In the blink of an eye, we now find ourselves at the final weekend of September and the start of serious racing for all teams throughout Massachusetts.
Keeping a relatively low profile throughout these past few weeks, MA#1 Girls of Milton have been hard at work in preparation for a big season. After easily winning the Eastern MA D4 Champs and D2 All-State race in 2015, Milton girls return all but one member from last years squad and are poised to be not only the #1 team in the state, but one of the best in the Northeast.
This weekend will be our first viewing of this heavy hitting squad and the start of their quest for regional supremacy. On Saturday, Milton will head down to New York for the Bowdoin XC Classic in Wappingers Falls. Not only will it be a chance to flex their muscle against regional competition, but also another opportunity to preview the NXN Regional course. For out of towners, Bowdoin Park is certainly a challenging course, but luckily Milton took on Bowdoin last November at NXN and that should certainly help keep some of the nerves at bay.
As we take a look at the starting list for the Girls Varsity 1 race on Saturday, Milton Girls appear to be the class of the field. There will be some solid competitors from New Jersey, such as Robbinsville HS and Vooerhes HS, but no one with the depth to match Milton. If the Lady Wildcats come out the gates hard, we should realistically see 3 in the Top 10 and all five scoring runners in the Top 20. We're predicting a confident win by Milton on Saturday, as well as one of the Milton ladies grabbing the individual victory.
Milton Girls at 2015 NXN Northeast @ Bowdoin Park
22. Bridget Mitchell 19:22.8
23. Collete O'Leary 19:23.3
45. Elise O'Leary 19:53.3
107. Naomi Negassi 20:59.3
156. Cladagh Corcoran 21:51.2