Last year Erin's cross country team finished second in the state and with their entire team returning, they were ranked #1 in the Boston Globe's preseason rankings
Their first test was the Ocean State Invitational held in Rhode Island in September. Top teams from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island competed
Lexington won over Billerica and Westford Academy, who they will have to face again later in postseason
Erin only ran in a couple league meets, and in the race at Arlington she won and set a new course record of 18:51 for the 5K
They raced another invitational meet at Franklin Park and won convincingly with their top 5 scoring runners finishing between 18:20 and 19:10
At the league championship Erin finished 8th and the girls team won their 2nd straight title
Massachusetts holds a two-part state championship with the first round among teams of the same size. Lexington competes in the largest classification, Division 1A. Our rival in this division was Westford Academy, who have the #1 runner in the state on their team
In cross country, it really matters that your team stay together and not get too spread out on the course. Erin and her 2 junior teammates supported each other all season and were welded together in this race
Erin's hard charge at the end earned a #9 finish
Lexington's runners finished #3, 5, 8, 9, and 16 to total 41 points, enough to win the title over Westford with 71 points
The next weekend was the all-state meet, where the top finishers in the divisional meets face off. For this race, Lexington knew that the team from Billerica would be their challenge. Billerica won their divisional meet with 26 points and like Lexington, had raced undefeated in the state to this point. But the Lexington coaches had a plan: they let the Billerica girls go out fast while Erin and her junior teammates hung back until the hills in the middle of the race. Then their pack made their move and picked off Billerica's #4 and 5 runners.
Erin finished 17th with a strong 18:57, 1:04 faster than her race on the same course last year. Their team total was 63 to Billerica's 89.
It was the school's first state XC championship since 2016. Their top 5 runners averaged an incredible 18:43 and since this race is held at the same course every year, it allows comparison to winners from past years. In a post on Bay State Running, one of the other coaches in the state concluded that in any other year, Billerica's team average of 19:02 would have won the title, but this year's Lexington team may be the fastest in state history.
Coach Trax supports the team in many ways. Here they're doing "legs up" after the race to aid circulation for recovery.
The next race was NXR NE, the Nike Cross Regional qualifier for the Northeast. This meet pulls from New England plus New Jersey and Pennsylvania with the top 2 teams qualifying for Nationals in Oregon. It is always held in Wappingers Falls, New York, and this year it was on Erin's 17th birthday.
Going into the meet, we knew we had a chance. Team performances at their state championships can be handicapped by their course difficulties and assigned a speed rating metric. In the regional rankings we were behind two powerhouse private schools can recruit runners from large urban populations: Union Catholic in New Jersey and Penn Charter in Philadelphia, and a public school from Champlain Valley, Vermont.
The race location was close to a Hudson River School Art Trail site, the view of Storm King mountain
I made my commemorative medallion rubbing
The night before the race was team dinner with the parents. Dartmouth alumni are over-represented among XC parents and there were 2 moms here who couldn't believe that Caroline's old freshman dorm is still in service.
The race was tough. The course is basically up a big mountain and then back down on a narrow twisting trail. There were over 260 girls running and after the mass start it was crucial to get up near the front or else be caught in a pack with little room to maneuver. Aside from their #1 runner who got out to the front, Erin and her teammates didn't get out fast enough and couldn't make up enough ground.
Erin finished in 19:42 in 75th place, and 0:36 faster than last year
The team finished in 6th and were disappointed. The qualifiers were Union Catholic (NJ) and Champlain Valley (VT), with Penn Charter (PA) a close 3rd.
XC girls are resilient and the team looked on the bright side. Their top 5 will all be back next year and have one more chance at NXR NE to make it to NXN.
And in two weeks, Indoor Track starts!
