Friday, September 23, 2022

Windham Cross Country runners post solid performances at Southern Maine Classic

By Matt Pascarella

When the Windham cross-country team arrived at Narragansett School in Gorham on Saturday, Sept. 17 the addition of a new skate park had given the course for the Southern Maine Classic Cross-Country competition a new direction.

Windham junior Graden Joly gives himself a final push
before he crosses the finish line during the Southern
Maine Classic Cross Country event at the Narragansett
School in Gorham on Saturday, Sept. 17.
PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA  
The 5K race featured participants from all over southern Maine and gave Windham a chance to see how their hard work had really paid off.

The race was broken up into freshmen/sophomore boys and girls and junior/senior boys and girls.

Windham’s fastest runners were senior Elise Schultz who finished first for the junior/senior girls with a time of 22:57.99 minutes and 73rd overall. Sophomore Andrew Young set a personal record, finished first for the freshman/sophomore group and 45th overall with a time of 17:50.11.

“Everybody came out and they all improved their times that they’ve had so far,” said Windham cross-country coach Jeff Conant. “It is always rewarding to have vastly improved race results to continue to motivate our kids to bigger and better things as the season progresses.”

Conant said this is good validation that their work is paying off. It’s also about them reaching their individual goals. The team will go back, reevaluate and set higher goals for the next race.

BOYS

The Windham boys came in 14th as a team with a total time of 1:32:30.82.

“It’s great to be here with the team,” said Young. “It’s great to be running today. [The competition] was really tough ... they’ve been really training hard.”

Young said he now knows how far he can push himself, how fast he can truly go and how to act before a race.

Junior Graden Joly finished first in the junior and senior boys’ group. He finished second for Windham and 47th overall with a time of 17:54.94.

Joly said he can run much faster than he thought. He said the team’s pacing and pushing themselves back and forth was great – it was a great team effort.

Senior Caleb Young finished third for Windham and 52nd overall with a time of 18:03.34. Senior Roman Thomas finished fourth for Windham with a time of 19:05.63 and junior Jinqi Li finished fifth for Windham with a time of 19:36.80.

GIRLS

The Windham girls came in 15th as a team with a total time of 2:00:30.29 hours.

In the freshman/sophomore group of Windham runners, sophomore Abigail Dumont finished first for that group with a time of 26.00.96. She finished fifth for Windham girls.

“My team was amazing,” said Dumont. “We really did well pacing together. This race taught me how to pace myself the first mile, so I feel strong the third mile.”

Junior Monica Lewis came in second for Windham and 77th overall with a time of 23:06.97. Junior
Beth Bearce came in third for Windham with a time of 23:18.83. Junior Cate Culpovich finished fourth for Windham with a time of 25:05.54.

Schultz said the group has been working really hard, pushing each other and getting uncomfortable together. Schultz said team building was good. <

No comments:

Post a Comment