Windham High’s cross-country team showed it is capable of pushing themselves in any condition as they competed at the Narragansett School in Gorham on Saturday, Sept. 14 during the Southern Maine Classic Invitational, a 5K course which featured runners from schools all over southern Maine.
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| Windham freshman Liam Moxley crosses the finish line on Friday, Sept. 14 at the Narragansett School in Gorham during the 2024 Southern Maine Classic Cross Country Invitational. PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA |
Boys
Of the nine runners who competed in this race, five of them had run this course during the 2024 summer finale of the Windham cross-country camp. Of those five, they all shaved at least two minutes, and in most cases more, from their end-of-summer times.
Sophomore Mason Bragdon finished first for Windham with an 18:32.48-minute time. Bragdon knocked off 3:27 from his summer run time of the same course.
“As a team we all did great,” said Bragdon. “Our top runners, our top three are really good, we just need to help making sure everyone is up to the same level. We need to make sure we’re doing well in training, putting all our effort there, so that we can perform well here.”
Right behind Bragdon was junior Caleb Saucier who finished with a time of 18:32.80. Saucier was a full 2:08 faster than he had been in the summer; and took off almost six minutes from when he ran the same course during the 2022 Invitational.
Senior Andrew Young finished third for Windham with a time of 18:57.49.
Freshman Liam Moxcey erased over six minutes from summer compared with fall; he finished at 29:35.66.
Girls
The WHS girls’ team was challenged by illness as four of the seven who raced fought through it. While illness was a speed bump, the team safely preserved and tested themselves to be there, giving all the power and skill they could.
Of the seven who competed, four had lower times compared to when they ran the course during the summer.
During her first time on this course, junior Lila Stanley finished first for Windham with a time of 22:54.37.
“We all just wanted to do fast, faster, fastest and stick together,” said Stanley. “For me the heat made me feel really heavy; I couldn’t catch my breath. We all started off really strong and got a steady pace. We all tried to pick it up the second lap, count our split-steps and that really helped us get our breathing down, get the groove ... and get your rhythm down with the arms.”
Senior Abigail Dumont finished second with a 23.40.91 time, knocking 25 seconds off her summertime and over two minutes from when she ran the course in 2022.
Junior Demetria Nicholas took close to two minutes off from the summer, with a time of 23:44.57.
Senior Monica Farley kicked 6:25 from her summertime run to finish the Invitational with a 27:30.08 time.
“What stood out to me was the vital importance of cross-country racing on these big invitational stages to offer opportunity for both new and veteran runners alike to gain confidence to make future big championship stage races very exciting to race,” said Windham cross-country coach Jeff Riddle. “We took another small step-up in continuing to build our team's capacity through individual belief in what is possible. Holistically, we need to improve our communication skills to avoid surprises and to improve clarity, understanding and player safety. We have already started that initiative as effective communication skills will make or break a program's ability to offer its best to the student-athletes. The high heat in the later junior-senior races was a factor. The trick is to train to outwit it to make it a non-factor, and we always have work to reduce its effect on our results; but the weather is the same for all so should never be an excuse.” <
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