Boys' XC Defends FAA Championship Title

The boys’ cross-country team headed into the FAA championship race on Monday, October 28 with the ambition of defending last year’s championship title.

 

The race had been scheduled for Waveny Park, but soggy conditions there forced it to be rescheduled for the more familiar confines of Sherwood Island State Park.

 

The boys entered the race with a regular-season record of 15-0 in the league. The record, however, did not reflect how close the results had been the entire year with our closest league rival, Brunswick. In fact, Brunswick had beaten us at a championship-scored meet earlier in the fall, and the boys knew they had a target on their backs. The race would be a closely contested, every-place-matters, anxious affair.

 

Senior captain Nicolas Burtson continued his reign atop the FAA standings by winning the championship race for the fourth consecutive year. Senior David Judd finished in 4^th place, and sophomore Will Cooper chased down a senior from St Luke’s in the final stretches and coming in front of him by what was listed as a tenth of a second to finish 6^th overall. Those three boys, by finishing in the top ten, earned all-FAA recognition.

 

Brunswick got their next two runners in before our our fourth, but then freshmen stalwarts Luke Brennan and Adam Hagens rounded out the Hopkins scoring in 12^th and 15th, respectively, and they both earned FAA honorable mention status. They were in soon enough before the fifth Brunswick runner that the final score wound up being Hopkins 38, Brunswick 41 (low score wins).

 

Sophomore Evan Migdole finished in 21^st, sadly one place away from honorable mention, and fellow Nati Tesfaye, running for an injured Jack Keegan, rounded out the varsity for Hopkins.

 

Full results are here:

 

Team Results:

 

Brunswick 41

Greens Farms Academy 103

St. Luke’s 106

Rye Country Day School 111

King 111

 

The JV race went also went well, although we were missing a few runners due to injury and illness (and in Nati’s case to fill in for a varsity spot).

 

Seventh grader David Thompson, running his first 5k ever, won the race in 19:27. Jason Holler was 6^th. Freshman Nick Lee ran his best race of the season for 11^th, and Tyler Forman was 13^th, followed by Nathan Meyers and Chris Takoudes in 14^th and 15^th. Milo Sobel-Lewin was 24^th, and eighth-grader Silas Resch finished in 27^th. Sarvin Bhagwagar was 34^th, and Finn Day, returning from injury, ran a strong race for 41^st. Grayson Storer finished in 49^th place, and Nathan Ahn, also returning from injury, 56^th. Jacob Ragaza ran well for 59^th, and Alejandro Lopez was 65^th.

 

The entire team should be very happy with their performances, and should know their coaches are incredibly proud of them.

 

The team’s last race of the season will be the NEPSTA division 2 championship races on Saturday, November 9, at the Noble and Greenough school in Dedham, MA.