Thank you to everyone for rolling with the change in schedule to have the meet a day early.  Other than a little light rain on the drive to Collegiate and a bit of humidity during the race, it was a good choice given the forecast for tomorrow.  I was pleased to have everyone still able to make it to the meet, especially so many parents for a 3:45 start time a day earlier than expected.  Being able to go out with everyone competing and finishing the race was a big win in my book, let alone all the other great accomplishments related to their performances.  It was a tall ask for the boys as well, coming off of a race just two days prior.  Despite that quick turnaround after SPAM, the 9+ weeks of training from the boys certainly showed, especially in comparison to Collegiate, as we looked much stronger today.  With an 8th grade-heavy team, knowing this was their final middle school cross country race ever may have provided extra motivation.  Coming up short at SPAM may have also provided extra motivation.  Plus, watching the Varsity run aggressively and pull off the upset win (by 3 points) to make it 9 Prep League titles in the last 10 years, just before we ran, certainly helped motivate the runners as well.

 

After running only 5 at the Collegiate 5k last week, LB, James, Lawson, and Crosby were all able to compete today.  LB led the way for the Saints with his 3rd place finish just ahead of Gray in 4th.  LB dropped 35 seconds from his FUMA time earlier this year and 49 seconds from his Collegiate 5k time last year.  Henry had the early lead in the race and pushed through some "sickness" during the race to still finish in the top 10 (8th).  Just behind him in 10th was James who had arguably the best race of anybody today.  Despite nursing an injury for the better part of the final month of the season, he not only had a big drop of 1:07 from the FUMA 5k earlier this season, but also dropped 3 seconds off his Collegiate time last year to break 22:00 for the first time ever.  Given that he had trouble in recent weeks eclipsing last year's PRs, this was a big-time performance from him.  With 4 in the top 10, we would be tough to beat, but STAB, running with 4 juniors in their top 5, made it interesting.  Asher ran identical first two splits (compared to last week) and then ran 11 seconds faster on the final 1.1 split to earn a PR.  Tate also ran the same time for the first two miles compared to last week, then ran 13 seconds faster on the final 1.1 split to get himself another PR.  Lawson ran his first 5k of the year and only his 2nd out of a possible 5 in his two years on the team and he also fought some "sickness" to finish with a solid time.  Paul started his week with the coolest clearance of the SPAM wall prize and ended it with a 1:11 drop from his time last week, showing how strong of a finish he has had to this season.  Crosby, despite being injured for almost two weeks, toughed out the race today to finish and give us a full team of 9 finishing for the first time since a month ago at Roslyn.

 

As referenced, we crushed Collegiate, beating them by over 30 points.  They were even in front of Woodberry, who had 3 freshmen to go with their 2 10th graders and 1 11th grader.  STAB was close with their 4 juniors in the top 5, just 8 points behind us at 37-45.  This gave us yet another JV Prep League team win.  We have competed in this race 8 times and have won all 8, despite running against high school competition every year.  This was a great win for us and even though we did not have 100% PRs in this final race, we did have 5 PRs and the 4 who did not either vomited during the race or were coming off of some health challenges in recent weeks.  The important thing was that we had a full squad finish and we represented ourselves and our school well.  The coaches are proud of the way these boys rebounded after Tuesday's loss at SPAM and showing some grit and resilience today.  That is why cross country runners are special and that is why these boys are going to be successful young men.  They know how to push themselves out on the courses, the track, and the roads, and this drive undoubtedly finds its way into everyday life at school and at home.