Millbrook girls set season PRs at NEPSTA DIII New England Championships

Millbrook cross country worked strategically and hard to peak at the right time this season, at the New England DIII championships. This year, the championships were held at Great Brook Farm State Park in Carlisle MA, home course to Concord Academy.  A super-early departure got the team to Great Brook in enough time to shake off our bus legs, take in some carbs and protein, and get the lay of the course before warm-up for race time.  Lining up in box 17 (randomly directly next to Pomfret, our rivals in the first ever Millbrook-Pomfret Day), the girls were able to clear the first field without having to plow through a lake-like puddle, but they got plenty muddy over the rest of the course. Drury finished the second loop stride-for-stride with two opposing runners, and pulled ahead in the woods during the third loop. While she was ultimately caught and passed by Kata Clark of Brooks School in the final half-mile, Drury ran an excellent race, qualifying for the All-star race next weekend. Sarah Eagen mixed it up the whole race and finished strong in 23:29. Co-captain Hannah Coon was next in for Millbrook and had her best finish of the season, finding another gear and passing at least three runners in the final stretch to finish in 24:47. Aiden Corbin had been trying to break 26 minutes all season, and when she heard her time heading into the final 500 meters, a look of delight and determination crossed her face, and she sprinted in to finish at 25:43.  Angelina Huang was next in, in 26:58 and looking strong. Senior Tracy He left it all on the course in her last race of her high school career, finished sixth for Millbrook in 27:15, by far her best race. Co-captain Eliza Withers-Clarke finished out Millbrook's top 7 with a solid effort, and she led the team's cheering of our boys varsity and jv runners for the rest of the afternoon. In the girls JV race, Hailey Mesard and Tracy Yin were in box 1, directly in front of the lake that had only grown muddier and deeper. They embraced getting wet and ran strong for their team. Mesard finished 29th in 27:57, and Yin came in at 31:06, her best time of the season.  In the end, Millbrook girls took 13th for the day. We didn't beat Pomfret, but we set plenty of PRs, made some new friendships (including with the Pomfret team), and had a blast.