Coming up....

Good Morning! 
I again, sincerely apologize for the lack of an update from the meet at Williams last week.  There seems to be some glitches occurring with the posts and they have not successfully uploaded. 

We did have great performances at the Vermont State Meet this past Saturday at Lyndon State College.  The meet featured all of the Collegiate teams in the state, save for UVM. 

The course itself was challenging, very true 'cross country' with narrow paths, unsure footing, and good sized hills.  Upon course inspection we realized the times would not be terribly fast over the distance so we continued to work on our team dynamics in the race.  The teams rely on each other in practices and we look to focus on that in races.  The execution of the plan was successful in both the Men's race and the Women's race.  In addition to the Panthers taking the overall team titles, Junior Nate Sans took the win on the men's side and Katie Carlson led from wire to wire to win the women's race overall.  In the men's race, Midd welcomed first years Sebastian Matt & Gilbert Kipkorir, who had previously been held out of racing this season.  They are both welcome additions. 

Photo's from the races can be found here:
http://jplphoto.exposuremanager.com/g/cross_country

Thanks to the parents for providing a great fall feast for us post race!  Much enjoyed, devoured & appreicated.

This coming weekend, we will be competing at Westfield State.  Where as we normally have Open New England's this weekend at Franklin Park in Boston, we had to accommodate a change in the schedule.  Franklin Park is under renovation and a new site for the year was needed for Open New England's (no easy task with over 45 teams competing in each race).  Westfield State offered to host Open New England's but could only host on Sunday, as they were having their own Invitational on Saturday.  Westfield State is also the host of the Division III New England Regional Championships in November so we were glad for an opportunity to race the course prior to those Championships.  Given the option, the team preferred to race the Invitational on Saturday as opposed to racing Open's on Sunday.  This falls more in line with our training and consistency and the field of 30 teams on Saturday should provide some excellent competition.  We will look forward to next year when we can hit the ground at Franklin Park again.   

The men will compete 8k at 11:00 am and the women will contest 6k at noon.  Directions to the course site are below.  We are looking forward to a great week of training and a fun meet on Saturday. 
Cheers!
Nicole

Directions to Westfield State:
Take the Mass Pike (90) to Exit 3 (Westfield). From the North and
South take Interstate 91 to the Mass Pike, then Exit 3. Take a right
off of the exit and go South on Hwy 10/202 to the center of
Westfield. Go West (Right) on Route 20 (at the CVS) until you
reach Lloyd’s Hill Road (at the blinking yellow
light). Take a left and continue up the hill until you reach
Western Avenue. Turn right on Western Avenue. Stanley Park
is a half-mile down the road on the left. Parking available at the
West entrance (second gate).