GXC Season Opener a Hilly, Rainy Success
On Saturday 9/21, PAXC traveled to the storied XC course at Derryfield Park in Manchester, New Hampshire to compete at the Manchester Invitational.
The large meet attracted dozens of teams from across New England. Andover teams (GXC and BXC) competed in eight races overall over the course of the day, including the Girls and Boys Freshman races, Boys and girls JV-B and JV-C races, and the Girls and Boys Varsity Large School races.
Weather was cool and damp throughout the day, with rain falling steadily the freshman and varsity races. Derryfield Park features challenging XC conditions, with gradual grassy uphills, steep woodsy climbs, roots-laden trails. (Note that the decades-old 5k course was re-routed this year, so the times from previous years cannot be easily compared to the times from this year.)
Complete meet results can be found here. On the girls' side, major highlights of the day included:
- Amelia Alvazzi's exceptional race in the girls' varsity race, in which she claimed 11th overall with a terrific time of 19:48 (5k). The girls' varsity squad placed 11th as a team.
- Hannah Jung's stellar performance in the girls' freshman race, in which she took 3rd place overall with a time of 13:40 (2-mile). The girls' freshman squad placed 4th as a team.
- 15 athletes on the girls' team raced in their first ever high school XC race!
Photos from the invitational can be found here.
PAXC looks forward to competing at the Black Bear Invitational hosted by Coe Brown Academy in Northwood, NH next Saturday 9/28.