Hopkins Girls place 2nd at NEPSTA championships

The Hopkins XC teams traveled to the Brooks School in North Andover, MA, on Saturday, November 9 for the NEPSTA division 2 championship race. It was a pleasantly cool day, though breezy enough to destroy one of the two pop-up tents we brought with us.

 

The course was scenic and expansive, with several hills and sharp hairpin turns, the former of which was to our team's liking, and the latter of which was to no one's.

 

In the boys' varsity race, senior captain Lucas Llovera battled hard the entire race to finish 11th overall. Sophomore captain-elect Daven Kaphar was the next Hopkins runner across the line in 30th, followed closely by senior captain Logan Matthews in 33rd. Senior Will Davitt was next in 48th, and senior captain Luke Scheps rounded out the scoring in 50th. Sophomore Julian Peccia was 52nd, and sophomore Matthew Palsa finished 75th. 

 

The result was strong enough for the team to place a solid 6th out of 20 teams. Lucas Llovera earned all-NEPSAC recognition for his top-20 finish, as well as a berth in next week's all-star race at St. Mark's

 

The girls' varsity entered the race with high hopes, tempered by the understanding that everything needed to break just right for an overall victory. Freshman Anoa Dawson, the team's usual #1 runner this year, ran a strong race to finish 7th, and she was tracked closely by senior captain Saki Tomita in 9th. Senior Layla Kenkare passed several runners in the last 400m to go from 22nd to 19th overall, and she was followed in 20th by freshman Maddie Blank, who passed the same runners that Layla did in the last stretch. Junior Mikoto Araki-Siegenfeld was 24th, with classmate Beatriz Colón-Wang directly behind in 25th. Freshman Josie Schiff was 33rd overall.

 

It was a very strong showing, and good enough to come out in front of all teams except defending champion Middlesex, who scored 4 fewer points. Hopkins got their 6th runner in before Middlesex's 4th (and also would have come out on top by 1 point in dual scoring), but Middlesex's strength up front, with the 2nd, 4th, and 14 runners overall was too much for the Hilltoppers to overcome that day, and we finished 2nd of 18 teams, an improvement over recent years. Placing 4 runners in the top 20 and 6 in the top 25 (out of 129) showcased the team's strength and consistency, as did its tight 1:00 spread between the first and fifth scoring runners.

 

With their top 20 results, Anoa Dawson, Saki Tomita, Layla Kenkare, and Maddie Blank all earn all-NEPSAC recognition as well as a place in next week's all-star race at St. Mark's.

 

The boys' JV race went very well, and the Hopkins boys placed 3rd of 13 teams. Senior Nick Takoudes was 13th, freshman Jake Vandenpol 16th, senior Kyle Zhang 17th, and ninth-grader Henry Russell 19th. Sophomore John Klaus was 39th, and senior Rohan Gottumukkala, returning from injury, had a good race for 42nd place. Senior Evan Yan and ninth-grader Keegan Slovinski finished 48th and 49th, respectively. Sophomore Alex Monin, a maybe on the day due to illness, ran a gutsy race for 52nd place, and sophomore Matthew Weng was 64th. Junior Max Blechinger was 70th, and senior James Liu was 110th.

 

The girls' JV went even better, with the Hopkins girls taking the team title with a very low 26 points. They had 5 runners in the top 10, a 38-second spread between #1 and #5, and an average time for the scoring 5 that was more than 1:30 faster than that of the next fastest team. Freshman Cordelia Thompson was 3rd, classmate Caysani Colón-Wang 4th, senior captain Sarah Galvani-Townsend 5th, and freshman Amelia Andersson 6th. Yet another freshman, Sasha Bindra, was 8th, and senior Claire Billings was 11th. Junior captain-elect Vivian Huang was 12th, and ninth-grade classmates Gitanjali Navaratnam-Tomaylo and Luannie Wang finished 14th and 15th. Freshman Kiara Volkwein was 26th, followed by junior Emilia Adams in 27th. Freshman Amber Zhang unfortunately twisted her ankle and was not able to finish. 

 

The girls' is particularly young and the future looks very bright for both squads, even though the boys in particular are losing a huge number of seniors.

 

The boys and girls teams came back proud of their achievements and their races, with their coaches, as always, prouder still.