Team Post: Captain Kate weighs in

By Kate Mulcahy '15

With the start of a new school year we’ve gotten a little over a week now to get to know our new freshman. On the Men’s side, Drew Houx, joins us from Holderness and has proven to be an awesome ultimate Frisbee player, possibly giving notorious ultimate player (and senior) Austin Meng a run for his money. Isaac Wright, a fiery redhead and last year's VT State Champ, was getting after the strength early this week and could be pumping out a high score for the upcoming Canadian Strength Test. After taking a post-grad year, our third male recruit, Sean Delaney, becomes the new representative of CVU, our Assistant Coach Adam’s oft-praised high school alma mater. 

For the Women, we also gained three new teammates. Dana Hatton hails from Cape Elizabeth, Maine and follows two older siblings onto the EISA circuit. She comes across pretty shy but had a lot of comments yesterday about Carni-Crush, so EISA men take note! Emma Greenough, joining us from junior Erin’s former high school in Lebanon, New Hampshire, encourages everyone to “EAT MORE KALE,” and is looking to get involved with multiple singing groups on campus, and is one of the most eager to improve technique. Lizzy Landry aka Slizzzerd, another Maine athlete, gets her nickname not from illicit activities but because it was felt she needed a more unique nickname than the generic Lizzy moniker “Lizard”. Plus, “Like a G6” is a team favorite warmup song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4s6H4ku6ZY

We kicked off the training year by running the Annual Alumni Race for the Cross-Country team. Having two options of 6 and 5K courses, the guys added the extra kilometer while the girls stuck with the traditional 5K. The course is right on campus and begins on about 200 meters of a grass field before looping around to take two laps through the wooded trails. And the team posted some impressive results: both the men’s and women’s ski team beat the alumni runners in the team score, much to the alum’s displeasure. Individually, we also saw exciting improvement, particularly by juniors Kyle Curry and Taren McGray. Taren knocked off nearly TWO MINUTES from her time last fall and Kyle intimidated all with his prominent six-pack.

(Sophomore Calvin Swomley in navy shorts and freshman Drew Houx in green surrounded by current and former members of the Cross Country team).

After the race we got a chance to meet Ethan’s new baby girl Maya Luna Townsend, or BabyTown, who was less than a week old. Ethan’s parents were also at the event, cheering us on as always and Jenny, Ethan’s wife, was out and about and recovering well. Ethan sat the race out this year, much to the relief of the men’s team because despite his goofy run technique E-Town has some serious speed. The team then took the annual post-race run down to the rope swing for a swim in the Grasse River, with some tree-tipping along the way.

BabyTown working on her "Here we go, Saints!" cheer

We’ll follow-up a great first weekend with an arguably better second: Climb to the Castle. The team will be sure to post some killer results as they power up the five miles of the toll road representing the scarlet and brown!