H.S. Cross Country: Cougars’ Hickey making giant strides

In middle school, Maggie Hickey didn’t give a lot of thought to cross country.

A few years later, she’s Mt. Blue’s top runner as a sophomore and a captain for a young Cougars squad.

“I was on the cross country team, but I was last or pretty close to last on the cross country team,” Hickey said of her junior-high years. “I wasn’t big on running. I remember in workouts I would fake run and try to get out of workouts. I kind of wasn’t excited or motivated to run in middle school.”

She almost went to the pitch and took up soccer in the eighth grade. The people close to her told her to stick to running.

“My family motivated me to go to the summer runs, the summer before freshman year,” Hickey said. “At the standard 5-(kilometer), I realized I could be a decent runner and excel if I tried it. So I started training and putting more effort into it, I guess.”

Hickey’s coach said she acts much older than her age.

“I don’t really look at her as being a sophomore, because she is pretty mature in all aspects,” Kelley Cullenberg said. “I think one of the big reasons is because we have a pretty young team, anyway.”

Hickey had a solid freshman year with seven top-10 finishes. She finished 54th overall at the Maine Festival of Champions and 68th at the Class A State Championship meet.

Over the summer, Hickey went to the Acadia Running Camp in Mt. Desert Island to compete with some of the other top athletes in the state to prepare for the season. She enjoyed the experience and was able to find others who train at her pace.

“I think that helped her, because when she was there, she was able to run with the fastest girls in the state,” Cullenberg said. “I think that helped her confidence.”

Hickey also managed her time by following Cullenberg’s workout plan this summer along with taking driver education classes.

She likes the fact that the team is young. The Cougars’ second and third runners, Megan Charles and River Lisius, are freshmen. Hickey wants to see the entire team improve.

“There’s that little competition that keeps me wanting to excel,” Hickey said. “They are new to this high school running. I would like to improve along with them.”

So far this season, Hickey has two wins along with second and fourth-place finishes.

Her current goals are to break the 20-minute mark and go toe-to-toe with another elite runner in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference.

“I kinda ran behind Anne Guadalupi (of Cony) all of last year,” Hickey said. “I really want to try improve and catch up to her.”

Guadalupi, also a sophomore, finished 10th at the 2013 state meet and has won all four regular season meets so far this season.

The Festival of Champions, coming up Saturday in Belfast, will be a good barometer where Hickey stands with the rest of the top runners in the state.

“I am really excited for the Festival of Champions,” Hickey said. “Just because I can see where I place with time on a fast course against with the girls I will be competing with at states.”