Hamilton Harriers run at States
Frigid temperatures and mud make for tough going
Once again the Hamilton Harriers returned to the state meet. Six runners made the long trip to SUNY Canton, 10 miles south of Potsdam. Mikayla, Gabby, Naomi, Rachel and Lily represented the girls' team and Stevie B. ran for our guys, Aden also qualified, but opted out to take the SATs. What a long, strange trip it was. This year's trip was a bit longer with the team departing on
beautiful upstate New York
Thursday afternoon for the seven hour journey to Canton. We spent the night in the Section 1 hotel and headed to the course for a jog through on Friday morning.
breakfast
As we jogged the muddy, rain soaked course in a cold, windy, rain/snow mix, I couldn't help feeling that I had seen this movie before several years earlier at Vernon Hills High School. The SUNY Canton course was a beauty, wide open grassy lanes, a wooded section by the river, one fairly steady hill at the two mile mark, followed by a steep descent and rolling 800m descent to the finish line. On a sunny October day, it would have been absolutely beautiful, but on this day in November, well, not so much.
Saturday dawned overcast and frigid. The race time temperature for the girls was about 31 degrees. I warned them back in July that if they made it to states in November it very well could be snowing. It wasn't, but it was plenty cold enough to.
Our ladies all ran their hardest and represented us well. Mikayla was our first finisher, as she was at every race this year. Gabby was close behind her today, running her best race of the year on the muddy course Gabby's time of 26:22 was almost a three minute PR.
Gabby sprinting to a PR
Naomi, Rachel and Lily rounded out our finishers. Though the course wasn't as muddy as states in 2011 it did slow the times down for most of our runners. In the boys' class D race Stevie B. turned in a fine performance in his last XC run for Hamilton as he
Stevie B.
matched his PR of 20:14.Going to the state meet is something that I hope our team doesn't take for granted. It's an honor to compete against the best in the state, and to get a look at the best teams. The level of competition was simply outstanding. I have to say this was one of the finest settings I have seen for a state meet. I spent the whole morning right at the last stretch to the finish line. What a treat it was to watch these runners rolling down the grassy path heading for the finish. Mud splattered they were sprinting full speed past the
Energy food?
packed cheering crowd. The sound of the cowbells and the frosty vapor coming from the spectators mouths as they shouted just made the atmosphere even better. You all know that I love track, but nothing can match a cross country scene like that. It's kind of ironic that as I was standing there watching the 2014 season ending all I could think about was how I can't wait for the 2015 season to start. Have a great winter, see you next summer.
