The 2025 season began in earnest at the Saline Campus Invite with a strong showing by the team. The girls lined up against a very tough Brighton squad along with Milan, Trenton, Bedford and Chelsea. The Hornets took 2nd place to Brighton. Both teams entered the day ranked in the top 5 according to MIXCSpeed Ratings. We don't put a lot of emphasis on these rankings as it's hard to predict what's occurring on a team. Matt Armelagos does a ton of research and puts a lot of work into these rankings - his work is very much appreciated and he should be recognized for his contributions. As we told the team earlier this week, the only rankings we really care about (no offense, Matt) are those that occur in the afternoon on 11/1/2025 (the state meet). Still, it is an honor to be highly ranked in such a competitive state.
Back to the racing, after all, these are race notes!
Savannah Staton led the Hornets and all finishers across the finish line. Her time of 18:43 was 60 seconds (yep, a full minute) faster than her time at the time trial last Friday. She took control of the race during the 2nd lap of the course and never let up. She's a very intelligent runner and she showed it today.
Savannah was followed by Lilli Schlack. She also ran significantly faster than she did at the time trial. This senior has set some lofty goals for herself and her team and she is working hard to get there. Lilli made a really important pass in the last 400 meters of the race.
Addie Turck was the 3rd finisher for Saline running a 20:05. She's running minutes ahead of where she was at this time last year. Saline's 4th finisher was Sophie Roth in 20:50, she was followed closely by Lauren Tomaszewski (LT) in a PR of 21:00 (sub 21:00 is coming!!). Rounding out the top 7 was Mahalia Staton with a PR of 21:09 and Jillian Hayes at 22:06.
Outside of the top 7, we had several notable performances. Claire Oberski PR'd by 54 seconds running a 23:19. We've seen consistent improvement from Claire and we're very excited to see her season unfold.
It's fun to watch the freshmen learn from one race to the next. Some notable PR's from the time trial to today's race amongst our freshmen competitors:
Ruby Giddings ran a PR time of 23:44 lopping almost 90 seconds off her time trial performance.
Ellie Rodriguez was another freshman that made some strong moves. She ran a 27:52 also removing almost 90 seconds from her first trip around the course.
Isabelle Calati ran a 24:51shaving 20 seconds from her time trial time. Jenna Hardy PR'd at 27:01, Seraphina Newton ran a PR of 28:24, shattering her previous time of 29:58. Rounding out the freshman PR's was Kylie Musser, dropping an incredible 3:18 from her time trial time - that's impressive.
Sophomore Janaye Sifuna, in just her 2nd ever XC race, ran a PR of 32:20. She's building a great distance base for the track season.
Junior Elizabeth Giles turned in a strong performance running 33:43 almost 90 seconds faster than her time trial time. She's been working hard this summer and that work is going to pay off this fall!
The coaches are very happy with the results we saw today. For an early season meet, the team showed up and really competed against some very tough competition. We have some work to do but the team has the right attitude and willingness to get the work done.
We're next in action on 9/6/2025. Some of the athletes will head to Bath while others will be at Rambling Rock. Please come out to cheer for the team.