The Montrose Cross Country team has been doing really well so far this year! We started with many familiar faces as well as some new runners, all of whom have greatly improved since the beginning of the season. Our team’s top seven spots continuously change as each person challenges themselves to beat previous personal records each race. In cross country, the lowest combined score of the top 5 runners wins, so each and every runner counts towards displacing other runners and contributing to the team. Three of our races that stand out in particular are Portsmouth Abbey, Saint George’s, and our senior home meet.
One of our first races was at Saint George’s School in Newport, Rhode Island. We knew Saint George’s had a very strong team and it was going to be a challenge to race against them. The day of the meet, it was cold, rainy and especially windy, because the school is located right on the water. Yet, our team really benefited from this meet, because it showed to all of our runners, new and old, that cross country is a tough sport and that you have to have determination and a strong mental focus through the entire race to succeed. Especially on a day like that, you have to have the mentality of leaving it all out on the course and constantly remind yourself that it’s only 20 minutes of your life; you really have to push yourself beyond what you think you can achieve in order to be successful. Montrose ended up beating St. Mark’s School 18-37, lost a VERY close match-up with St. George’s 28-28 (they beat us, because their 6th and 7th runners finished ahead of our 5th), and lost to Governor’s Academy 31-26. This meet was some of our best competition, and was true New England cross country weather. Although we didn’t come out triumphant, we embraced the loss, and used it as motivation to win the next few meets!
Overall, our race at Portsmouth Abbey was one of our strongest races yet! Going into this meet, we knew that Portsmouth Abbey was a strong team who had beaten us two years ago in our championship race, but we had then come back to beat them in championships last year winning first overall. We ran a tough race on a challenging course. There were a total of 5 large hills, but it wasn’t anything we weren’t ready for. Our team came out triumphant, beating them by over 30 points! Maggie Feeney is a seventh grader who just started running last year, and this was one of her best races, coming in 4th place in the combined JV and varsity race! Everyone already had a huge difference in PRs (personal records) from the beginning of the season to the meet at Portsmouth Abbey.
Although we still have our championship meet next weekend, our senior home meet summarizes our whole season. We beat Penguin Hall significantly, and many people ran their personal best on our home course! A few performances that stand out are Maddy Kerr, beating the course record with a time of 18:49, and Catalina Perdomo beating her personal record by 43 seconds – even coming off an injury!! When I first started cross country in seventh grade, I was one of the youngest runners on the team. It was intimidating, and I doubted I would ever be as good as some of the freshmen, now the current seniors. Those girls showed what it meant to be committed to the sport and, because of their example, I am the runner I am today. A special thanks to Maddy Kerr, Eva Derendorf, Kate Ladino, Rosie Beard, and Kate Regan, who have been amazing leaders this season and will be greatly missed next year!
By Ali Hamel ‘27, Contributing Writer
27ahamel@montroseschool.org
