On Friday the 13th the NYA Girls XC team competed in their second meet of the regular season in Hiram, ME at Sacopee Valley High School. This was an entirely new 5k course for the girls but they were undaunted by the challenge, the course conditions, and the rain.
The team, overall, had a phenomenal day on Friday – 5 girls placed in the top 9 spots. The race was won by Hannah Austin by over 3 minutes in a time of 21:05. She navigated a new course all alone out front for the very first time. Claire Maurer finished in 4th after a gutsy sprint to the finish just 2 seconds behind 3rd place in a time of 24:36. Sarah Austin was 3rd up for NYA finishing 6th after steadily moving up through the ranks all race. Kristina Block finished in 4th spot for the girls (8th in the race) in a time that was a significant improvement over last weeks race. Maddie Cutten rounded out the scoring for NYA as our 5th runner (9th place overall) and also did so with a solid pace improvement. Abbie Hinchman had her debut race on Friday and although she struggled with the terrain she was able to finish well ahead of where she was at this point last year. Louisa Mahoney dropped over 2 minutes off of her time from last week through her efforts to run an exceptionally steady race. Corinne Poitras logged the biggest time drop on the day after a strong finish that allowed her to drop over 3 minutes off of her time from last week.
Through a series of extraordinary efforts the girls won the 5 team meet handily. In fact, they did so missing a large percentage of the team due to conflicts or illness. Congratulations to everyone on a race well run under less than ideal conditions.
The girls are back in action at home next week on Friday in the Royal River Park. Hope to see you there!