Oyster River 9-01-17
/Results Boys, Page One (photo)
Results Boys, Page Two (photo)
A quick note: I only have pictures from the girls race at the time of this posting - check the SmugMug link Monday for the boys pictures!
Noelle and Emma charge the first hill
The first meet of 2017 saw us at a brand new course - the first race ever held on it in fact. Site of the upcoming Bobcat Invitational, the course was a true cross country course with woods, fields, roots, and rocks. Not a fast course by any means, but an honest one to be sure. Beautiful cool weather to boot; all in all a fantastic day of cross country.
Up against two of the top teams in the division, the girls were looking to just run a solid workout race and gain some experience. Emma led the way for MV and, despite some difficulty dealing with the “sidehill wampus”, more than held her own. A hard charging Lo-(I)-Run finished second for MV, while Noelle cruised across third. Fourth on the team went to...TRISTAN!!, with a very good start to the year, while rounding out the scoring varsity was Maizie, fresh off her high altitude training. One more highlight was rookie Madisyn, who, while outdone by her first-place goat at the Hopkinton Fair earlier in the day, still is able to hold her head high on the return to the barn with a fantastic first race, particularly in the second half.
Next up were the boys, facing off against the projected top team in the division, Oyster River, and an up-and-coming Portsmouth team. David, and MattMatt led the way for MV, and while MattMatt eventually became Matt Matt, the top three all placed near the top of the race and raced to sub-19 times. David defeated two top-ten returners to place second, only finishing behind a transfer from the midwest by a second or two. Importantly, David broke up what would have otherwise been a perfect score of 15 for Oyster River. Following Matt R. and Matt L. was a significant gap that we need to work on, but at the end of the gap Conner raced in, dependable as always. The race for the 5th and final scoring spot came down to a kick between two XC rookies, Christian and Jake. Despite losing ground to Jake over the final mile, Christian was able to muster a fantastic kick over the final 100 meters to seal the all-important 5th spot. With so many newcomers in the 5th-10th spots, expect that gap to third to drop quickly. That’s the key to our season!