Middlebury Dominates in the State meet

The Men's and Women's cross country teams competed in the Vermont State meet this past weekend, easily capturing both titles despite racing without the teams top athletes.

The course was very hilly but arguably one of the most scenic courses around. Lyndon State hosted the race on their campus, located in the Northern part of the state. The view from one of the larger hills on the course was spectacular. And speaking of hills, this course did not have any flat to speak of at all, continuous rolling hills - some big and some mountainous.

The women raced first and from the front, Lyndsay Calkins took off, trying to break the course record established years ago by former Middlebury All-American Kaitlyn Gregg.

She missed the record by a few seconds but took the overall title. Kate Hirschboeck moved swiftly up the hills with a strong pace and a relaxed look on her face, earning the runner-up position. First-year Erin Toner raced with great energy throughout the racing, moving steadily towards her senior teammate, coming in a very strong 3rd place. Annie Sullivan continues her improvement in each race and looked great on the course, coming in 3rd for the team with a 4th place finish. First-year Jessica Spar again proves to be extremely valuable to her team and finished just 3 seconds behind Annie. Jessie has been in Midd's top 5 in every race so far, great feat as a first year on a very strong team.

Seniors Sarah Norton, Ceara Danaher and Chrissy Fulton all put on a great race having overcome many injuries and illnesses to finally show their talents. They cruised over the course, looking stronger with each kilometer. Terry & I were really proud of their performances and very glad to see them back to racing form. They came in 6th, 8th and 9th respectively. Sophia Spring had a conservative start but worked on making up ground the entire race, coming in next for the Panthers.
The Middlebury domination continued on as 5 Panthers took places 12th through16th! 34 seconds separated Christina Kunycky, Amanda Quinlan, Kira Tenney, Jessie Ward, and Charlotte Bemis. Off of Charlottes shoulder, Hallie Fox looked strong and had a great kick over the last 400m. She finished in 18th place, followed by Kayla Race and Ellie Buechner (24th & 25th). Katherine Gura & Michelle Cady finished out the winning squad, coming in 28th and 34th places. A total of 72 athletes lined up. Middlebury took 12 of the top 15 places and won the meet easily with a team score of 20.

Onto the men's race. From earlier on in the day, when Stanis Moody-Roberts very nearly missed the bus to the meet, he seemed to be on fast forward - taking off right from the gun to the lead spot. Not only did he not relinquish his spot, he extended his lead relentlessly. He looked great coming into the finish for the overall individual title. Max Mackinnon, Rainey Johnson, and Nat Nelson worked together over the last 3 miles of the race, each putting in surges and taking the lead. At the finish, it was Max who had the quickest feet, taking 2nd place overall, with Rainey following in 1 second and Nat coming in 1 second behind Rainey.
Jack Terrett made an aggressive move half-way through the race and passed about 7 people in doing so. He was the teams 5th man and came in 6th place overall. Similar to the women's race, the Panthers dominated the top spots. 4 Middlebury men took places 7 through 10, with Dan Kaufman leading that group with a time of 29:25, followed by Glen Frieden, Donny Dickson & Peter Hoffman.
Tyler Prince, Russ Griggs, and Ian Sanders-Fleming finished out the men's Middlebury racers.
Midd had 9 runners in the top 15, earning an almost perfect score of 16 points.

Both teams are looking forward to competing with its full squad next weekend at Franklin Park.

Nicole & Terry