The Taft girls’ cross country team traveled to Loomis on Saturday, October 6th for a quad meet with Hotchkiss and NMH. Nearly every team member improved their times this week on Loomis’ fast and flat course, and we came away with a solid 22-33 win against Hotchkiss, a tough 37-21 loss to Loomis, and a nail-bitingly close 28-27 loss to NMH. Taft’s top finisher in our first two races, Stella Oldakowski, was unable to compete in the race, but co-captain Michelle Lian stepped up strongly to fill her shoes, finishing first for Taft and fifth overall in her lifetime PR of 21:22. Hot on her heels was Lucy Gretsky, second for Taft and sixth overall in 21:27, her best time in a Taft jersey. Annabel Pick had a breakout race, finishing third for Taft and 12th overall in 22:10; Annabel has improved her time in each race we’ve had this year, and she is poised to break that 22 minute barrier soon! Co-captain Katie Bootsma paced both Annabel and fellow teammate Mare Gandarela through the race, with Katie finishing fourth for Taft (16th overall) in her season-best time of 22:20 and Mare finishing fifth for Taft (18th overall) in her lifetime PR of 22:25. This was Mare’s first race back with the team after being sidelined with an early-season injury, and she certainly started off her 2018 racing season with a bang! Another Taftie who had a breakthrough performance was Kaitlyn MacDonald, finishing sixth for Taft and 32nd overall in 23:44. Kaitlyn’s first races this season were a 26:01 and a 24:52, and if she keeps improving at this rate, she’ll be a member of our scoring five in no time at all. Caroline Shea once again turned in a steady performance and finished seventh for the varsity team (41st overall) with a PR of 24:52. On the JV side, Kate Sharpe led the way for the team with a time of 25:09, good for 45th overall. Logan Clew-Bachrach and Lilly Izmirlian finished just a few seconds apart in 49th and 50th with times of 25:50 and 25:56, while Bojana Drca (63rd, 27:17), Kunchok Palmo (67th, 28:13), and Tania Tsunik (68th, 28:19) all vied for places in the JV scoring. Catherine Zhao (78th, 33:24) rounded out the JV seven, while Coco Zhang earned another lifetime PR with her time of 37:10, over one minute faster than the last time she raced. The team has a week off from racing on October 13th, but we look forward to hosting Williston Northampton at home on October 20th for Parents’ Weekend. The race will go off at 4:00 pm, following the boys’ race at 3:30 pm.