Athlete of the Month

Louise Holway

Athlete+of+the+Month

Senior Louise Holway is one to watch on the Kennebunk Girl’s Cross Country team. She has placed first in three races, second in four, and third in one. Her personal record is 17:27.00 for an approximate 3.2 mile race. However, competing with this much success takes quite the work. She explains her weekly routine as a laborious six day running schedule, with various combinations of time and distance, along with a weekly meet during the season. On her one day off to prevent injury, she chooses to stay active by doing crossfit; particularly biking.

A surprise to many, this is Holway’s first season running cross country. Previously, she was a part of Kennebunk’s Field Hockey program. However, with a successful track season, she dropped the stick in order to continue running. As running is currently her passion, she hopes to continue in the future.

I definitely plan on running in college, but my focus is more on academics. My top choice right now is Tufts, and I’ve met with their coaches and some of the team. It’s D3, but the competition is still really tough,” Holway states.

A quick look into the near future is the Cross Country States meet that Holway is competing in on this upcoming Saturday. This past Saturday, the team raced in the regional meet. Holway came in second place by a mere 0.13 seconds, creating a high anticipation to see who will cross the finish line first.

“The whole team has had a super successful season. We qualified for states with ease with 2/7 of our top runners not running. Everyone has come so far since we’ve started in August, and you can clearly see that during workouts with people dropping down their splits and increasing their mileage,” says Holway, “Personally, I’m confident that I can beat the #1 seat (Malaika from Falmouth) because I was 0.13 seconds behind her at regionals, and 23 seconds behind her at WMCs the week before. If I keep on making the progress that I’ve made, there’s no reason why I can’t come out on top.”f mm