Sports

Andover Girls XC Remains Undefeated

The Girl’s Cross Country Team continued its success and remained undefeated Saturday in its race against NMH, winning with a score of 25-32. Once again, almost all runners were given the chance to race and the Lady Blue was represented well by the 18 girls who competed. The NMH team did not have enough girls to merit two races, so the Varsity and JV races were again combined yet scored separately. The JV team also maintained their impressive success, beating NMH with a score of 15-48. The Andover girls began in the front and held their ground as Katie Faulkner ’06 led the race with a time of 20:46. Katherine Adams ’06 finished in second, followed by an Andover pack led by Debby Kuhn ’05 that swept sixth through tenth place. Becca Waldo ’07 and Sara Ho ’08 ran in together as Ho pulled away from Co-Captain Anne Sharp ’05 in the last stretch. Rounding out the Varsity race were Sharp and Andrea Coravos ’06, who crossed the finish line together with a time of 23:30. Though the girls won, it was a tough race for all of them. Not only was the team particularly tired as a result of the past three weeks with a stepped up training plan and increased mileage, but the NMH course was the most intimidating that the team had encountered all season. From the seemingly endless ups and downs of the hills to the countless roots and muddy paths, it was an incredibly challenging course. Coach Nancy Lang said that she was more worried about the footing and avoiding injury than the actual results. The line-ups, however, were slightly varied as the effects of two months of running six days a week began to catch up with the girls. Jen Downing ’08, one of the Blue’s top varsity runners, could not compete on Saturday due to a strained tendon in her calf, and has been forced to take a couple days off. Kendra Allenby ’05 and Katie Morris ’07, both varsity runners, also were not running this weekend in order to recuperate from the flu. The JV team, though experiencing the same difficulties, is composed of a larger group of girls and has not been as affected as varsity. In the JV race, Emma Wood ’07 led the team with a time of 23:31, finishing a second behind Coravos, the last varsity runner, and followed closely by Co-Captain Allison Murphy ’05. In spite of the challenging course four girls managed to run personal bests. Coravos, Rachel Reinauer ’07, Janet Scognamiglio ’08, and Becca Waldo ’07 all finished at least 20 seconds faster than their previous races. Sharp was pleased with the race and said of the course, “I thought that the race taught people that they couldn’t rely on first impressions to govern how their race would be. There are times you can work yourself up and those who ran realized it wasn’t that bad. I think it was a great learning experience.”