Varsity Cross Country v. Shaler Invitational at Williston Northampton

This past Saturday, Eaglebrook’s Varsity Cross Country team traveled south to Williston Northampton School to participate in the Shaler Invitational. Hundreds of high school runners competed, both boys and girls, on a fast and relatively flat 5K course. We arrived a few hours early and were fortunate enough to watch Eaglebrook alums, Ryan and Daniel Pinckney, run in the varsity race and give our runners motivation and helpful advice about the course. Our boys ran later in the Junior Varsity race and earned an impressive 2nd place out of 14 teams with 47 points. The boys ran extremely well and all broke their personal records with all 5 of our scoring runners finishing in the top 20 out of 174 runners. Coming in at an incredible 2nd place was our very own Vishnu Rajakannan with a time of 17:42.4 (5:41) pace. Next came Declan Cullinane in 4th place with a fast finish and a time of 18:15.5 (5:52 pace). Only seconds behind, in 5th place overall, was Hudson McGuinness with a time of 18:17.6 (5:53 pace), breaking 19 minutes on a 5K for the first time. Harrison Graham also had an impressive finish and fast race, coming in 17th place with a time of 18:50 (6:03 pace). In 19th place was Bauer Swift with a time of 18:52.2 (6:04 pace), breaking 19 minutes for the first time on a 5K course. Nic Briones broke 20 minutes on a 5K course for the first time with a time of 19:32.9 (6:17 pace) coming in 39th place. Next for Eaglebrook was Tyler Unruh in 46th with a time of 19:43.7 (6:20 pace). Shep Jernigan was unable to race due to an injury but he cheered the others on during the race and we anticipate will be able to race against NMH and Deerfield this coming Saturday. The boys pushed and supported one another throughout the race, running a smart race and working together quite successfully. To see all 7 runners significantly break their personal records is proof that their hard work, focus and determination during practice, and in races, is paying off. The coaches are very proud of the way the boys represented Eaglebrook at the Shaler Invitational. It’s hard to believe that we only have a week and a half left in our season and just two more races on the horizon.