Boys’ Cross Country Succeeds at Invitational

Raindrops the size of finger nails flood the track as the boys hop onto the turf and sprint through the last hundred meters, escaping the trudge in the mud. It is a cold, wet day, and most people would rather be huddled up in their dorm room in a blanket sipping hot chocolate. Instead, Exeter’s boys’ cross country team is at the Black Bear Invitational running a 5k among 23 other public schools.

The boys came back with a well fought second place after the host school, Coe Brown. This was a success compared to last year’s 5th place finish in the same meet, but Big Red will only be happy with first. The team had its top five runners total a sum of 79 points, having them place 1st, 8th, 24th, 26th and 38th in comparison to Coe Brown’s 47 points. Though Big Red is disappointed with their result, it is only the beginning of their season, having started mid-September. They have much more to work toward during the latter part of the season.

“We’ve just started our season,” co-captain and senior Issay Matsumoto said. “Many of the public schools have been racing since August.”

The boys ran through varied terrain, experiencing slippery uphills, rocky segments, root-filled downhills and even a track finish.

“The course was very hilly and very demanding of us,” co-captain and senior Jiro Mizuno said. “However, we are always a team to take these courses head on,” he said.

“It was difficult, but our team is used to practicing on narrow up-and-down trails, which I think helped us get an edge on the single track section of the course.”

Thankfully, the boys have a decent amount of practice on the similar types of trails at Exeter and could approach the course with both confidence and ease.

“It was difficult,” lower Charlie Neuhaus said, “but our team is used to practicing on narrow up-and-down trails, which I think helped us get an edge on the single track section of the course.”

The individual first-place finishers in both the varsity and JV races were from Exeter. Postgraduate Joey Edell tied first in the JV race, sprinting it out all the way to the finish line. Nobody expected Coe Brown to have a PR-worthy course—however, senior Atticus Stonestrom  disregarded the wet and hilly circumstances by beating his best time as well as the second-place finisher by 20 seconds. This pleasantly surprised the team, and his performance will now be used as an example of how mental toughness can help win a race.

“He defied the course’s will and won,” Mizuno said in awe.

The team’s next race will be next Saturday against NMH on their notoriously hilly course. The boys will be training hard and are looking to crush the competition with two weeks of increased mileage as they reach the halfway point of their season.