Driving away from the Canterbury School on September 22nd, the Kent girls cross country team felt content and satisfied with their performance. Despite not taking away a team medal, the girls finished the Invitational in 10th place and with many strong individual showings.

After cheering on the boys, the seven varsity girls quickly warmed up before gathering together at the starting line. The cloudy sky and 65-degree weather provided ideal running conditions as the team got ready and encouraged each other. They ended with a rousing “Kent on three! One, two, three, KENT!”

After the race, Captain Lara D’Alessandro ‘19 remarked that she felt the run was short in distance, but did not think she would get her fastest time. She explained, “running the race, I didn’t feel like I was going to PR, especially since it was really early in the season still. So when I found out [that she ran a personal best], I was like ‘What just happened!’”

She and Paige Lane ‘21 finished 4th and 20th, respectively, out of the 80 competitors. They held times of 19:12 and 21:45. The rest of the team finished not far behind, and many also surpassed their personal bests.

For Caroline Haack ‘20, who had never run at the Invitational before, the race was a positive experience. As the team continues to learn about pacing for longer races, meeting the different teams and running a new course was a particularly helpful experience. In addition, D’Alessandro said that the less experienced runners definitely pushed themselves and, “at the end of this race, they were asking themselves why they decided to join cross country.”

The Canterbury Invitational has prepared the team well, and the girls look forward to the Westminster Invitational and the rest of their season.