The clouds were out when we first arrived at the 3 mile course in Falmouth at Community Park. A wide open course run mainly on trails mowed through the grass of rolling fields. As we started our course walk the sun decided to peek through the clouds and significantly heat up that majority of the course out in the open. With York, Falmouth and Lake Region on the starting line this was a large field of blue uniforms with the occassional orange and black speckled in. For the first time this season NYA had an uncommon occurence with 7 girls on the starting line AND 7 girls finishing the race. For 4 of these 7 it was their first time running a HS country race and for 2 of those girls it was their first time ever running a race — period.
Hannah Austin (’15) lead the way for the Panthers running to the front pack 400m into the race and holding on tight to a strong front 2 girls. She was able to hang on all the way to the finish crossing the line in 3rd in a career best time on this course which was 4 minutes faster than last year (21:53). Kate Hilscher (’16) was excited to step up to the high school race distance in her first race of the season and went out strong and determined. She was able to finish the challenging course 2nd for NYA with a time of 25:38 — a great launching point for a first race. Next up was Ellis (’15) who ran a headstrong race slowly moving up through the pack to finish almost 4 minutes ahead of her time from last year as well! Abbie Hinchman (’15) was next across the line in 4th for the team. Abbie mixed it up all race with both teammates and other runners to help push herself along to a great first full distance race. Next up for NYA was 
Maddie Cutten (’15) who had only a week of training under her belt. Maddie ran well ahead of personal expectations to finish in 5th for the team. Maddie focused well on the team goals and her individuals ones pushing herself up hills and focusing on consistency. Coming across the line 6th for NYA was Morganne Elkins (’16) who, despite extraordinary nerves, was able to pull everything together for a race that far exceeded expectations and really set the stage for a successful season of improvement in the weeks to come. Jesse Catir was 7th across the line right behind Morganne. Jesse had the least training of anyone coming into the race and while she was also extremely nervous she displayed what a strong will and focus can yield by finishing in a very impressive time for her first ever competition.
As a team the girls finished 3rd behind York and Falmouth while Lake Region was unable to field a full team of 5 girls due to struggles during the race. For the NYA girls to have 7 girls start and finish this race is, in itself, a great accomplishment. However if you take into account that only 2 of these girls are returning from last year it is even more impressive. With many more weeks and races to come I am excited to see how everyone continues to work together and improve. If you want to see the full race results click here, and if you are interested in a photo set from the boys and girls meet click here.
See you all at Twin Brooks in Cumberland next Friday!