On Saturday, November 14th at 8:30 am, the cross-country team loaded onto the Montrose bus and headed to their Championship race at the South Kent School in Connecticut. With a three and a half hour ride, the bus was generously filled with Belvita biscuits, Nature Valley bars, homemade cookies, banana bread, and other essential snacks for the long day ahead of them. Although the girls continually sang to the songs on the radio, they still managed to have enough breath left to race 3.1 miles.

At 12:30 pm, the girls walked the course that they would soon be running. During the walk-through, Ciara Young ‘18 exclaimed, “These steep hills are the death of me, and I’m only walking! Don’t worry, we are walking the course backwards so we will be running down all of these hills.” After walking up the five steep hills, the course director instructed the runners, saying, “So you will run up all of these hills.” The Montrose team looked around to each other, with their eyes popping out, and took deep breaths. Hesitant reassuring phrases filled the crowd.

Even though the hills intimidated the Montrose girls, their anxieties didn’t stop them from running their best. Ciara Young ‘18 crossed the finish line fifth overall for the girls’ varsity race. Mary Dyke ‘20 followed close behind, placing fifteenth overall. Both girls qualified for the NEPSTA All-Star race in Southborough, MA, on Saturday, November 21st, where they will have the opportunity to race against the best runners in New England. In the girls’ junior varsity race, Francesca Dyke ‘18 placed first, Isabel Gomez ‘20 in second place, and Cecy Sanchez ‘18 in nineteenth place. Overall, the Montrose Cross Country Team placed fifth out of nineteen all girls’ teams.

The Lexington Christian Academy’s cross country coach told Montrose, “The course was strenuous on all runners. You could either run all the hills or you couldn’t.” Each Montrose runner displayed perseverance and strength as they attacked each hill with their eyes on the prize.