On the St. Paul's School (SPS) and Deerfield Academy (DA) "play day" on October 5th, boys cross country traveled along with most other interscholastic SPS teams to western Massachusetts for a sunny afternoon of competition amidst fall foliage in the Connecticut River Valley.

Both SPS and DA used the course's flat terrain to their advantage in the first mile, running close to their target splits and leaning heavily on pack running to stay on pace around the similarly flat second mile, which included a short stretch of sandy trail. Racing between the two teams – ones that often match up closely with each other – effectively started in the third mile, when the aggressive DA start and conservative SPS one set up a few crucial position changes after what looked like a possibly one-sided affair through the first half.

Captain Andrew Carroll '25 and Owen Gorenc '27 would pass two DA runners to finish in second and third, respectively. Linus Krenkel '27 battled with DA's third runner but would end up finishing just behind him in a close sixth. Langston Williams '27 would finish ninth overall, and captain Ian Chang '25 would close considerable distance on the three DA runners ahead of him before finishing thirteenth. In junior varsity scoring for the combined race, SPS ran well but could not match DA's depth in the middle of their squad. Silas Collins '27, Luca Bocresion '26, Harry Moyer '27, Sam Du '25, and Jonah Farkas '27 would lead SPS scoring. The fast course resulted in several personal best times for SPS runners, including first-time races for Mathis Riff '27 and Thomas Armstrong '26.

Varsity score: SPS 32 DA 25
Junior varsity score: SPS 48 DA 15
 
The weekend provided great experience against a comparable team, and SPS will look to continue to build fitness approaching the middle of the season. The harriers next head to Proctor Academy for the Northern New England Invitational on October 9th.

Varsity	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	total
DA	1	4	5	7	8	10	11	25
SPS	2	3	6	9	12	13	14	32
Junior Varsity	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	total
DA	1	2	3	4	5	7	8	15
SPS	6	9	10	11	12	13	14	48

 

	Name	School	Time
1	Max Wang	DA (1)	0:16:16
2	Andrew Carroll	SPS (1)	0:16:18
3	Owen Gorenc	SPS (2)	0:16:20
4	Aiden Van Epps	DA (2)	0:16:21
5	Arafat Jama	DA (3)	0:16:30
6	Linus Krenkel	SPS (3)	0:16:32
7	JT Gally	DA (4)	0:16:49
8	Liam Walker	DA (5)	0:16:55
9	Langston Williams	SPS (4)	0:17:14
10	Leo Friedman	DA (6)	0:17:19
11	Nico Pfeifler	DA (7)	0:17:23
12	Jackson Violich	DA (JV1)	0:17:39
13	Ian Chang	SPS (5)	0:17:43
14	Daniel Hong	SPS (6)	0:17:56
15	Chappy Carroll	SPS (7)	0:18:06
16	Thijs Wittink	DA (JV2)	0:18:09
17	Ollie Peruzzi	DA (JV3)	0:18:14
18	Quinn Clark	DA (JV4)	0:18:40
19	Reid McCoy	DA (JV5)	0:18:43
20	?	SPS (JV1)	0:18:44
21	Martin Liu	DA (JV6)	0:18:50
22	Jason Ko	DA (JV7)	0:19:06
23	Bocresian	SPS (JV2)	0:19:10
24	Harry Moyer	SPS (JV3)	0:19:37
25	Sam Du	SPS (JV4)	0:19:38
26	Jonah Farkas	SPS (JV5)	0:19:43
27	Grant Lebar	SPS (JV6)	0:19:53
28	Anders Xi	SPS (JV7)	0:20:07
29	Wrenn Ruysdale	SPS	0:20:08
30	Ben Anderson	SPS	0:20:28
31	Thad Lucentini	SPS	0:20:28
32	Tszkui Zhang	SPS	0:20:36
33	Rhys Henrikson	SPS	0:20:39
34	Aaron Zheng	SPS	0:20:49
35	Russell Fan	DA	0:20:53
36	Kyle Gump	SPS	0:21:40
37	Mark Brennan	DA	0:21:42
38	Jason Xiang	DA	0:21:48
39	Xingguo Ding	SPS	0:22:03
40	Jonathan Xu	DA	0:22:05
41	Thomas Armstrong	SPS	0:23:34
42	Aaron Kimiri	SPS	0:23:58
43	Judah Zhuwao	DA	0:24:00
44	Luc Ruminski	DA	0:24:01
45	Mathis Biff	SPS	0:24:02
46	Jack Brennan	DA	0:24:19
47	Artie Liendo	DA	0:24:50
48	Bronson Branch	DA	0:25:15
49	Nate Ugwonali	DA	0:25:49
50	Thomas Schwarting	DA	0:25:58
51	Avi Reid	DA	0:26:21
52	Amay Katare	DA	0:30:40