By Caitlin Cole – @DHSCCTF
After a very impressive showing at the Meet of Champions in Alvirne two Saturdays ago, the
girls got ready for their last hurrah: the New England Championships in Belfast, Maine. From what
I’d seen and heard, the course is pretty fast, so things were looking good for a speedy day. Every
meet we go to, we do our best to perform as well as we can, of course. But with this being the last
meet of the season and so many competitive teams being there, I think the team took this
opportunity to really take everything in and enjoy all that we’ve accomplished this season. We had
a normal week of training: long run on Monday, workout on Wednesday (hills, a tempo mile, and some
quick 150s), and pre-meet on Friday (although Veteran’s Day meant no school– so that day was solo).
Both races– boys and girls– went out fast, (as per usual for the last few meets we’ve been at). I watched the race video back and I’m pretty sure Anique went through the first mile around 5:45. Crazy! The sheer amount of bodies on that course absolutely blew my mind. Trying to look for all of my teammates was nearly impossible. So many jerseys from all over the region (many of which I haven’t seen before) made the search quite difficult.
As predicted, White from Orono ME won the race in a low 17 (also crazy). We’ve been at some fast races this season but I don’t think any one of our competitors has run that quick of a time (at least in 2023). With such a big field, it can be really hard to navigate the course and move up as much as you’d want to. But every one of those kinds of meets is a new learning experience.
Anique led the Dover ladies in a speedy 18:44, proving to her competition what we all already knew:
her 6th place, 18:11 finish at MOCs was not a fluke. She crossed the line 28th out of every New
England runner, which is truly an amazing feat. Margaret followed her; next were Alyson, Maddie,
Izi, Janelle, and Evangeline.
For the Green Wave as a whole, cross-country season is officially over. It’s looking like NXR is not in the cards for the whole team this year (a few individuals may make their way over– TBD). It has been an incredible season. For me, and for 7 of my teammates, this was our last high school cross country season ever, and for us who are not running at a collegiate level, it was probably our last cross country season period.
All we can say is: thank you. To DHSCCTF, NH Cross Country, to our teammates, coaches, and parents. On to the next chapter.
