9/7/12 – The NYA boys cross-country team turned in a fine performance at Twin Brook Park in Cumberland on Friday. Running in warm and very humid weather, the boys squared off against Greely, York, and Poland on the wooded, hilly 3.1-mile course. This was an important meet because the venue also serves as the site of the Western Maine Regional Championships – the qualifying meet for States. And with the significant improvement of nearly every runner, the team did very well, taking third with 74 points, after York (26) and Greely (40) but ahead of Poland (105).
Matt Malcom ’15 again led the team with a very strong performance. After a brisk start, Matt ran a gritty second half of the race to take third place overall (out of 79 runners) with a personal record time of 18:16. This time was twelve seconds faster than even his race at the State Meet last year, so Matt is clearly out to break new ground for himself this season.
NYA’s second finisher was captain Jake Burns ’13 whose 19:47 (13th overall) time was nearly as fast as last week’s – even though Twin Brook was a tenth of a mile longer.
John LeBlanc ’15 also improved dramatically. John’s time of 20:36 was nearly a minute faster than last week, despite the extra length of the Twin Brook course. It was also a personal record for John and gave him 22nd place overall.
Haley Cunningham ’15 was a minute and a half faster than his (shorter!) race last week. His 21:23 was good for 31st overall and made him NYA’s fourth varsity scorer on the day.
Jin Yao ’14 rounded out NYA’s top 5. Jin’s personal record time of 21:53 beat his time on the shorter course of last week and placed him 37th overall.
Andy Liu ’14 was nearly a minute faster this week. His new personal record of 23:41 put him 53rd overall and a solid sixth place on the NYA team. Rounding out NYA’s varsity seven was Aldis Gamble ’13, whose 25:35 was good for 67th place. Just behind Aldis was Alex Cai ’13, in 25:59 (68th).
Full results are here and more photos are here. The team will next be in action on Friday 9/14 at Pratt’s Brook Park in Yarmouth.