Friday, September 6th
The NYA Girls Cross Country team headed over to Twin Brooks in Cumberland for the first competition of the regular season. The weather was perfect but the athletes were tired after 2 days of experiential education trips. However, the Twin Brooks 5k course will be the site of the Regional and State Championships this year and this meet was as good a time as any to start getting ready and see the course.
As a team the girls were able to finish 3rd in the 6 team meet. Greely and Kennebunk were the top 2 teams – but they are both in Class B. The Class C teams at the meet, Merriconeag and Sacopee Valley finished behind NYA. Hannah Austin ran 30 seconds faster (21:07) than her time last year on the same course to finish 2nd by a sizable distance in a strong field. Next up for the Panthers was Claire Maurer who was running in her first ever XC race and ran a steady race and finished strong to run 24:24 which was good for 14th. Kate Hilscher was not far behind in 24:35 and was able to surpass her time from last year at this same race by 30 seconds. Finishing 4th for NYA was Sarah Austin who is the lone freshman on the team. This doesn’t seem to intimidate her though as she crossed the line 4th for the Panthers in a very respectible time of 25:15 which was good for 21st. 
Rounding out the top 5 was Kristina Block who just snuck under the 27 minute mark to run 26:59 which placed her 34th. Not far behind Kristina was Maddie who missed this race last year but was not far off of her post-season pace in 2012. Ellis ran a very steady race to finish as the 7th runner for NYA. Next up was Louisa Mahoney who is running XC for the first time and had to brave the majority of the race alone but didn’t seem at all phased as she tackled the hills in a time of 32:40. Corinne, Morganne, and Rhiannon finished 9-11 for NYA.
With 4 girls still not ready to race the team looks as strong in competition as they do in practice. I am looking forward to the next few weeks of the season as we move full steam ahead into some beautiful fall weather.
