Athletics
MER CERS BU RG MAGAZI N E S PR I N G 200 8
7
Dates to Remember
May 10
Blair at Mercersburg: noon: baseball, softball, men’s tennis 1 p.m.: men’s/women’s lacrosse MAPL Golf Championships at Whitetail, all day
May 14
Pennsylvania Independent Schools Track & Field Championships (Pottstown, Pennsylvania) For updated athletic schedules and results, visit www.mercersburg.edu
Extra Miles, Net Gains
Lena Finucane runs
By Phil Kantaros
over foes on courts and
On a crisp October Saturday morning, Lena Finucane ’09 stood at the starting line and readied herself to compete in the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Cross Country Championships. Mercersburg hosted the event, so Lena was on home ground; but she had only run the course a couple of times, because Lena is technically not a member of the Blue Storm cross country team. Instead, she holds the No. 1 spot on Mercersburg’s women’s tennis team, and maintained her top ranking all season long. Lena, who was born in Sweden and is fluent in Swedish, also lived in Sri Lanka and Indonesia until fourth grade, when her family returned to her father’s home in Pennsylvania. She enjoys going to school with her older brother, James ’08, even though he casts a long shadow. In November, James captured the Mid-Atlantic Prep League individual cross country crown for the second straight year, shattering the course record at Peddie School in the process. Lena credits James with helping motivate her to run on a regular basis, and the two work together on race strategy. Lena finished third in the state meet with a strong time of 20:13 on the 5K course, less than a minute behind the winner. But when the time came to accept her award, Lena wasn’t there; she was on a tennis court across campus, battling Peddie’s top-ranked player. “It was hard convincing [varsity tennis] Coach [Mike] Sweeney to let me run in the
courses alike
meet,” she says with a smile. Despite some understandable fatigue, Lena won the match in convincing fashion, 6–2, 6–0. It was, she says with certainty, her best tennis moment of the year; she also teamed with Valerie Garcia ’10 to post a doubles victory. In September, Lena woke regularly at 5 a.m. for a five- or six-mile run before commuting to school. October saw Lena running at Mercersburg during free periods; some days, she ran twice while managing to work in a full tennis practice. Lena loves playing tennis, but playing only tennis has never been an option for her. “For me, playing on the tennis team is a lot more fun, but my passion really is the running,” she says.
Winning a No. 1 tennis match shortly after placing third in the Pennsylvania state meet caught the attention of the [Chambersburg] Public Opinion, which named Lena its Female Athlete of the Week. Both Lena and James are running winter track— and then, of course, comes spring track, which will likely be the last time the two siblings both run in the same program. Lena looks forward to her senior year in 2008–2009; she’ll be living on campus and will no longer have to match her schedule with that of her brother, as she did when both were day students with miles to run and miles to drive.