Another solid effort by the team today with some really good showing, as well as some setbacks. In a very stacked field, freshman Ava Crews once again bumped elbows with the best of them, finishing in a very impressive tenth place overall, and with a PR of 19:23! She continues to look strong and she’s yet to reach her ceiling. She led the Trojans followed by senior leader Jessica Durkee, who produced a solid performance in 20:19. She was followed by sophomore Holly Velting, who is on a streak of going sub-21, this time in 21:43. She was followed by her sister, junior Lindsey Velting who is on a streak of her own, running her third sub-23 effort in a row in 22:27.She was followed by freshman dynamo, Lydia Schilthroat who is on a three meet stint of sub-23’s herself. Lucy VanDemark in only her second race of the season followed with a 23-minute effort, and to round out the top seven was junior, Emelia MacDonald who is often in our top three, but turned her ankle badly in the first mile, collected herself, and still managed to run a very respectable 23:51!

In the JV race, junior Emma Thompson led the Trojans in 23:32, followed by hard charging senior Kendall Snyder in 24:08. I’m not intentionally overlooking anyone, as everyone gave what they had on the day, but there were some exciting...interesting?...things happening deeper into our line-up. Senior Anna Benedict apparently didn’t think it was enough to be healing broken toes, to have recently taken a knee to the face in an unfortunate incident in P.E. which required several stitches, to have the additional responsibilities of being on the homecoming court...and subsequently becoming the homecoming queen...and to cheer in the varsity football game the night before, so even though she was encouraged to simply stay home and rest, she showed up at the meet and gave it her all. It wasn’t her fastest time, but fatigue and the inability to see clearly were certainly factors. Additionally, sophomore Marian Gielincki toed the line of her first meet after battling a knee injury, which still persists on some level, and ran a solid race in her own right. Finally, senior Olivia Landry broke a streak of sub-29 minute races, but in a positive direction by cracking the 28-minute barrier! 

The girls ran solid races, especially in what has been a really busy week. They are such hard workers, they don’t back down from a challenge, and they showed this once again representing TK well in a very competitive invitational. However, there will be little reprieve as we will head to the Portage Invitational next weekend where the competition won’t be any lighter and the course will be a bit tougher, and I’m ok with that.