Hopkins Girls XC stays perfect in FAA

On Tuesday, October 1, the Hopkins boys and girls' XC teams traveled to the Brunswick School in Greenwich, CT for the second of three all-FAA XC meets. The FAA has three regular-season meets, in which all the member schools participate. The meets are scored dually, and every school thus faces off against every other school three times during the course of the season. The final FAA meet of the year, the championship (after the 3 regular-season meets), will be scored with championship scoring.

 

The course was a carefully wheeled out 5000m at Brunswick's King St. Campus.

 

 

The boys raced first. Hopkins was glad to see the return of senior captain Lucas Llovera, who ran a personal best to place third overall in 16:53. Senior captain Logan Matthews was the next Hilltopper across the line in 12th place, in a personal best time of 17:51. Senior captain Lucas Scheps was next for Hopkins, in 18th, also in a personal best time of 18:34. Senior Will Davitt was next in 19th, and the scoring was rounded out by sophomore Daven Kaphar in 21st place. Sophomores Julian Peccia and Matthew Palsa rounded out the varsity seven, just behind Daven in 22nd and 23rd.

 

The de facto JV squad ran well, with strong performances from Jake Vandenpol, Nick Takoudes, Kyle Zhang, and a great improvement from ninth grader Henry Russell. Evan Yan returned from injury, and Noah Novemsky ran a personal record.  

 

In fact a very large percentage of the team ran either a season best or all-time best, and the performances overall were much more confident and ambitious than at the first meet,

 

Although the boys finished with the same 4-3 record as about two weeks ago, the scores were closer against Masters and especially GCDS, and the boys are eager to race them again in about two weeks. There were lots of personal records on the day, and the mood heading into our home meet on 10/5 is very optimistic.

 

Results are here. Even though the site calculates championship scoring, only the dual scores below count.

 

Hopkins 37 - Brunswick 18

Hopkins 15 - GFA 50

Hopkins 30 - GCDS 27  

Hopkins 15 - King 50

Hopkins 32 - Masters 23

Hopkins 16 - St Lukes 47

 

Hopkins boys' record goes to 8-6 on the season.

 

In the girls' race, Greenwich Academy put Hopkins in a difficult position by having the top 2 runners in the race. Senior Layla Kenkare, however, placed 5th overall in a PR of 20:37, followed closely by ninth-grader Anoa Dawson in 7th in 20:41. Saki Tomita was 11th in 21:17, followed by freshman Maddie Blank in 14th in a huge PR of 21:37. Fellow freshman Josie Schiff also ran a huge PR to place 5th for the team in 16th in 21:50. The strength of the Hopkins pack, including the 6th and tth runners, freshman Bea Colón-Wang and junior Mikoto Araki-Siegenfeld in 17th and 18th allowed Hopkins to win all the dual match-ups.

 

The day's JV squad was led by junior Vivan Huang in 20th place and ninth grader Cordelia Thompson in 21st. Amelia Andersson, battling illness, ran an impressive PR for 23rd place, followed by a pack --ninth graders, Amber Zhang, Caysani Colón-Wang and senior Claire Billings-- in 25th, 26th, and 27th places respectively. The whole team, including everyone not listed by name, ran some impressive times with strong improvements all around. As in the boys' race, personal and season records abounded from the front of the team to the back.

 

Results are here. Even though the site calculates championship scoring, only the dual scores below count.

 

Hopkins 15 - GFA xx (incomplete team)

Hopkins 27 - Greenwich Academy 32

Hopkins 15 - GCDS xx (incomplete team)