Manchester Road Race: Hayley’s great race!

Junior Hayley Collins had a great run at the Manchester Road Race in Connecticut on Thanksgiving morning. Hayley placed 15^th out of 5,146 women in the famous 4.748-mile race, and 11^th in her division. Her time of 27:19 was a personal best and averaged out to 5:45 per mile. Her father, John, was 18^th in his age division (50-54) in 32:23 (6:49 pace). After the race, Hayley got her shoe signed by women’s winner Edna Kiplagat of Kenya. Neat!

Alumni at Philly

We had a strong showing of Forever Foxes in Philadelphia on Saturday. In the half marathon, Billy Posch ran 1:17:43, good for 34^th in the 25-29 division. In the women’s 25-29 division, three good friends and former teammates had strong races: Annie Gould, 1:31:39 (32^nd in age group), Brie Vess, 1:36:35 (62^nd in age group), Catherine Ferreri, 1:45:04 (169^th in age group). In the 8km race, Kelley Posch crushed it, running 35:30 and placing 18^th in her age division. Nicely done, everyone!

Neighbors and friends, D3 XC success

Very pleased and proud of our Division III neighbors and friends, who had strong finishes to their cross country seasons. Specifically, the Vassar College women’s team qualified as a team for the D3 championships, and SUNY New Paltz had a few individual qualifiers. And out in Minnesota, our dear friend and former assistant coach Erica Maker had her top athlete run extremely well at the D3 nationals as well. This is very cool for us, because we have strong connections to our D3 friends: Vassar College allows us virtually unlimited access to their facilities (the Farm in the fall, the track all three seasons) and New Paltz is a prime training venue for us (the SUNY indoor track in the winter, and the trails in the fall). In addition, the Vassar coaches (James McCowan and Justin Harris) are great at what they do and good friends to us, with Jut being a loyal Marist alum and former school record holder. And over at SUNY New Paltz, recent alum Kerry Gaye is a first-year assistant coach in cross country, so we are proud of all her success as a young coach. Congrats to all!