RLCA vs. Caravel Academy vs. St. Elizabeth HS

Our opening meet of the season was a tri-meet against Caravel Academy and St. Elizabeth High School at our home course in Lums Pond State Park. The course, which winds through the woods at the back of the park, and the beautiful (if slightly warm) September weather made for a picturesque setting for our first race.

Joshua Deitrich ('19) led the boys' race for Red Lion with a time of 20:23, placing second overall to Caravel's Joe Schaefer. Weston Marshall ('20) followed in third place, finishing in 20:39. Spencer Armstrong ('19), Matteo D'Andrea ('20), Dennis Nicholson ('19), Captain Luke Sherman ('18), and Micah Pope ('19) rounded out the top seven for Red Lion. Richard Turley ('22) finished with a time of 23:56 for his first varsity race, followed by Nick Yu ('18), Marc Sherman ('20), Captain Brandan Leauby ('18), Jesse Ma ('20), and Adam Rao ('20).

On the girls' side, Faith Hollister ('22) led the Red Lion girls in her debut varsity race, finishing second to Katy Peyton of Caravel with a time of 23:58. Hannah Ye ('21) finished third overall in 25:23. Fiona Fawcett ('22) and Cathy Nicholson ('21) had a photo finish as Cathy pulled just ahead in the final sprint. Katelyn Walker ('19), still battling shin splints, nevertheless ran a solid race to finish in 26:27. Katie Rippon ('20) and Captain Naomi Mengel ('18) finished sixth and seventh respectively for the Red Lion girls team, with two of our new runners, Sophia Spotts ('21) and Abby Philips ('21), and Captain Anna Teather ('18) following.

Full race results (Photo: Mrs. Jen Mengel)

It should be noted that even though this was our first race, we've already had two runners compete for the annual "First to Puke" award, won in past years primarily by former Captain David Walczak ('16) and this year (rather sheepishly) by me, who narrowly beat out Adam Rao ('22) for the somewhat dubious honor.

For the first race of the season, all of our runners looked strong out on the course. Some of us (including me) admittedly started the race a little too fast, and many of us did not run the time we were hoping for, but with the rest of the season ahead of us, I have high hopes for our performance as a team in the meets to come.

Naomi