Cross country running has made its way to the Andover Middle School for students in grades six through eight. The season runs through the months of September and October. Runners compete at meets against other schools over two miles of trail running.

The athletes set individual goals for success to help improve their running and overall fitness. Practices consist of some trail running, running technique work, and strength work. This is all done in a fun format to help develop an excitement for exercise and pushing one’s limits of success.

The team is coached by Brian Reynolds. Coach Reynolds has been running since middle school and has experience running distances from the mile to the marathon, and more.

“Team members will set their own goals, and we will work toward achieving them and having fun along the way,” says Coach Reynolds. This philosophy helped the runners have a very successful first meet.

The team traveled to Merrimack Valley Middle School for their first-ever cross country meet. It was filled with excitement as the runners took their mark to start the race. Five other schools attended the event. Out of 53 boys, Andover placed well. Chase Davis had a good showing for his first time out. David Reynolds place third, and Matthew Reynolds came in 11th.

In the girls event, Maddy Brashaw finished 17th out of 43 contestants.

After the first meet, the Andover team set three goals for the rest of the season:

• Field a full team

• Everyone runs the full distance

• Run under control to finish strong

It looks like we will be able to field a full team in the next meet, and all the team members are working hard on realizing their running goals.

The next meet is Friday, Oct 4, at Kearsarge Middle School. Many of the same teams will be at that meet, and the Andover team is excited to see how they’ve progressed against the other athletes and the progress they’ve made on their own goals.