Marist finishes Starrs Mill Invitational with 'strong' season debut

The Marist War Eagles cross country team made their season debut on Saturday as they took part in the Starrs Mill Invitational and getting solid performances on both the girls and boys side. While the Lady War Eagles would win the team side of the 5K, the performance of Marist’s Ruby Little would spark the win as Little would finish first in a time of 17:52.70.

“Well my mantra is kind of gas, gas, gas, I just repeat in my head and whenever it gets hard, I just remind myself that everybody else is hurting and that we’re all going through the same thing, so I can push hard,” Little said following her finish. Little got out to a strong start in the run and by the 3200 mark, had a time of 11:17.70.

“My strategy was just like to get out pretty fast, use the downhill to my advantage,” Little said, however pointing that she “definitely went out a little too fast at the mile,” yet did not allow that moment to stress her and cause unnecessary waste of “energy” in her first race of the season. In the boys 5K, while Marist would place second behind Harrison, the War Eagles’ Tommy Latham would also have a great start to his season as he would finish first in a time of 14:54.40.

“I feel really good. I actually was not expecting to feel that good,” Latham said of his first race of the season, adding that earlier in the week his legs felt “slow going at the faster paces,” which Latham said is typical for runners early in the season, yet on Saturday he “just felt smooth and glad to put up a good performance,”. Latham added.