Athletes are encouraged to do preseason training to get a head start on the season. This year we had four runners distinguish themselves with exceptional preseason training from June to August. On the boys side, three runners achieved 50 miles of summer running: Dante Mori, Enrico Mori, and Mychal Reynolds. Sophia Reynolds led the way with 300+ miles of summer training. Each athlete receives a mileage club t-shirt in recognition of their efforts.

Official practices started the week before school with athletes getting together for the running and games that make cross country season special. The first two weeks are about getting through the aches and pains that come with new activity and learning team games like Chuck the Chicken, Nukem and Grump on the Island. The team enjoyed the trails around the center of Andover and plenty of games at the Blackwater Park as they began to round into shape for the first meet at Kearsarge.

On September 12th, the team went to Kearsarge for their first meet of the season. They competed against Kearsarge and Henniker on the hilly 2 mile trails. The girls team ran first led by Sophia Reynolds who won the race by over a minute in 12:56. Following Sophia were Trinity Delany 17:54, Delaney Young 20:26, Paige Makechnie 21:04, Alexis Plante 23:16 and Violet Kraft-Lund Marley in 25:12. The boys race featured some great pack running by Andover. Keeping your runners close together helps minimize your team score and Andover’s time between first and fifth runners was less than two minutes. Andover was led by Mychal Reynolds in 14:51 followed by Jason Koziol in 15:40, Will Sahs 15:41, Henry Flagler 17:37, Enrico Mori 17:46, Caleb Warzocha 18:56 and Nick Horbert 24:01. It was a solid first meet.

Next on the schedule was the Manchester Invitational at Derryfield Park in Manchester. This is the largest single race for boys in girls in all of New Hampshire cross country. The girls race featured 350 finishers and the boys race had over 500 finishers. We go to events like Manchester to get a feel for running against the best in the state and get used to running in large races like we will at our State meet. The girls got things started in fantastic fashion. Everyone ran a solid race showing improvement on the 2.1 mile course. Sophia had the performance of the day winning in a personal best on the Derryfield course of 13:27. It was Andover’s first ever victory at Manchester or any other invitational meet. As a team the day was also a success as Andover beat 4 of the 26 teams at the meet. The boys tackled the race as a solid group. Jack Colvin led the way followed by Dante, Mychal, Will, Jason, Evan, Enrico, Henry, Caleb and Nick. The top 5 finished within 1:06 of each other and beat 2 teams on the day.

Our next meet was at Hopkinton with Merrimack Valley, Weare, Derryfield, and Bow. In the time between Manchester and Hopkinton there were some bonus summer days thrown in. The team worked hard to finish their runs so they could cool off in a couple of wading and swimming holes along the rail trail. Their work, hard play/hard mentality led to some great runs at Hopkinton. The slightly shorter 3k (1.8 mile) distance is also welcome after the longer Manchester course. Sophia continued her winning ways with a 30 second personal and course record followed by Delaney who also scored a personal record at Hopkinton. The boys enjoyed similar success, led by Jack closely followed by Mychal and personal records by Jason, Dante and Caleb.

The next official meet on our schedule was our home meet at Proctor Ski Area. However there was an opportunity for willing runners to compete in a middle school race on our State meet course as part of the Coe Brown Black Bear Invitational High School meet. We had Sophia and Trinity represent Andover for the girls and Jack Colvin, Evan Hill, and Mychal Reynolds represent the boys. As usual the girls started first, sprinting down the hill into the woods with Sophia leading the way and Trinity a little behind. When they returned Sophia was sprinting to the finish in course record time of 11:40 for her second invitational win of the year. Trinity soon followed in a strong effort on a cold rainy day. The boys took to the course with Jack leading the way followed by Mychal and Evan. They were all experiencing the course for the first time and did a great job finishing in the top half of the race.

Next on two days rest was Andover’s home meet with Kearsarge and Sant Bani School. The team decided to have a little fun and decorated parts of the course for Halloween featuring a skeleton in an Andover uniform at the top of the hill. Sophia and Delaney led the way with Sophia winning and both setting personal bests on the girls side. The boys had a great day. Their large group means that when someone doesn’t have a great day, there is someone else there to pick up the team. Evan led the way followed by Will, Mychal, Jason, Dante, Enrico and Henry. It was a different order for us, but it worked as the boys scored their first meet victory beating Kearsarge and Sant Bani.

The last official meet of the regular season was on October 11th at Merrimack Valley, but we had another opportunity for 6th – 8th graders to compete in the Wood’s Trail Run in Thetford Academy in Vermont. The meet features middle school races followed by 10 High School races with some of the best runners in New England. Sophia and Trinity competed for the girls and Jack Colvin ran for the boys. Thetford is the shortest race of the year at 2.7k or just a little less than 1.5 miles. Everyone ran great races with Sophia winning and almost breaking 10 minutes with a time of 10:04. Trinity had her best run of the season finishing 13:03 in 74th. Jack ran to 100th place on the rolling course finishing in 12:36.

The Merrimack Valley meet featured Andover, Hillside, Bow, Hopkinton, Henniker and Derryfield running 2 flat fast miles. It was our last regular season meet before the Division III State Meet at Coe Brown. It would be Andover’s best meet of the season. The day featured personal records for over half the team. It could have been more but it was the first time on the course for the other half so they didn’t have a record to break. For the boys team Mychal, Jason, Dante and Caleb all improved their previous marks on the course. They were joined by excellent runs by Evan, Jack, Will and Henry to finish with a fabulous one through five gap of 45 seconds.

The girls team produced another four personal records, one of which was good for an all time course record at MV. The run of the day belonged to Violet who improved over 3 minutes on her best time of the year and broke 20 for the first time. Delaney and Trinity also scored personal bests of over a minute. Sophia came so very close to breaking 12 minutes finishing in 12:02, setting a personal best and new all time course record for the MV Middle School course.

The regular season is over and the team will compete next at the Division III State Meet at Coe Brown October 21st. It will be the second time in the team’s five year history they will field full scoring teams of five athletes in both boys and girls races.