Wow. What a Season!

The cross country banquet on Thursday marked the official end of our 2017 cross country season. Awards were received, pins were handed out, t-shirts were signed, and desserts were eaten (lots of them!). Coach Shirley even gave every runner his or her own golf tee in honor of the golf tee that was awarded to the winners of practice each day back at the beginning of the season (I guess he didn't want to have to carry around a bunch of two-by-fours...).

The winner-of-practice block at the end of the season (Photo: Mrs. Jen Mengel)

Joshua Deitrich ('19) and Hannah Ye ('21) were awarded the Top Male Runner and Top Female Runner awards. These were based on points earned towards varsity letters, of which Josh won 80 out of a possible 80! Marc Sherman ('20) and Captain Naomi Mengel ('18) received the Most Improved Runner Awards. Spencer Armstrong ('19) and Faith Hollister ('22) were the recipients of the Coaches' Awards, the criteria for which included finishing every race and making a significant contribution to the team in terms of scoring.

As Coach said at the banquet, this was an amazing year for our team. We met our team goals for the season, and I've seen every one of us runners improve so much. In looking ahead, we have a relatively young team, and I can't wait to see how Red Lion Cross Country will grow in the years to come!

On a more personal note, I can't express just how much I've enjoyed cross country these past two years that I've been running. This season especially, I really feel like I started to hit my stride (no pun intended). I've gone from thinking I could barely run a mile without dying to knowing I can push myself beyond my mental limits to finish every race. I've learned valuable lessons from both my coaches and teammates, not only about running, but also about encouragement, teamwork, and life in general.

I guess that's it for this year then! To all our parents, thank you for your support of us runners and cheering for us; to our coaches, for teaching us the value of preparing, continually encouraging us, and pushing us farther than we think we can go; and to my teammates, for being an absolutely amazing group of encouraging, hilarious, supportive, and understanding people. I'll miss you all next year, but I can't wait to see what's in store for this team in the years to come!

Naomi

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us."
- Hebrews 12:1

P. S. Don't forget about the 500 club! Keep logging those miles and I'll see you on the leaderboard ;)

There's a Website!

That's right, the Cross Country team is live on the web!

You can visit the page here.

The purpose of this site is to encourage runners to run in the off season by providing a way to log miles. For those who reach 500 miles before the next season, there will be a "500 Club." Members of said club will get a custom t-shirt and (potentially) a "get-out-of-practice-free" ticket. There will also be a "250 Club" for those who run 250 miles between May 1 and the first day of practice.

There will be more details announced at the Cross Country banquet on Thursday, but for now, if you want login credentials, please send a quick email to contact@onthelinexc.com and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Currently Coach Shirley is at the top of the leaderboard with a whopping 3 miles, so get running!

Micah Pope

2017 Delaware DIAA State Championships

Our last race of the season was the DE State Championship race at Killens Pond (or, as some of the girls termed it, "Kill-it" Pond). It was definitely a welcome change from last year's States race at Brandywine, which involved several enormous hills, as the Killens Pond course is almost entirely flat. Our team was rather well equipped for the temperatures in the upper 30s, showing up wearing about three layers each and bringing gloves, hats, hand warmers, blankets, and even sleeping bags.

Four races were held at this meet, a girls and a boys race each for Division I and Division II schools. Our top seven male and female runners competed in the respective Division II races, with the girls race taking off first at 1pm.

The start of the girls race (Photo: Mrs. Jen Mengel)

Hannah Ye ('21) ran a personal best time of 22:00, placing 44th overall. Faith Hollister ('22) was not far behind in 56th place with her own new PR of 22:13. Fiona Fawcett ('22) finished in 82nd place with a time of 23:43, and Katie Rippon ('20) and Captain Naomi Mengel ('18) ran personal bests of 24:03 and 24:19 respectively to place 91st and 96th. Katelyn Walker ('19) finished in 100th place in 24:40. Cathy Nicholson ('21) crossed the line in 105th place at 25:07, despite twisting her ankle in the latter half of the race.

