chris took over 2 minutes off his time and Sam shocked himself running a 22:33 taking almost 90 seconds off his time.

As a team the boys were 7th out of 13.  The work they've done is paying off and they're looking forward to putting in some more to see how far they can go.












Home 8-29-23

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School hasn’t even started yet, but after two and a half weeks of practice the runners were ready to start racing! Quite a bit more pleasant than last year, although it certainly still had that early season hot and humid feel.

Girls lined up first, with John Stark and an incomplete Lebanon team prepared to start their season. Our guest starter, Jessi, sounded a very solid horn blast to get the race rolling and the 2023 racing season was under way! Lily wasted no time galloping to the lead, with Maddy and Sydney just behind. After a couple John Stark runners there was a group of three more MV girls, Kiera, Tessa, and Kendra, giving MV a substantial team lead in the early going. The sub-7 first mile did eventually take it’s toll on the leaders, but Lily was never really tested en route to her first ever high school win. She’s undefeated this year! Lily was also awarded the first “Awesome Award” of the year for her performance. Maddy also stayed unchallenged finishing second, 51 seconds ahead of third place. An indicator of how well the girls ran was the fact that the 4th place girl, who finished 61 seconds behind Maddy, placed well ahead of them at last year’s Division Meet. That’s improvement! Sydney, after bravely holding third up through the second mile, eventually finished a solid 5th, 10 minutes faster than in 2022. The shocker of the day however was our 4th runner…Keira, finishing in 10th place overall and running an all-time PR! Now we know how fast you really are!

Not too far back was Tessa, finishing as our #5 and already securing a varsity letter by virtue of the top-5 finish. Bravely battling the anti-Kendra weather, Ms. Davidson was next and our 6th and final sub-30 minute runner. Emily followed two minutes later in her first high school race, while our soon-to-be driver Nicole drove across the line as our 8th girl. Reagan, in her first race EVER, was our 9th, while Lydia ran a great race to wrap up the finishing for MV. Despite the big early lead, John Stark was able to remain patient and claw back to tie us for the lead at 28 points, however eked out the win with the 6th-place tie-breaker. A classic reminder that everyone matters! A superb effort today though, and a great start to the season!

Next up were the boys…

A great rust buster/first meet for the boys today.  The boys ran smart and under control for an exceptional season opener.   Mychal led the way in 19:10, just 10 seconds off his home PR.  Nate had the veteran performance of the day with a home course PR in 20:33.  Nate was followed by Tony and Ben G with the rookie performances of the day in 20:53 and 20:56.  Rounding out the top 5 was Ben N in 21:25.   Chris and Sam worked together throughout the race finishing in 24:01 and 24:03. Silas was close behind in 24:52.  Westin returned strong from North Carolina finishing 25:46.  Cooper and Jonathan also had a great opener nearly breaking 30.  They finished in 31:01 and 31:18.

Sam B took another big step in his running.  He started the year with a 14 minute mile in the team time trial.  This week he completed his first mile non stop and today he finished the 5k course in 32:21.  A huge early season improvement.

Almost forgot to mention they won the meet!  Congratulations boys!