Warwick XC has strong showing at Section IX Class AA meet
From the Times Herald-Record 11/5/16:
Prial’s final Bear Mountain race a special one
Warwick senior captures individual Section 9 Class A championship
By Ken McMillan
Times Herald-Record
BEAR MOUNTAIN – “Jennie Prial remembers being dragged to Bear Mountain as a first-grader to watch her older brothers run in championship cross country meets and she learned to love the family trade. She says there was no pressure to succeed like her four sisters and brothers had done in years past for Warwick but she would have felt a bit empty if she couldn’t deliver one big win.
Friday was going to be Prial’s final race at Bear Mountain and she promised herself to make it special. So she charged up the big hill in third place, came down in first and basically stared down the stiff challenge by team champ Monroe-Woodbury to win the Section 9 Class A championship.
Prial teared up as she accepted the congratulations from her family and she made sure to text her two brothers currently serving in the Army.
“I went in like I went in like my freshman and sophomore years,” said Prial, who was runner-up in the 2015 race to Kathryn Munks of Monroe-Woodbury. “Go out and run and have fun and do my absolute best and make it hurt, hurt like heck, but that’s when you get the best reward. Going up the hill, I just said, ‘This is my last time – my family’s last time here – so I have to do something good.’ “ The Prial sibling chain had Becky, Terence, Dan and Bridget. Jennie won in 18 minutes, 11 seconds, eight seconds ahead of the surprisingly strong run of Monroe-Woodbury sophomore Jessica Pidgeon. The Crusaders placed 2-4-58-10 (and 11), squeezing its top five runners inside of 52 seconds, and winning the team title for the third year in a row, 29-47 over Warwick…”