Weston (and Matteo) around the half-mile mark (Photo: Naomi Mengel)

The Division II boys race started an hour and twenty minutes later at 2:20 pm. Joshua Deitrich ('19) once again led the Red Lion boys, placing 24th overall with a personal best of 17:19. He was followed by Weston Marshall ('20), who set a PR of 18:51 and placed 67th. Matteo D'Andrea ('20) finished in 111th place in 19:53, followed by Spencer Armstrong ('19) in 115th place with a PR of 19:59. Captain Luke Sherman ('18) and Dennis Nicholson ('19) both set PRs of 20:29, finishing 125th and 126th, with Luke just ahead. Marc Sherman also set a PR, coming in 148th with a time of 21:14.

Josh Deitrich leading the Red Lion boys (Photo: Naomi Mengel)

Full results can be found here for both races.

Captain Luke Sherman finishing his final race as a high school XC runner (Photo: Naomi Mengel

)

At practice this past week, Coach Shirley told us he'd set a goal back at the beginning of the season for the girls team and one for the boys team for our States races. The girls' goal was to place in the top ten teams in Division II, and the boys' was to place in the top fifteen. At this meet, our girls team did indeed finish in tenth place, and the boys finished in fifteenth. In addition, ten out of our fourteen runners who competed in this meet set new personal bests today. ("Kill-it" Pond turned out to be a very appropriate name.)

Team pictures after the race (Photo: Mr. Dan Mengel)

After team pictures, we headed out to Chick-fil-a to celebrate as a team. The girls team also revealed their Secret Sisters at the meet. Our season is officially over, but I don't think we could have ended with a better race. We'll celebrate some more at our banquet on Thursday, and after that it's a wrap.

The girls team (Photo: Mr. Dan Mengel)

I'll probably post one more blog entry after our banquet next Thursday and share more of my personal experience from this season, so keep an eye out for that :)

Naomi

2017 New Castle County Championships

Although the Winterthur course for the New Castle County Championship race is not usually a particular favorite among runners, we did our best to rise to the challenge. It's billed as having "gently rolling hills," which is a pretty accurate description of the first mile of each lap, but the larger hill that makes up the last half mile can be rather intimidating. As this is a two-lap course, it tends to be even more mentally challenging. We couldn't have had a better day for the race, though; temperatures in the upper 50s and a bit of November sunshine made for wonderful running weather.

The team post-race (Photo: Mrs. Jen Mengel)

We put a lot into preparing for this race both mentally and physically during the week leading up to it. We put our work in at practice every day, had a course walk-through (more like run-through) on that Wednesday, and some of us even had a bread-eating competition at the pre-meet spaghetti dinner on Friday (hey, they did tell us to load up on the carbs!).

For this race, the top seven runners on each team ran in their respective varsity races, and the rest of the runners competed in the JV races.

The JV girls ran first, with Sophia Spotts ('21) leading the way for Red Lion and finishing in 61st place (out of 193 girls) with a time of 24:58. Abby Phillips ('21) finished in 97th, with Captain Anna Teather ('18) following in 138th. Full results for the race can be found here.

The JV boys race was by far the largest of the meet with a total of 340 runners. Ryan Cooper ('21) finished first among the Red Lion boys and 97th overall, followed by Richard Turley ('22) in 101st, Nick Yu ('18) in 105th, Micah Pope ('19) in 107th, and Ryan Silver ('20) in 110th. Captain Brandan Leauby ('18) and Jesse Ma ('20) followed in 258th and 297th. Cooper, the first runner, and Silver, the fifth runner, finished within thirty seconds of each other (22:30 and 22:58) . For full results, click here.

The varsity girls race, with 165 runners, was the smallest of the meet. Faith Hollister ('22) led the Red Lion girls, finishing in 85th place with a time of 23:11 despite taking a tumble early in the race. Hannah Ye ('21) finished next in 98th place in 23:36. Captain Naomi Mengel ('18) followed in 115th with a time of 24:26 (a PR for me!). Cathy Nicholson ('21) and Katie Rippon ('20) also finished under 25 minutes in 123rd and 125th place respectively. Fiona Fawcett ('22) placed 134th, and Katelyn Walker ('19) finished just behind her in 135th (full results here). The team placed 19th out of 29 teams.

