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11/01/2018 12:00 AMAva Cunningham has been impressing on the cross country course through the early stages of her career as a runner. This fall marks Ava’s first season running cross country, and the freshman has already turned in some strong finishes at a few big meets for Valley Regional.
At the recent Shoreline Conference Championship, Ava clocked in with a time of a time of 21 minutes and 11 seconds to finish in ninth place and earn All-Shoreline First Team honors. Compared to her first race of the season, Ava improved her time by 1 minute and 20 seconds with her performance. While she turned in a solid time at Shorelines, Ava says she was surprised by how well she did.
“For Shorelines, I didn’t feel like it was my best performance, but I didn’t realize how good of a runner I was. Because I didn’t have experience in the sport, I can’t really tell,” Ava says. “It helped that we had run the course the week before, and that I was familiar with it.”
A big part of Ava’s newfound success in cross country has been the guidance of Valley cross country head coaches Chris Allegretti and Brian Drinkard. Ava believes that her coaches’ strategies have proved a huge help to her this year, particularly in the recent Class SS State Championship at Wickham Park, where Ava finished in 27th place by running a time of 21:14. Part of the plan for Ava going into the race was to not let the adrenaline take over early and wear her out. Ava made sure to save a little extra for the end of the race.
“My coaches have been really helpful with strategies of how to place at these meets,” Ava says. “A lot of it is about pacing. Each race is three miles, and our coaches will be at each mile to say how fast we ran it. The first mile is usually really fast, like a 6:15 or 6:30. At Wickham, I slowed down the first mile, so I had more energy left at the end.”
Ava also has a secret weapon in her arsenal when it comes to races. While many runners have a hard time with uphill climbs, Ava relishes the opportunity that they provide her in a race. As her opponents feel their energy sapping away on an incline, Ava uses those same slopes to get ahead of her competitors.
“I look forward to the hills almost. I feel like I have an advantage, and I pass a lot of people,” says Ava, who lives in Deep River. “Then you have to take advantage with the downhills and let your strides get longer without having to use a lot of energy. That helps.”
Ava also plays basketball and plans on joining the Warriors this winter. Ava never even considered trying cross country prior to this year, but her father James Cunningham suggested that she give it a shot. Ava’s dad is a physical education teacher at East Lyme Middle School and has a good eye for athletes.
“I never really ran for pleasure before. My dad’s a gym teacher, and he always wants to keep us active. He noticed that when we had to run for school fitness tests, that I tend to run long distances easily and with good times. He thought maybe I should try it out, and that’s what got me into it,” says Ava. “The season has been really fun with meeting people and running races faster as the year went on. It’s all been motivating to me. I think that the success in cross country is encouraging me to work more at it in my free time.”
Valley girls’ cross country Head Coach Chris Allegretti feels that Ava has quickly proved herself as an integral member of the Warriors. Allegretti says that Ava has tons of potential as a runner, and he’s happy that she’s off to such a great start in her cross country career.
“Ava is an incredibly talented young athlete. She made some really great progress this year. She’s very coachable and will do anything to get better,” Allegretti says. “I think she has a lot of potential to be an outstanding runner, and she already is a great runner. She was amazing this season.”
Looking back at her first season on the trails, Ava feels great about what she accomplished and is already looking forward to the rest of her career at Valley Regional. Ava thinks that she can offer even more to the Warriors now that she has some experience under her belt.
“It feels really reassuring, the work we put in throughout the season, and it was very motivating as to where I want to be in future years,” says Ava. “Now that I’m more familiar with runners and courses, it gives me ideas on how to do better on those courses and against those runners in the future.”