Boys' Cross Country vs Founders League

Score/Result: 4th of 9 teams

Taft ran its best race of the season at home in a cold, windy, Founders League championship.  Nearly every runner in the varsity or jv race turned in a personal best on the home course, some improving their times considerably.  The difference on this day was that Taft got out fast and ran tough throughout the race.   Both the varsity (137 pts.) and the jv (123 pts) placed 4th in the nine-team field.  For the varsity, Henry Conlon led the way with an All-League 11th place finish (top 15 are All-Founders League).  He was followed by Han Bin Lee (24), Teddy Zoellner (30), Kramer Peterson (35) and Dan Rubin (37), as our top five all came through in a big way.  For the team title, it was a three-way battle, with Choate prevailing over Hotchkiss and Loomis as all three teams placed 5 runners in the top 21 spots.  Avery Baldwin of Hotchkiss won the race in 16:32, nipping the new course record of 16:36.  

In the JV race, Andrew Bowers led for us from the start and finished 16th out of the 224 runners.  He was closely followed by Rory Ronan (19), Nick Ganek (22), John Davidge (32) and Randy McHugh (34).  Complete results can be found at Platt Systems' website, http://www.plattsys.com/m1shell.asp?eventid=996.  There were a total of 418 finishers in the four races.  On the girls' side, Taft ran a strong race, with three in the top 10 to come in third.  In perhaps the performance of the day, Hotchkiss' Sami Glass won by 50 seconds to smash our new course record.  Her time, for 3.0 miles, comes in even a bit faster than Marisa Ryan's untouched 17:02 for our 2.73 mile old course.  

Despite the storm a week ago and the winds on race day, it turned out to be a great day of racing on Taft's hilly 3.0 mile course.  The course was actually in great shape.  A lot of credit goes to the many workers and volunteers who put in a good deal of time to ensure this huge event went smoothly.