Monmouth Academy senior Alexa Allen made the switch from the pitch to the trails in 2020. Allen competed in three races during the modified 2020 Maine high school cross-country season, she won all three races including the MVC State Qualifier, and advanced to the Class C state meet which was canceled due to COVID. Fast forward to the 2021 cross-country season, and Allen continued her winning ways with a dominating performance at the season-opening Scott Laliberte Invitational held at Cony High School last Friday.
The Laliberte race is unique because the boys and girls start the race together, after 2020 which saw wave starts this was a big change for her. Coming into the meet Allen thought breaking eighteen minutes was a good goal but during the course walk, she changed her game plan Allen decided that she was going to stick with one of her training partners junior Ostin Smith of the boys' team. The change in focus proved to be a wise one as she covered the 4000m course in 16:13.70 winning the girl's race by 44 seconds over Audrey Crews of Morse. Alexa finished 18th overall amongst all competitors, and her finishing time was second-best in meet history only behind Abby Mace's 15:34.04 effort from 2010.
Full Laliberte Invitational Results
Looking ahead to the rest of 2021 Alexa is just looking to take the season race by race and won't take anything for granted after the 2020 season. She is looking forward to leading her Monmouth Academy team to another MVC Championship if things go well. Things will have to go perfect though as Monmouth Academy like several other schools around the state are struggling to fill out their rosters. Allen mentioned they just recruited a fifth runner for the team, so the margin of error will be small this fall.
One thing is for sure though Allen will be one to watch this fall. She is really looking forward to running at the Maine Festival of Champions which will give her a preview of the state meet course at the Troy Howard Middle School. Last fall Alexa ran a best of 20:40 for 5k and says she has her sights on breaking 20 minutes this fall.
Top five performances at Laliberte Invitational over 4k
| RANK | TIME | ATHLETE/TEAM | GRADE | MEET DATEPLACE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 15:34.04 | 2012 | ||
| 2 | 16:13.70 | |||
| 3 | 16:23.34 | 2012 | ||
| 4 | 16:38.61 | 2020 | ||
| 5 | 17:07.16 | 2022 |