Hopkins girls xc 3rd at Canterbury Invitational

The Hopkins varsity XC teams traveled to New Milford, CT today to run in the Canterbury Invitational, hosted by the Canterbury school. 

 

The Canterbury meet is a "varsity-only" meet, which means that each team can only bring its top 7 runners, as a result, the field in each race is deep.

 

The races are split into Division 1 and Division 2, based generally on school size, but also taking past success into account. Hopkins runs in the first, more competitive division.

 

The boys ran first. Without our #4 runner, senior captain Connor Hartigan, who turned an ankle before the race, the team was not quite as deep as we had originally hoped, but all runners were ready to run fast.

 

Junior captain Nic Burtson ran in the front pack, and finished 4th in 16:55, battling and eventually outkicking the 5th place runner. Rookie senior Charlie Mason was 10th in 17:10, and junior David Judd was thirteenth in 17:31. Both represented huge PRs. Freshman Will Cooper was our 4th scorer in 19:07, and senior Joseph Stauff rounded out the scoring for Hopkins. Freshman Evan Migdole was our 6th runner. In Connor's absence, Hopkins did not have a 7th runner.

 

Hopkins finished 4th of 11 teams, with 120 points. Other boys' teams from the FAA were Brunswick, in 11th place, and Greens Farms Academy, which placed 10th in the Division 2 race.

 

1 - Loomis - 64

2 - Hotchkiss - 68

3 - Westminster - 104

5 - Hill - 122

6 - Deerfield - 126 

7 - Taft - 166

8 - Blair - 173

9 - Berkshire - 220

10 - Kent - 262

 

In the girls' race, the girls were fired up to run fast, and the pace was brisk at the start, with all of Hopkins runners going through the mile perhaps a bit faster than ideal, but racing hard, and placing themselves in good position to do well. Senior captain Maliya Ellis battled in the chase pack (the winner ran in the 17s) and ran a strong race for 5th in 19:35. Rookie sophomore Hannah Szabo and junior Elena Brennan ran together most of the way, battling hard, and finishing 13th and 17th, respectively. Junior Kaitlin Forman ran a smart, consistent race, finishing 23rd. Freshman Ellie Medovnikov, expected to be our 7th runner, moved through the field, running gutsily, and rounded out the scoring for Hopkins. Juniors Mei Han and Izabella Lopez-Kalapir ran well in the 6th and 7th positions.

 

Hopkins finished 3rd of 12 teams, with 115 points. Other FAA teams in the girls' race were Convent of the Sacred Heart (Greenwich), 8th with 193 points, and Greenwich Academy, 12th with 239 points.

 

1 - Deerfield 51

2 - Winsor - 86

4 - Loomis - 130

5 - Hill - 169

6 - Blair - 182

7 - Westminster - 191

9 - Berkshire - 211

10 - Hotchkiss - 216

11 - Kent - 221

 

Full results are here:

 

Hopkins' next meet is an all-FAA meet on Tues 9/25 at Sherwood Island State Park in Westport, CT.