Taft XC ran strong and courageously as a team to finish 3rd in the 14 team Div 1 NEPSTA championships at St Paul's School. For the second year in a row, the Rhinos finished on the podium, one place higher this year, on the strength of two top-ten finishes by Charlotte Murphy (4th) and Kate Cicchetti (8th), a great race by Annabell Sorensen (22nd) and solid pack running by Rina Kurihara (37) and Sydney Grogean (42). Leyla Zhaksybek (77) and Lena Rukkas (79) finished out Taft's varsity team in the field of 100 runners. Again this year, we were behind Loomis (this year's champ) and Exeter (last year's champ), but about 20pts. ahead of Andover and Milton to take home the third place NEPSTA plaque. In the JV race, Paige Bannon moved up steadily throughout the race to place 14th, closely followed by Brooke Wilcox (34) to lead Taft to an 8th place among the 14 schools and 112 runners. Tatsha Kumthampinij (52) Molly Wynne (53) and Farren Camp (67) rounded out Taft's scoring five for the JV team. It was a solid run for a JV team missing a number of athletes. Despite forecast for a very wet day, conditions were favorable, with clear skies, some sun, some clouds, and good conditions overall. The SPS course has a very flat, fast first mile (Murphy was in 5th place at 5:55!) but then climbs, dips, twists and turns on beautiful but tricky trails for the next two miles. Full results can be found among the links on this page https://www.gsrs.com/results/4624