September 17, 2010
The cross country meet at Poland today was on a grueling 3.2 mile course at the Poland Spring Preservation Park. The course was either going up hill or down for all but about 1/4 of a mile. For the first time this season the girls team had 7 runners start the race including 2 girls new to the team this week.
The race started with a fast first mile that was almost entirely downhill though over very challenging terrain. All of the girls were flying through the first mile getting a jump on their splits before heading into the next mile and a half which was primarily uphill. The desire to beat the other class C team in the race (Freeport) seemed to be enough to conquer the hills though as we held our position or gained spots in the 2nd half of the course. Overall the team finished 2nd out of 4 losing only to York. Of the six girls who finished the race 2 of them had not run a race yet this year.
Hillary Detert led the team once again with a 3rd place finish (23:38), next up was a battle between Maggie Meixell in 8th (25:20) and Sarah Jordan in 9th (25:25) both very close to Freeport’s number one runner. Hadley Gibson was next across the line finishing 20th (29:20) and the two newcomers who ran together for most of the race filled out our team with Alison Znamierowski finishing 30th (35:56) to just edge out Adela McVicar who finished in 31st (35:57).
Poland has the toughest course we run all season yet the times were still strong and for some, even improvements. Congratulations to all on a great day. Thanks to all the parents who made the trip to watch “spectator unfriendly” race. See you at Twin Brooks next Saturday for a BIG race – the SMAA/WMC crossover invitational. It should be an exciting day.
Full results