Racing at home on November 4th, Boys Varsity Cross Country won its second Founders League championship in three years, earning five out of the top ten individual places. Girls Varsity Cross Country also had a successful day, finishing third out of eight teams. 

Ciaran Groom ’24 led the school’s runners across the finish line, finishing second overall with a time of 16:59. Not far behind him was Cooper Grace ’27, who finished in third place with a 38-second personal best of 17:07. Copeland Rollins ’26 finished fifth with a time of 17:24. Finishing ninth and tenth were captain Axel Nzi ’24 and Robert Lazar ’27, finishing in 17:47 and 17:50, respectively. Philip Fauver ’26 and John Coffin ’25 both ran well to complete the varsity runners, finishing in 20th and 23rd place, respectively. 

Having five out of the top ten runners meant that the school placed first, with a team score of 29. Boys Varsity Cross Country Head Coach Pierre Yoo P’21, ’23 said, “It was a fairy-tale-like finish. I was expecting our team to run well, and the placements of our runners were exactly the way they needed to be for us to win a race like that.” Finishing second was Loomis with 43 and finishing third was Taft with 64. 

For the Founders League tournament, each team selected seven runners for the varsity race. The race was five kilometers long, and the course route covered much of the hilly terrain on campus. Most notable is infamous Cardiac Hill, the path from Lake Wonoscopmouc up to Dana. The top five placing runners for each team had their places added together to get the overall team score which determined the winner. “A lot of people were able to step up to the challenge and we knew that we could all lift each other up and run as a unit,” said Nzi.

The Prep and Lower Mid runners were key to the success of the team. Four of the top seven finishers on the boys’ team were lower class students. 

Girls Varsity finished third, with an overall team score of 89, trailing the champion Loomis with 25 points and runner-up Taft with 88 points. 

Girls Varsity’s top finisher was Caleigh Lane ’27, who ran to a third-place overall finish with a time of 20:11. The rest of the scoring runners finished in a clump, with Sawyer Eaton ’25 finishing 19th in 22:15, co-captain Grace Gordon ’24 finishing 21st in 22:39, Eva Serebrova ’24 finishing in 22nd in 22:41, and Amina Wang ’27 finishing 24th in 22:45. Penelope Thornton ’27 and Nola Lai ’25 completed the top seven runners for Hotchkiss, finishing in 31st and 34th, respectively. 

Girls Varsity Cross Country Head Coach Kira Shaikh said, “I was extremely proud of how the girls did. I think that pack demonstrates the strength we have in our core group of runners.”

Heading into the race, the boys had several notable results, including winning the Canterbury Invitational and finishing second at the Shaler Invitational. The girls went into Founders coming off three straight wins and a second-place finish at the Williston Invitational.