All seven varsity runners lowered (or tied) their lifetime or season best times as the Blue Storm girls' cross country team competed at the Ben Bloser Invitational, hosted by Big Springs (PA) high school.

Anne Sehon '25 tied her lifetime PR but improved from last week by 1.5 minutes and finished 14th in the AA division. Leah Willis '24 had a lifetime PR and improved by three minutes from last week to take 29th and join Sehon as a medalist (top 30 got medals). Gigi Devlin '24 knocked two minutes off her lifetime PR while Erika Sowah '24 lowered her season PR by three minutes. Bauhinia Chen '26 (thirty seconds) and Linden Wallace '25 (ninety seconds) achieved season PR's while An Yan '26 ran a lifetime best in under 26 minutes. 

"This was a fantastic meet for the girls' team," said head coach Betsy Cunningham, "although we went into the race with several kids sick or not feeling well. Ultimately, they worked on being uncomfortable. As I have said many times, the person who wins a meet is not the individual who is the most fit, it is the person who is able to be the most uncomfortable. We talk about xc through this analogy...there is a candle. The person who wins a xc meet is whoever can lower their hand closest to the flame. In other words, pain management wins the race. Today, many of our runners were able to work through pain and discomfort to find success."

Full results are not yet available, but when they are they will be posted at this link.

Mercersburg will run in the Oatlands Plantation Invitational in Leesburg, VA on Saturday, September 23 at 9:30 am.