HOULTON, Maine — Greater Houlton Christian Academy’s girls middle school cross country season started this year just like any other year, but finished on a high note, winning the Aroostook League Middle School championship.
Held at Caribou High School Oct. 10, GHCA captured the girls title for the fifth straight year. In the girls’ team competition, GHCA tallied 39 points. Presque Isle came in second with 45, Caribou totaled 49 and Woodland had 90.
The GHCA girl’s cross-country team consists of Andrea Ross, Teanne Ewings, Addison Watson, Lucy Malone, Leanne Ross, Calli Sylvia, Grace Kafferlin and Drew Warman.
“We had some solid girls who had been running for a few years and we had those who were trying it for the first time,” coach Angie Ewings said. “After our first meet, the girls won by a landslide. The first practice right after that meet, the girls were told that we were not going to settle in but that we were going to continue to practice as if we came in last.”
Ewings added the girls were also told that in life, anything could happen and that they now had become the “target” team.
“We would be the team that the opposing teams were coming after,” she said. “Even after the first meet, we were still winning by a large margin, but not once did we settle for that. The girls continued to work harder to improve not only their team score but their individual times as well.”
As the season started to wind down, the idea of winning five consecutive girls titles was now becoming a tangible goal.
“We continued to stress the fact that we were not going to take this championship for granted though,” coach Ewings said. “We had run on the exact same course that our championship meet was going to be run on just the week before and won by the same margin as we had all season.”
The week of the championship meet, the Eagles were faced with an unfortunate injury that was now questioning whether or not one of their top runners was going to be able to compete.
“We knew that this runner was a solid asset to the team and not having her would be a challenge that we would need to face,” the coach said. “We began to run some calculations and the number was still coming up with a win for us. These girls were told that each and every one was a piece of the puzzle and was needed and not one single piece made up the whole team.
As the race started and the runners started to settle in, the idea of winning another championship title was looking more like reality; that was until the last mile as the coaches started keeping track of the runners and their order.
“We were now faced with another team placing five runners in the top half of the race,” Ewings said. “Up until now, that had not happened, so the idea of another championship title was now being questioned again and each runners place was now more critical than ever. The excitement and stress were felt throughout the course.”
As the race concluded, the team’s first thoughts were that they had not won their fifth title because of another team placing five runners in spots that they had not all season.
“The idea that we had adversity going into this championship meet was another indication on how strong these girls had become all season and that they did not settle for the early victories but knew that they needed to finish the season strong in order to win overall,” the coach said.
