Mixed bag for cross country against Gaithersburg

WHEATON REGIONAL PARK, Sept. 13-

The Blair cross country team faced the Gaithersburg on Tuesday afternoon in its first home meet at Wheaton Regional Park. The girls' team (1-0) earned a win with a score of 50-15 while the boys (0-1) fell 38-18. Although the meet wasn't completely successful, both the boys' and girls' squad felt very pleased with how they ran.

Finishing first for the girls was sophomore Morgana D'Ottavi with a time of 21:39. Senior Hannah Buchek grabbed second place while sophomore Sara Shonkwiler, junior Jinhi Skarda, and sophomore Lily Durkee finished shortly after. "All of the girls ran individually and not in a pack, which is really good to see,” Asst. Coach Angelique Bosse said. "They should be pretty pleased with their results and with how hard they've been working.”

The boys failed to muster a W but were satisfied with their progress nonetheless. Sophomre Matthew Morris, the first Blazer to cross the finish line, finished with a time of 18:35 and took third place. The team did its best to overcome the heat and the steep hills, but Gaithersburg had several extremely fast runners who placed higher than most Blazers, leaving the boys in a hole. "Montgomery County is a very competitive place for boys' cross country," senior Kiernan Colby said. Head coach Charlie Demma reiterated the fact that his boys ran well despite the loss. "The boys ran a good race, but only Horris could keep up with Gaithersburg's top runners,” he said. "The boys individually did very well for their own times.”

While confident about upcoming meets, the cross country team plans to continue working hard. "We did really good today," D'Ottavi said. "Hopefully we'll have a really good season, and hopefully we'll go to States." Senior Gregory Kehne is proud of how the boys performed. "We toughed it out and did better than we thought [we could have].”

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