The Times Argus Fall Sports Guide 2018
Thurston: Cross-Country Runner of the Year
BY LUKE CATLIN
F
or anybody who pays attention
to Vermont cross-country results,
Ava Thurston’s success in her
fi rst year of high school was no surprise.
The 2018 Times Argus Runner of the
Year entered the fall with a lot of re-
sponsibility for a freshman. She lived up
to every expectation, setting the pace for
her team and all of Division II to win an
individual championship while leading
Harwood to its ninth title in 10 years.
“We do some pretty hardcore interval
workouts and she was right there with
the No. 4 and 5 boys,” Harwood coach
John Kerrigan said. “One of the things
that makes Ava strong is that she does
run with the faster boys. That’s one of
the reasons I thought she could actually
be a stronger runner, because in the rac-
es she wasn’t being pushed as much.”
After hanging up her soccer cleats in
sixth grade, Thurston joined the middle
school cross-country team. She was the
squad’s fastest runner for seventh and
eighth grade, helping Harwood win
back-to-back division titles. Middle
school coach Lou Bevacqui cited con-
centration, focus and work ethic as three
of Thurston’s greatest strengths.
“There was never any cajoling
or pushing — she was always very
self-motivated and self-disciplined,”
Bevacqui said. “And watching her get
better from seventh to eighth grade
makes a coach’s job easy.
“When they’re younger, you’re trying
to build a mental resilience and a love
of the sport so when they get up into
high school they can start building other
aspects of the sport like form, correct
posture, gate and cadence. She had a lot
of that mental and emotional resilience
already built in, so it was a pleasure to
work with her.”
Thurston’s father is a former Har-
wood cross-country assistant coach who
is one of the state’s top runners and
Nordic skiers. He typically runs twice a
day and puts in 100-mile weeks while
gearing up for marathons. Ava’s mother
ran a year of cross-country in high
school and is a recreational runner now.
She wrote a book about getting and
keeping kids involved with sports.
When Ava was 8, she asked her par-
ents if she could tag along on their trail
runs, just for a few miles once or twice
a week. Now Ava’s younger sister is
getting in on the action, joining the fam-
ily for 5-mile runs around the lake at
their grandparents’ camp in New Hamp-
shire. Last month, seventh-grader Julia
Thurston led Harwood’s middle school
team to a third consecutive NVAC.
Kerrigan has lost enough promising
runners to private school or soccer to
get too excited about incoming fresh-
men, but Ava Thurston was defi nitely
on his radar.
“I saw her run in middle school,” he
said. “I knew that she would be good if
she was successful at making the transi-
tion to the 5K.”
Thurston was eagerly anticipating the
step up from Lou’s Zoo to Kerrigan’s
Army.
“In high school we train for the mid-
dle of the race being the hardest part,”
she said. “And you didn’t really have
that in middle school because you were
going hard the whole race. I was excited
for the 5K distance because I like a
longer race.”
Thurston set modest aspirations
during preseason and saw instant
rewards while working with her new
team.
“My goal was to break 20 minutes,”
she said. “I was excited to be on the
high school team and see how we all
did. The mindset that I had was not to
put pressure on myself. I wanted to go
out and try to run my best for this team
and for myself.”
U-32 upset Harwood last year to end
the Highlanders’ streak of eight consec-
utive titles. This year the Raiders had an
early edge in the rivalry, but Thurston
and her teammates pulled ahead mid-
way through the season.
“The Harwood program has such
a strong legacy of runners, especially
female runners,” Kerrigan said. “And
kids pass on traditions and knowledge
to the younger ones. I was afraid I
was going to lose that because we
only had Julianne (Young) and a cou-
ple of other kids that were part of the
winning streak. It was nice to have
Ava transition right into that legacy
of good, strong, solid performers of
the past.
“And cross-country running isn’t
just about being there at practice and
working hard — it’s what you do on the
down time. Ava, I think, was very much
into eating right and getting enough rest
and keeping up with her studies.”
Thurston opened the season by fi n-
ishing fi fth at the Essex Invitational (20
minutes, 26.9 seconds) and second at the
Burlington Invitational (19:59.4). She
won the Randolph Invitational (20:18.8)
and her time of 19:25 was good enough
to place third in the Small School race at
the Manchester Invitational.
“I had a really good race at Man-
chester,” she said. “It was different
than some of the races I had run earlier
because even though we were in the
small school division, there were a lot
of people. And I was running with peo-
ple the whole time and in the pack. And
at the end I really kicked it in. That was
one of my strongest races.
“Maybe Manchester felt different
because I didn’t know the kids I was
running with. At Essex and Burlington I
knew the kids around me.”
The following week, Ava built on her
momentum. While most of the Ver-
mont schools were racing in Thetford,
Harwood traveled to the Maine Festival
of Champions. Harwood was the lone
Vermont team competing against most
of Maine’s schools and the best teams
from Nova Scotia and Prince Edward
Island. Thurston had a big day, setting a
Harwood 5K record and improving her
best varsity time by over a minute by
crossing the line in 18:58.13.
“I think that was a breakout race for
her,” Kerrigan said. “It gave her confi -
dence that she could run from the front
and stay with anybody.”
Thurston followed up that perfor-
mance with a win at her home course,
which she considers one of the toughest
venues of her season. And by that point
the Highlanders were primed to win the
Mountain NVAC championships.
“I didn’t run really alone in the front
until maybe NVAC’s,” Thurston said. “I
don’t really like running up in front. I’d
rather have someone run with me most
of the race, but I don’t want to fi nish
with someone right next to me.”
The Highlanders entered the state
meet as favorites and won the title by
20 points, giving Kerrigan his 25th
cross-country title.
“Ava had a quote in the paper after
the state meet that I forwarded to the
rest of the team,” Kerrigan said. “She
mentioned each one of her teammates
and how successful they were and what
their strengths were. And here she is
a freshman winning the state meet. I
thought that was very modest of her.”
Harwood entered the New England
Championships as the sixth-ranked
team from the Green Mountain State,
but the Highlanders fi nished as the third
Vermont squad.
“I’m really excited because we don’t
lose anyone from our varsity team next
year and we’ll get some new kids to
come up,” Thurston said.
Thurston may be a stronger Nor-
dic athlete than runner, and she uses
cross-country running to prepare for the
ski season.
“I would go rolling skiing some of
the Thursdays,” she said. “I did not go
before the state meet, so I could get
extra rest in. And then Sundays would
be my off day.”
The polished two-sport standout is
considering adding track and fi eld to her
plate next spring. And with a younger
sister on the rise, the Thurston name
could dominate endurance sport head-
lines for years to come.
“I think Ava will do even better at
the college distance,” Kerrigan said.
“Cross-country skiers normally have
more leg strength and more of the core
strength to be better on the hillier cours-
es. I think the tougher the course the
better she is going to do.”