On October 18, the AE/MS Cross Country team wrapped up a very successful second year at the state championships in Londonderry. The season started in September with meets at Kearsarge and Shaker Road, followed by our first home meet at Blackwater Park and the Proctor soccer fields. We wrapped up September with a meet with 200 other runners at Hopkinton.

In October, we started to tune up for the state meet, going back to Kearsarge and Shaker Road to see how we’d progressed.

The team was lead by returning eighth graders David and Matthew Reynolds and returning seventh grader Cyrus King. We were are a very young team. The new members for this year were seventh grader Alexis Geyer, sixth grader Colin Coolidge, and fifth graders River Turnbull, Tyler Champagne, Sophia Reynolds, Brynne Makechnie, Sasha Mackenzie, Alexis Plante, Madison Colby, and Cassidy Piroso.

On the boys’ side, David won five of our six meets, and David and Matthew finished first and second in four of our six meets. Cyrus, Tyler, Colin, and River all made steady progress through the season, with their best times as the year improved. Tyler successfully managed to excel on the team in addition to playing with his Andover Recreation soccer team.

On the girls’ side, we had a great team. We had seven girls, all running for the first time. Three of the girls also successfully played on their Andover Recreation soccer team.

During the season, the team achieved several firsts: We had our first individual winner with David in five of six meets, along with Sophia, who won two girls’ meets this year. We fielded complete teams in all our meets for both boys and girls. And most exciting was that our girls beat Kearsarge in our home duel meet by one point for our first-ever team victory.

We closed out the season at the state meet along with 85 teams and over 3,000 runners competing in 10 races. There are boys and girls races for fifth and sixth graders, seventh graders, and eighth graders; and then Small School and Large School State Championships.

The first Andover runner to toe the line was Alexis Geyer in the seventh grade girls race. She ran her best time of the year, considering it was the longest course we raced all year.

Next up was Cyrus King in the seventh grade boys race. Cyrus finished 182nd, improving on his finish from last year by 61 places.

Then it was the fifth and sixth graders turns to race, starting with the girls. Alex, Cassidy, Madison, and Sophia went to the start in a field of 336 runners. They found a spot on the line and were off. They took off in the second largest race of the day, with Sophia leading the way and Alex, Cassidy, and Madison in the huge field.

As they ran through the Londonderry athletic fields, Sophia ran in a lead group of three at halfway. She was followed by Alex, and then Madison and Cassidy working together. As the girls came up onto the finish field, Sophia rounded the field to finish third. Alex came next, in 243rd, followed by Madison and Cassidy in 332nd and 333rd.

In the fifth and sixth boys race, Colin and River ran in the largest field of the day of 371 runners. They both ran a consistent race to finish in their best times of the year, despite the course being longer than any other course this year.

David and Matthew ran in the second-to-last race of the day. The Small School Championship ended up being the fastest race of the day.

David and Matt joined the field of 213. At the gun, David moved to the front of the pack, with Matt close behind. They established themselves in the top 25, with David in the lead group through the first mile.

As the race passed the finish line the first time, David was in a lead group of 15. Matthew was close behind, at the front of a chase group of 15 to 20 boys just ahead of the main group of runners.

They emerged onto the finish field in a long line, with David in a sprint finish for 13th. Matthew finished in 35th. It was the strongest race of the day, with the whole race complete in less than 25 minutes.

David improved his place from 60th last year to 13th. Matthew ran his most complete race of the year, improving his finish from 140th last year to 35th.

All the kids had a great year and are looking forward to track in the spring.