A new season begins...

It has been one week and one day since the beginning of XC pre-season, and already there builds an anticipation of the first meet. Everyone wants to know who's going to be running well in the races, and how well. A few things seem certain for the NNHS boys: Polgar and Brecher will be the top two, far ahead of the rest of the pack. But who will be in that pack?

It's too early to tell, which is to say that no one has emerged as a threat to bridge the gap. Instead the pack of potential varsity runners seems to swell every day. There's Noah Jampol and Seb Putzys, who seem certain to secure sports in the top five, and then (in no particular order), Ben Chebot, Charles (sorry don't have the last name yet), Jean Merlet, Alex Polizzotti, Peter Sun, James Shapiro, and Ian Gallogly. This morning, Tim Abbott joined the team and looked good on a 6.5 miler. We're just going to wait for that first race and see what happens.

The first week has been almost ideal weather, and this morning was as close to perfect running weather as one can imagine. It's hard to believe that in a few weeks we'll be showing up to practice in heavy sweatshirts, and in another few weeks, we'll have dipped close to freezing. Track sometimes seems to exist in an ideal world of perfect ovals, where even the wind is measured, but cross-country... cross-country is the sport of change. It is fitting that we start the season in the heat of summer and end it battling the mud, rain, and cold of November.