In the varsity boys race, Joshua Deitrich ('19) crossed the line at 17:56, placing 61st out of 203 runners and first for Red Lion. Weston Marshall ('20) finished next in 101st place, followed by Matteo D'Andrea ('20) in 136th and Spencer Armstrong ('19) in 145th place. Captain Luke Sherman ('18) finished in 158th place with a PR of 20:58 to round out the top five. Dennis Nicholson ('19) and Marc Sherman ('20) followed in 167th and 176th place respectively. The team placed 20th out of 32 teams. Full results can be found here.

MileSplit also has video coverage of each race. Check out the beginning of this video to see our girls team featured!

Coach Shirley speaking to the team after the race (Photo: Cathy Nicholson)

We're nearing the end of our season, with only one more race to go. We're gearing up for the States meet on Saturday, where the top seven runners on each team will compete in the Division II races. Coach Shirley has set some specific goals for our teams regarding placing in that meet, and I'm excited to see us finish out the season strong!

Naomi

A Late-Season Update from Wenham

Hello XC friends! I'm back on the OTLXC blog. Most of you probably remember me from last year, but if not, my name is Benjamin Schneider, and I ran cross-country at Tall Oaks for seven seasons, the last of which was under the Red Lion banner.

College has been treating me well thus far. I've learned a lot and become more disciplined in many areas, but I've also been blessed to be able to continue participating in the sport that I love so very much.

Yes, I'm running cross-country for Gordon College!

Cross-country wasn't something that I was expecting to continue after high school, but it started to enter my mind as a possibility when I heard David Walczak ('16), my longtime teammate who also attends Gordon, was running on the team. After committing to Gordon and exchanging a few emails, I found myself with a spot on the roster.

My new coach, Justin Wikerd, is fantastic. He's been an excellent source of encouragement to the entire team all season. He's currently in his second season at Gordon, coaching both the XC and Track and Field teams.

As for how my season has been going personally, it's been challenging, but it's also been a wonderful experience. I'm training harder than I ever have before, and I honestly think I'm in the best shape of my life.

College XC distances are slightly longer. The first meet of the season is a 5K race to allow us to ease back into race pace, but after that, the men's distance bumps up to 8K (just barely under five miles). For the women, the 5K distance remains the same until the Conference Championship and Regional Finals races, where an extra kilometer is added and the distance becomes 6K.

I dealt with some foot soreness in the offseason, so I came into the year slightly undertrained. I ran the 5K race in 21:36, certainly not a bad time, but quite a bit slower than that of what I am capable. Adjusting to the 8K distance has taken some time; in my first 8K, my mile pace increased slightly as I ran a 35:21.6. Over the season, I've been able to drop nearly a minute off my time, and just last Saturday, I completed the CCC Championship race in 34:27.9, setting a new personal best for the 8K distance.

The team's final meet, the NCAA New England Regionals, is next Saturday, November 11. The rules are slightly different for this meet as each team is only permitted to run seven team members, though an additional three can serve as alternates, standing by to compete in the case of unforeseen circumstances. I am one of the alternates, so I will be travelling with the team, but I am unlikely to actually participate in the race.

Once the season ends, I'll have some downtime, but I think I have decided to give Track and Field a try as well. Tall Oaks only had a track team my sophomore year, which was a really enjoyable experience. Most Gordon runners do both XC and track, and while I orignally was intending on taking the spring season off, I've been feeling called to participate in track as well. Just this week, the XC team practiced on the track to do some interval work, and I had an absolute blast, running my fastest interval splits of the season. I am still a bit concerned about having enough time in my schedule, but I am trusting that if God wants me to run track, He will find a way to make it work.

With that, I bid you farewell as both our teams approach the end of our respective seasons. Go Lions and Scots!

Benjamin