1Five Newburyport seniors toe the starting line at a cross country meet with the intent of overwhelming their opponents with a herd mentality. On this day, Maura Welch sprints to the start, setting the tone as the rabbit. Lindsay Cullen and Kim Martins settle in behind the opposing team's top runner, waiting to sniff out any fatigue in their opponent's step. Julia Petras and Kim Smith fall back a step further, biding time in hopes of attacking when any stray runner falls off pace.
Next time, Cullen or Martins may take their turn as the rabbit. The five runners are virtually interchangeable, and that is also by design.
Welch, Cullen, Martins, Petras and Smith will begin their final season as Newburyport High cross country runners next Thursday with a dual meet against North Reading. For four years, the quintet has proved the sum of all parts is greater than any individual. Many a meet has passed in which opposing teams have swept the top two places. Many of those meets result in Newburyport victories, when the cross country scoring system, which rewards depth, plays in Newburyport's favor.
In cross country, which requires five official runners per team, a sweep of places three through seven beats an opposing team's sweep of the top two places. Newburyport has one goal entering this senior quintet's final season: place five girls in the top seven in every dual meet.
"We definitely run with a pack mentality," Martins said. "One of our team goals is to stay within a pack and run together. We don't care where we finish, and we don't have a superstar. We want to squeeze five girls in before the other team's third girl crosses the finish line."
The philosophy requires a year-round commitment from all five girls. At no point in the last four years has any girl been able to scale back her training in relation to the other four. They run together year-round, each finding ways to lift others regardless of who's feeling good.
"It's nice to know everyone around you supports you," Petras said. "Running together helps when you're tired. Whoever is feeling good that day picks us up. If you're not feeling good, all you hear is the other four girls supporting you."
The team-oriented strategy paid dividends last season. Newburyport registered two one-point victories en route to its 7-3 record. The first victory came against Triton, a team which boasted the fastest girls cross country runner in Eastern Mass., Keely Maguire. The second came against North Reading, a team that, in Liz Short and Kristen Moulton, may have had the top 1-2 combination in the Cape Ann League.
"We don't have a Keely Maguire, but who does?" Newburyport coach Don Hennigar said. "We're deep. Maybe we don't have the best talent, but it's an awesome group to work with. They all get it done at some point. The order changes from meet to meet, and that's not a bad position to be in as a coach."
One would think there would be worse things than five girls who put the team before personal satisfaction.
"We can all sense how each of the other girls is doing," Martins said. "There's no tension. We know that if someone else is having an off day, then the rest of us need to step up. I don't keep track of how many first-place finishes I get, and I don't think anyone else does. We keep track of whether five of our girls finish before two of theirs."
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