9/2/11
The NYA Girls XC team raced in the first official Western Maine Conference meet of the season on Friday at Community Park in Falmouth. Community Park is the site of the Western Maine Conference Championship meet in October so running a race on this challenging course was good practice and experience. Falmouth, York, and Lake Region all were in attendance.
It was a hot and steamy day at gun time. 6 of our 8 girls were on the starting line and by the finish only NYA had all of its runners finish the race. This included Ellis who bravely decided to race even though she was battling a cold that was hindering her breathing. Just jogging the course was able to 1. help the team and 2. experience the course before championship time.
The first mile was crowded and the girls worked hard to work their way through the crowds after a back of the pack start. Most of the team hit solid splits at the 1 mile mark as they headed into the unstable footing of the woods for mile 2. Coming out of the woods every girl on the team made up ground on the most challenging hill of the course. Running out in the open in mile 2 was a challenge given the weather but everyone held strong and was able to hold position or start to pick off the competition one by one. Hillary made several strong moves throughout the race starting back around 25th through the first mile – moving up to 12th for the 2nd and then finishing in 5th. Maggie was able to race once again after a fluke breathing incident at the LR invitational an showed she was ready to help the team by finishing 2nd for NYA. 3rd up for NYA was Hadley who struggled at various points throughout the race 
with breathing but still never let up. 4th up was Hannah who looked strong from the gun and never showed any signs of weakness through the entire race. 5th for NYA was Morgan who was the worst effected by the heat on the team but was able to keep it together for a strong surge up the final hills and a stellar sprint to the finish. Ellis finished her course tour in 6th for NYA and was able to accomplish the majority of her goals.
The team finished 3rd ahead of Lake Region. Last week at the LR Invitational the NYA-LR match-up was much closer. This week NYA beat LR at every position 1-6. A solid first showing in our first race of the year. Next week we should have our full 8 girl team on the line for our home meet on Friday the 9th at Royal River Park – hope to see you there!
For Full Results click here
For more photos click here