The town of Bedford has a group of state champions in 2023. The Liberty Minutemen are state champions in women’s cross country! The girl’s cross country team recently competed at the 2A state meet in Salem, Virginia where multiple athletes turned in stellar performances to help lead Liberty to a championship title.
Since school started the women’s cross country team under head coach Andrew Milton has been hard at work training and preparing for meets. Over the years a number of coaches have said that “cross country is one of the hardest sports to train for”, it requires endurance, speed, and strength. In order to run a strong pace for five thousand meters an athlete must have endurance. However, people tend to not think about the fact that 5k’s are not just endurance jogs. Oftentimes towards the late stages of a race, athletes will need to push hard to run even faster than their normal pace in order to prevail over the five or six other runners that may be within several stride lengths. This is where speed work comes into play. Many times coaches will train both endurance and speed over the course of any given week to ensure that athletes are fully prepared for whatever may present itself in a race. Liberty showed last week that the past three months, they have been training with the expectation of winning.
Several athletes dominated at Salem to help lead the Minutemen to gold. Junior Alexis Plaster ran an outstanding race finishing third out of one-hundred and one other runners. Her impressive time of eighteen minutes and fifty-two seconds was the fastest amongst the girls from Liberty and was a big reason why the Minutemen ultimately walked away with a trophy in hand. Despite the junior’s fantastic performance, she was not the only one that helped steer the Minutemen down the path of victory. Senior Mary Malcolm also finished the 5k in under twenty minutes. Her time of nineteen minutes and fifty-eight seconds finished ninth overall and second amongst the Liberty girls. Briana Adams also had a great day at the office on November 11th. Her time of twenty minutes and thirty-four seconds was good for fifteenth overall. Even though the top three are definitely important, other athletes such as Natalee Powers, Claire Grindo, and Hailey Clark helped ensure that Liberty walked out of Salem carrying a symbol of victory. Impressively, only nearly everyone that competed for the team finished inside the top fifty% of the field, showcasing the level of dominance the Minutemen put on display at states.
The championship was won by consistency. Liberty did not have the fastest runner but they had the best and most consistent group of female athletes. The title is a testament to their dedication and hard work over the past several months. Without the countless miles, they would not have walked out of Salem state champions. Luckily, according to the results, which show athletes’ grade level as well, it appears that Liberty will be holding onto some of their key runners including Plaster. This means that they may not be done winning trophies anytime soon. Congratulations to the Liberty Minutemen on winning 2A states!
