Hopkins Girls XC place 1st and 2nd in NEPSTA All-Star Race

Every year, NEPSTA (New England Preparatory School Track Association) holds a set of championship races, one for each of its four divisions. Generally speaking, unless schools from the different divisions happen to see each other in meets before those championship races, there is little chance for runners from each division to compete against those from the others.  A few years ago, NEPSTA decided to institute an all-star race, for which only the top twenty runners from each division's championship race would qualify, to be held a week after the championship weekend.

 

For the last two years, the race has been held at the St. Marks School in Southborough, MA, which features a good, honest cross-country course. It has its fast sections, but it also features very varied terrain, a fairly sizable hill in the second mile, and a long fast finishing straight.  This year, six Hopkins runners would qualify for the race: Calvin Park, Daniel McCabe, Isabel Balcezak, Hannah Springhorn, Lucy Balcezak, and Shira Bedford.  Various commitments kept Calvin, Lucy, and Shira from participating, and Dan prudently dropped out of the boys' race early for fear of aggravating an incipient injury.

 

This left Isabel and Hannah to represent Hopkins. Unsure of the strength of the field, they bided their time for a while.  By the base of the hill in the second mile, the race had sorted itself out fairly clearly. There was a lead pack of about five girls, which featured both Isabel and the strong runner from Berkshire who had won the Division 2 race the previous week (beating Isabel and Hannah).  A little off the back of that group was Hannah, running with determination. As the hill continued, Isabel and Hannah improved their positions, with Isabel breaking away from the now diminished lead pack, and Hannah moving up to join it, and --fairly soon after the crest of the hill-- pass it.

 

That was the last chance I had to see them until shortly before the end of the race, where I stationed myself at the exit of a wooded area about a quarter mile from the finish. The wait seemed interminable, but when the first runner came out of the woods, it was Isabel, beaming ear to ear, cruising with a healthy lead.  To make things even better, the next girl out of the woods was Hannah, with not quite as a huge lead. Nervous that she might be caught, I reminded her that she was also an excellent quarter-miler, and exhorted her to kick.  Hannah, afraid that the runners behind her were closer than she thought, opened up her stride and ran away from the chasing group, which was not able to respond, and Hannah finished ahead of the third place runner by ten seconds.

 

The race went about as beautifully as it could have, and it continues a great tradition of these two superb runners finishing 1-2 in big races.  When they were in eighth grade, ineligible for the varsity races at the Wickham Invitational, they ran in the middle school division, and finished with Hannah first and Isabel second.  Last year, at the Foot Locker Northeast Regional Championship race, they similarly finished 1-2 in the freshman race, and finally continued the now yearly tradition with their stellar result at the NEPSTA all-star race. A great day for Hopkins XC.