Girls Cross Country with Back to Back Wins at Canterbury

The day was cool and pleasant, which boded well despite the well known challenges of the hilly course.

The girls, champions last year, raced first, in the traditionally more competitive Division I race. The field was somewhat smaller this year than in other years, somewhat surprisingly, with some perennial rivals absent. As at the first FAA meet, the top two GA girls beat the rest of the field by well over a minute. And as at the first FAA meet, the strength of the Hopkins pack carried the day, with Hopkins putting all five varsity scorers in the top 10 of the race, which was a beautiful sight to see.

Senior captain Mikoto Araki-Siegenfeld was first for Hopkins in a personal best of 21:00, finishing fourth.

Freshman Willa Kennedy was 5th in 21:19, edging out fellow ninth-grader Audrey Xia, also in 21:19 (6th place). 

Senior captain Vivian Huang, improving impressively from her time here last year, was 7th in 21:22.

Sophomore Maddie Blank was 10th in 21:57.

Sophomore Josie Schiff was 12th in 22:18.

Sophomore Cordelia Thompson, ran a gutsy 22:48 for 15th place.

Overall, Hopkins scored a very low winning score of 27 points, retaining its championship from last year. Even more encouragingly, the average varsity times and spread were vastly improved over last year’s championship squad, even having lost two key scorers from the 2024 team.

The team next races at the second regular-season FAA meet on Tuesday, September 30th.

The boys were excited to improve upon their race performances from earlier in the week, while at the same time knowing that they graduated 5 of their varsity 7 from last fall.

Junior captain Daven Kaphar was 15th overall in 18:17.

Junior Julian Peccia was 22nd in 18:47.

Junior Matthew Palsa was right behind him in 23rd in 18:50

Junior captain Teddy Sklar was right behind him in 24th in a time of 18:52.

Sophomore Henry Russell ran another personal best to run 18:54, good for 25th place.

Sophomore Jake Vandenpol and eighth-grader Gavin Li rounded out the varsity for Hopkins, in 35th and 39th place respectively.

Overall, the team finished 5th of 12 teams, equal to its showing last year. Encouragingly, despite the loss of so many seniors last year (and some scoring strength at the front), the varsity scorers’ average times were faster than last year’s on the same course, and the spread was tighter. The future looks bright as the team will work hard to continue to improve.

The team next races at the second regular-season FAA meet on Tuesday, September 30th.

_{Story by Miguel Pizarro}