Girls’ XC Finishes 3rd at Interschols
Unlike many other teams on campus, Big Red Girls’ Cross Country did not host Andover this past weekend. Instead, the girls, led by captains seniors Sara Kopunova and Jo de La Bruyere, traveled to Choate Rosemary Hall for Interschols—a race between the numerous New England preparatory schools.
Interschols was the team’s second race at Choate this season. Uppers Ashley Lin and Alexandra Van Dijkurn finished in the top two at the Choate Invitational, which was the team’s first meet of the year.
Since first racing at Choate just after preseason ended, the team built an impressive resume—finishing sixth overall at the Codfish Bowl and defeating Northfield Mount Hermon, the Brooks School and St. Paul’s School in head to head meets by no less than 19-point margins.
The team, however, dropped two meets to Deerfield Academy and Phillips Academy Andover to finish with a 3-2 dual meet record.
At Interschols, Deerfield and Andover edged out Big Red, who placed 3rd overall. Lin and Gray both finished in the top twenty runners, qualifying as NEPSTA All-Star runners, and will race at one more meet this coming Saturday.
Many runners on the team were proud of the team’s performance at Choate. “I think the team ran as well as it could. Everyone ran with love, and many people PR’d. We are all very happy with how we placed,” Kopunova said.
Upper Hanna Pak also felt that the team competed as well as it could given the strength of its opponents. “I think there may have been a small chance at beating Andover, but we did lose to both Andover and Deerfield in our meets against them,” she said, adding that the girls were up against very talented opponents. “Deerfield got some really fast new runner this year, so I think given the circumstances, we did the best we could.”
Kopunova, who just finished her last season on the Girls’ Cross Country team, expressed her sadness about moving on. “I will miss running [cross country] so much. Overall, this season was incredible for the team and that’s all that matters,” she said.
Some people on the team appreciated the experience on the team more than a first place finish. “I’m eternally thankful for whatever we have created together as girls cross country, so that each and every one of us are able to run for the sake of each other. What we have is really special,” senior Anna Clark said.
Similarly to Kopunova, Clark reminisced on her past years with the team. “Cross country has been such a wonderful source of positivity and support for me for past four years and I’m going to miss this team so much.”
Moving into next year, the team has great potential with JV runners like upper Gabby Allen and lower Madison Machado who finished top two at JV Interschols, propelling the JV team to a first place finish overall.
Pak expressed immense excitement for the future of the team. “I absolutely can’t wait for next year,” she said. “We have a group of extremely dedicated girls so next year is sure to be amazing.”