Last spring, the expectations for this year's Valley Regional girls' cross country team were high. With defending individual champion and senior tri-captain Amelia Eppard set to lead the pack, along with fellow First Team All-Shoreline runner and junior Phoebe Petrovic and Second Team All-Shoreline senior runner Sarah Hammond expected to return, things were looking very promising for the always strong Warriors. But once the fall season started, both Eppard and Petrovic would be sidelined for the season due to injuries and it was up to captains Hammond and Anna D'Agostino to lead a rather young and inexperienced team, which is what they did.

Valley ended the 2012 campaign with a strong 9-6 record, a fourth-place finish in the Shoreline Championships, and a 10th-placed finish in the Class SS State Championship.

"This was a pretty amazing feat as most of my top-seven had never run before," said Coach Lou Luciani. "The seniors took a novice bunch of runners and helped turn them into a team."

Among those top seven were sophomore Holly Riccitelli, senior tri-captain D'Agostino, senior Aliza Dube (Coach's Award), sophomore Neve Flynn (Most Improved Runner), freshman Maggie Klin, and freshman Emma Peterson (Coach's Award).

Proving a leader in more ways than one was No. 2 runner Hammond, who earned First Team All-Shoreline honors, as did first-year runner and sophomore phenom Samantha McKosky (Most Valuable Runner, Best First Year Runner), who along with grabbing the No.1 spot on the team, turned out to be "the find of the league this year," according to Luciani.

"She was not only Valley's number one runner, but the number one runner in the league," said Luciani of McKosky, who was named Shoreline Runner of the Year after her first-place finish and school record in the Shoreline Championship and earned All-State recognition with her third-place finish at states (20:20). "Samantha started early winning the West Beach Invitational and continued winning and setting course records for the rest of the season. She continued Valley's string of three individual champions in a row."

With Petrovic and Erin Hayes leading the squad as senior captains next fall, Luciani expects a much more experienced team to emerge with sophomores Megan Ryan and Kelsey Ward, along with freshmen Gabby Bianca, Laura Harkness, and Julia Hammond looking to play bigger roles.