By Caitlin Cole – @DHSCCTF
Another week, another meet, another blog. Last Saturday we went to Coe-Brown for the Black Bear Invite.
First, thank you to CBNA for putting on such a fun meet; it’s so awesome when we go to bigger meets such as Manch or Black Bear and you can see how much this sport means to everyone involved (parents, coaches, etc.). Second of all, man, I think this meet reminded us all of how hard cross-country is.
Our girls’ JV race went very well and we placed 5th! I feel like over the last few years our team has deepened talent-wise and it’s inspiring to see both teams perform competitively. Lily G was our top JV runner coming in just short of a medal in 11th. Anique was our top performer on the Varsity side, with another sub-20 run and a 9th-place finish. However, Black Bear always seems to test us… Shoutout to our other Lily for finishing despite a nasty (and bloody) fall. Do we have some ankles that were rolled and then proceeded to swell to twice the size as normal? Maybe. But we made it!
The boys’ team continues to work hard and every week we have runners getting better and better. Last year, senior captain Ethan came in 52nd. This year, in a race that was generally more competitive and faster than last year’s, he improved by tens of places and a whole minute and a half. Just goes to show what a summer of hard work does for your running. Add that with a few PRs from our underclassmen and it was overall a very successful day.
As usual, we spent the weekend recovering. Monday came and the team busted out another long run. Wednesday was spent (again) at the dirt track with everyone’s favorite 600/1200 workout. Nothing too unusual about this week’s training, except for the rather rude interruption of 80-degree heat.
Now that we’re coming up on another Battle of the Border I decided to look back on last year’s results. Girls JV placed 4th, Varsity finished runner-up, and both boys teams produced so many PRs. That’s one thing we love about the Alvirne course: it is SO FAST. Probably my personal favorite XC course. It’s going to be so exciting to see all of the races, with powerhouse programs like Pinkerton, Hanover, and Oyster River also being there. We’ve all worked hard for months and have put in a lot of miles over the course of just over a summer. This race really lets us show off the fruits of our labor, and we can’t wait to see just how hard we can push ourselves.
