Hopkins Girls XC Wins Second Consecutive FAA Championship

On Monday, October 27, the FAA held its championship race at Waveny Park in New Canaan. The weather and the course were impeccable, and the Hopkins girls headed into the race with a perfect regular-season record, their second in a row.

 

The Hopkins girls had reasonable confidence that the race would go the way they hoped, but with Greenwich Academy having two runners essentially guaranteed of beating the field, the margins were slim. The varsity seven knew that they had to work hard to keep as many runners from GA or any other team behind them, because even one or two runners from other teams having particularly good days could affect the scores dramatically.

 

The Hopkins pack battled hard, with the two runners from GA as expected leading the way. They were followed by a GCDS runner, a Rye runner, and a GFA runner. Freshman Audrey Xia in 6th place was the first Hopkins runner across the line, followed closely by sophomore Anoa Dawson, senior captain Mikoto Araki-Siegenfeld, and freshman Willa Kennedy, in 7th-9th respectively. Sophomore Madeleine Blank rounded out the scoring in 12th place. Senior captain, Vivian Huang, battling a bad side stitch, ran a brave race for 15th overall, and sophomore Josephine Schiff crossed the line in 18th. All 7 varsity runners earned FAA honors, with Audrey, Anoa, Mikoto and Willa earning first-team honors by placing in the top 10, and Maddie, Vivian and Josie earning second-team honors by placing between 11-20. The team performance was strong enough to earn the team its second consecutive FAA championship, with a low team score of 32.

 

The JV also ran very well. Hopkins took the first 4 spots in the JV race, and 7 out of the first 10 overall. Rookie senior Amelia Hudonogov-Foster won the race in a sparkling 22:32 (which would have been fast enough for second-team FAA honors in this year's varsity race). She was followed by rookie junior Rebecca Spiewak, sophomore Sasha Bindra, sophomore Amelia Andersson, in 2nd-4th. Sophomore Caysani Colón-Wang ran her best race of the season for 6th place, and freshman Keira O'Donnell finished 8th, with freshman Alora Hanson close behind in 10th. Had the JV race been scored, the girls' score of 16 points would have been one away from a perfect 15.

 

The whole team ran well and has very much to be proud of, although their pride cannot match that of their coaches in their work, attitude, and achievements all season. 

 

The team will have its last race of the year at Williston Northampton for the NEPSTA championship on Saturday, Nov 8th.