The FAA held its championship races on Tuesday, October 31, postponed from the day before because of the weather and the condition of the course.
The varsity girls raced first. The girls, missing one of their scorers (Ksenia Podoletseva), ran a brave race, but were unable to overcome GA's powerful 1-2 punch up front, and they took second place in the championship race. The varsity seven were junior Saki Tomita, senior captain Ava Maccaro, junior Layla Kenkare, sophomore Vivian Wang, senior captain Anna Capelle, junior Claire Billings and seventh-grader Laila Goodman.
Saki and Ava earned first-team FAA honors, and Layla, Vivan, and Anna earned second-team honors.
The Hopkins girls also did very well in the JV race, with the first four places going to Hilltoppers. Eighth-grader Anoa Dawson won the race in a massive personal best of over a minute and a half, in a time that would have made her the 4th-place finisher in the varsity race, had her coaches known to run her in that race instead!
On the boys side, the boys similarly ran a gutsy race, and they were also missing one of their scorers, Luke Scheps, to illness. The Brunswick team ran away with the championship race, and the boys placed third, behind Brunswick and Masters. The varsity seven were junior Lucas Llovera, senior captain Preston Parker, junior Logan Matthews, senior Jay Maroney, junior Will Davitt, freshman Daven Kaphar, and senior captain Silas Resch.
Lucas and Preston earned first-team FAA honors, and Logan and Jay second-team honors.
The JV race saw a lot of success for the Hopkins boys, who placed 6 runners in the top 10, led by freshman Jake Vandenpol in 2nd place.
Everyone ran well, and the teams have
much to be proud of. Any disappointment in not defending last year's titles will be a great motivator for strong, determined efforts at the last meet of the season, the NEPSTA championships on Saturday, November 11.