Maxine Peterson
A recap by Head Coach and Statistics teacher Gary Piligian:
Maxine Peterson: Mount Vernon’s first all-region cross country runner: 8th in Region Meet at 20:41, breaking her own MVPS all-time record.
One of MVPS’s strongest-ever runners, Josh Eastwood, claims 7 of 20 best times in MVPS history.
5 seniors run personal records in last race of MVPS career: Daphne Zintak, Garrett Hahn, John Willingham, Will Thompson and Reeder Meade.
All 7 female varsity runners ran personal records at Region 5A meet: Daphne Zintak, Maxine Peterson, Nina Toller, Madeleine Hudgens, Avery Maxwell, and Shailan Stefaniak-Earley.
Maclean Peterson (18:45) posted the 3rd fastest time in MVPS history.
Another first for MVPS cross country: 7 boys run sub-20 minute 5K at Region 5A meet with top 5 average of 19:03.
On the morning of Halloween, the Varsity and Junior Varsity cross country teams attended the Region 5A Championship Meet. Both boys and girls Varsity teams finished 6th overall.
49 Mustang runners (16 girls, 33 boys) competed at the Region Championship Meet, exhibiting their strongest performance in history, stopping just short of qualifying for the State Cross Country Meet (MVPS finished sixth in the Region for both varsity boys and varsity girls), .
The Varsity boys team came in 6th place, clocking a top 5 average time of 19:03, a full 1:04 faster than last year’s 20:07. Maclean Peterson (18:45), Townsend Lambert (18:48), Chris Smith (19:09), Kippy Ngeny (19:11), and Josh Eastwood (19:20) led the boys. The MVPS team scored 138 points, just 7 points away from 5th place OLM and 38 points away from State Qualifier AIS. The top 5 boys’ average time was just 9 seconds behind OLM and 32 seconds behind AIS. Although the 2014 squad also came in 6th in the region, the gap between MVPS and the 4th/5th place teams in 2014 was about 1 minute in average time, and we were 54 points away from 5th place.
The Varsity girls also came in 6th place, posting a top 5 average time of 22:51, an impressive 2:39 faster than last year’s 25:30. Maxine Peterson (20:42), Madeleine Hudgins (22:48), Nina Toller (23:00), Avery Maxwell (23:24), and Shailan Stefaniak-Earley (24:22) led the varsity girls. The MVPS team scored 132 points, just 33 points behind both Galloway and OLM, who tied for 4th place (Galloway qualified for State via the tie-breaker). The top 5 girls’ average time was within 38 seconds of 4th place. Last year’s squad came in 7th place, and the gap between MVPS and the 4th place team in 2014 was over 2 minutes in average time, and 102 points.
The JV teams also did well: the boys were 3rd with 72 points, behind Galloway with 62 points and Landmark with 15 points. The top 5 JV boys averaged 20:19, just 20 seconds behind second place Galloway. Last year, the top 5 MVPS JV boys clocked 21:40 and placed 3rd in the Region. MVPS JV Girls were 2nd with an average time of 26:45; last year we didn’t field enough runners to have a JV girls team.
29 MVPS runners ran a personal record at the Region Championship Meet, and 7 of our JV runners posted faster times than at least one MVPS varsity runner. Looking ahead to next year, MVPS returns 4 of our top 5 male finishers in the Region Meet and all 5 of our top 5 female finishers in the Region Meet.
Congratulations runners, Coach Piligian and Coach Baroody!
