The NYA Boys cross-country team traveled to Pineland on Friday to take on Greely, Kennebunk, Poland, and host Merriconeag. The 3.1-mile Pineland course featured wooded trails and rolling hills with a flat, grassy start and finish for the 73-man field. The highlights of the day were a dramatic win for Matt Malcom ’15 and new personal records for more than half the team.
Matt ran cautiously from the start, although Merriconeag’s top runner pushed the leading pace through the mile mark at 5:15. Matt took the lead shortly after entering the woods the second time and kept the narrow but decisive lead until the final sprint, when he put the victory away. In addition to the win, Matt also set a PR with a 16:48 finish. NYA’s next three runners clustered closely together. John Leblanc ’15 bounced back from last week’s illness to finish 20th overall in 19:43. Haley Cunningham ’15 was just steps behind in 21st (19:45). Jack Kostelnik ’17 was the final member of the trio, exploding for a new PR by nearly a minute (19:47, 22nd). Patrick Jackson ’15 ran a steady 20:56 (35th) as NYA’s final scorer. Displacing for NYA were Jake Malcom ’17 (21:43 / 42nd) and Devlin O’Keefe ’18 (22:24/ 48th and a PR). All the remaining freshmen set new personal records as well: Jack Sillin ’18 (23:14 / 52nd), Justin Guo ’18 (24:03 / 54th) and Youssef Ayad (25:45 / 65th).
Congratulations to all. As a team, NYA took 4th. Full results can be found here.
The Panthers next race on Saturday at Fryeburg.