Girls' XC Flourishes at Coe-Brown
The girls’ cross country team competed in the Black Bear XC Invitational at Coe-Brown. This meet posed some tougher competition, as Big Red competed in a non-prep school league.
“As a team we have already run many miles and difficult workouts, so we have improved considerably.”
In the JV meet, upper Gabby Allen placed 1st overall with a time of 21:46, beating the nearest competition by 7 seconds. The rest of the JV runners finished shortly behind Allen and propelled the JV team to a 1st place standing among the teams—based off of the times of each team’s fastest five runners.
Unfortunately, the varsity team did not place in their leg of the invitational. As Exeter’s fastest runner, upper Ashley Lin took a fall in the middle of the course, she finished in 22nd place, 2 minutes and 34 seconds behind the race’s fastest runner from Milford.
The conditions of the race were less than ideal; captain and senior Sara Kopunova said, “It was hard to adjust to the weather—it was rainy and cold—after the really hot days we had earlier this week.” Even though the racing conditions may have worked against the runners, she felt that the race itself was enjoyable.
“The course was more hilly than other courses but very fun, since most of the course is in the forest, and there is even a single-file track,” Kopunova said.
Despite a rough finish, Kopunova felt that the team placed a lot of effort into the race. “The team worked very hard at the Black Bear Invitational. The JV team won the invitational, the varsity team did not place, but they still did incredibly,” she said. “As a team we have already run many miles and difficult workouts, so we have improved considerably.”
Upper Grace Gray—who was sidelined for the race because of illness—felt that the team has been able to elevate their ability since the beginning of the season. “Our team is doing a great job of putting the passion into our work of running hard together, and that the key to finding our success will be staying present for each other on and off the course,” she said. “If we can work really hard on achieving this and folding it into our training, I think we can keep running harder and hopefully running well!”
Kopunova remarked that this year, the team’s biggest strength is their depth. “Rather than having one very fast runner, we have a lot of runners come closely behind our first and second runners.” A consistent roster such as this can boost a team’s overall finish in a race. What seems like an individual sport is really a team effort.
The team’s next meet will be on Oct. 14 at home against Northfield Mount Hermon followed by a meet at the Brooks School and Deerfield Academy. Kopunova said the team is already looking forward to the remainder of their season. “We are all very excited about our next meets and about working hard for the rest of the season and do[ing] very well at interschols.”