Exeter Cross Country Stuns St. Paul’s
The damp dirt from yesterday’s rainfall gets pressed into the ground again and again by a procession of Big Red runners leading the pack. Varsity and JV Cross Country ran to victory against St. Paul’s School this past Saturday.
The girls’ team swept St. Paul’s off of the podium by earning a perfect score of 15 with their JV and an almost perfect score of 16 with the varsity team. While lower Sophie Cohen and upper Gia Pisano finished with the fastest times, upper Caroline Luff said that the real champions of the race were upper Alys Barton and senior Erin Ahern who “crushed the course at perfect pacing and strong form.”
Senior and co-captain Maddie Machado identified prep Matilda Damon, lower Lindsay Machado, upper Kerstin Hyer and senior Madeline Huh as the most impressive runners.
M. Machado went on to say that while the team has some very fast runners, their greatest strength was in the depth of the team, “We have many groups of three to five runners that all race similarly, and we’ve been working on our strategy over the course of the season to capitalize on running in packs.” This strategy combined with the team’s roster composed of very young runners signals a very bright future for Big Red’s girl’s cross country team.
The team dynamic helps the runner dominate on the course. Luff says, “the dynamic is definitely the best one on campus. It is so supportive and loving and we are always having a good time.”
Machado added, “everyone on this team brings a lot of energy and passion to both practice and meets, and racing literally side-by-side is a good way to draw off each other’s momentum.”
The boys’ side of the meet went extraordinarily well too, with fast finishes and new personal records. This was despite the fact that the varsity team was down one of their runners—luckily, prep Oliver Brandes stepped up to fill the void. Senior Eric Porras said, “he stepped up big time and had an incredible finish even beating some of the Varsity runners.”
In addition to Brandes, upper Phil Horrigan said lower Bradley St. Laurent “had a great performance and had an especially great kick.” Upper Connor Chen added that St. Laurent “has been working his butt off this whole season and really eserved this stellar finish.”
Chen also stated that “no one on the team is out to beat a teammate, everyone is working on improving their own times to strengthen the whole team.”
Horrigan added that the team dynamic “is unique on campus, as we have a very small divide between the JV and varsity teams. Of course, we separate a little bit during practice, but we meet together at the beginning of practice, warm-up together, recover together and eat dinner together.”
While both teams are looking forward to speeding past the Smurfs this weekend, both teams have their sights set on their Interschols in two weeks. The girls are looking to reclaim their title, and the boys are still hurt after finishing second by only one point last year. Chen said, “Every runner is focused on working for that victory, and we’ll stop at nothing to get it.”