10.18.13 – Matt Malcom ’15 won the WMC Division II individual title at St. Joseph’s College today, leading the Panthers to a third place Div. II finish at the Western Maine Conference Championship Meet. The St. Joe’s 5k course featured plenty of wooded trails, a grueling set of hills in the third mile, and a large crowd to cheer the runners on under clear, windy skies.
Matt hung toward the back of the second pack through the first mile in a relatively restrained 5:22 split. He moved up some through the second mile (11:05) but still had a seven second deficit on the top runner from Fryeburg Academy. It was on the third mile hills that Matt made up that difference before a strong surge with 100m left carried him to first place at the finish. Matt’s final time was 17:21 and he finished 8th in the WMC overall (including Div I).
John LeBlanc ’15 ran a remarkably steady race as NYA’s second man. His splits were almost exactly even over the course of the race as he finished 37th overall in 19:03. Haley Cunningham ’15 ran his best race in several weeks. His 19:33 was good for 48th overall and third on the team. Fourth for NYA was Jin Yao ’14, who capped a very good run with a dramatic finish line surge (20:31 / 63rd). The final scorer for NYA was LT Dahia ’14 (20:36 / 66th). Patrick Jackson ’15 (20:45 / 71st) and Jack Kostelnik ’17 (21:27 / 81st) rounded out the Panthers’ varsity squad.
In the JV race, Alec Stuckey ’16 moved up steadily through the large field, especially in the second half, to finish in 21:59. Jake Malcom ’17 overcame a fall near the start to run a brave 22:05. Ethan Madore ’16 finished in 23:45. Seniors Andy Liu (24:00) and Ira Li (28:23) completed their NYA cross-country careers with fine runs.
The team took third in Division II and was ninth overall in the WMC.
Next week, the Panthers race at Twin Brook in the Western Maine Regional Championships with a chance to run at the State Meet on the line. Come out to cheer them as they race at 1:05 on Saturday 10/26!