10.27.2013 – The NYA Boys Cross-Country team took sixth place today at the Western Maine Class C Regional meet and qualified for the State Meet next week. The challenging 5k course at Twin Brook featured plenty of rolling hills and wooded trails, but the recent dry weather and the strong competition made for fast times on the day.
NYA was led by Matt Malcom ’15 as usual. The field featured Telstar’s Josef Holt-Andrews, who is ranked number 21 in the nation, so there was never any question of racing for more than second place. But that race was interesting; Matt squared off with junior Ben Allen of Winthrop. Matt ran an excellent race plan, several times putting a gap of 10 meters or more on Allen. But each time, Allen was able to surge back into contention and it was one last surge in the final 300 meters that pushed Matt into third (17:15) by two seconds.
John LeBlanc ’15 was the Panthers’ second runner. Moving up steadily through the several packs of runners while in the woods, John fended off some last minute challengers to take 15th place in 18:47. Haley Cunningham ’15 also ran one of his best races of the season for 26th place (19:17). Seniors Jin Yao and LT Dahia traded spots back and forth through much of the race before Jin’s ferocious kick brought him across the line in 48th (20:27) just ahead of LT (50th / 20:32).
Patrick Jackson ’15 (72nd / 21:36) and Jack Kostelnik ’17 (77th / 22:04) rounded out NYA’s postseason racing roster. They both ran strong races in their first Regional Championships.
Next Saturday, the boys return to Twin Brook for the State Championship meet. The gun goes off at 1:15 – see you there!