September 25th, 2016 – Canterbury Invitational
A perfect fall day greeted the Deerfield boys’ cross country team when they arrived at the Canterbury School for the annual Canterbury Invitational. Bringing together schools from across New England and the Mid-Atlantic, Canterbury presents teams with a challenging early season test and a first look at varsity lineups. After a few years of finishing out of the top three spots, Deerfield returned to the podium this year with a strong third place finish.
Canterbury’s hilly course begins with a relatively flat first mile, and the Deerfield harriers took advantage of the gentler beginning with fast opening efforts. With top-ten finishes in their sights, Will McNamara ’18 and Ricardo Gonzalez ’19 came through the first mile in 10th and 12th place, respectively. Working together to navigate the large chase pack, Ethan Thayumanavan ’17 and JJ Siritantikorn ’19 cruised through just behind their teammates, followed by Alex Weinman ’19, Donnie Sparks ’18, and Carter Hampson ’20, all competing in their first Canterbury race.
After a difficult second mile through Canterbury’s rolling hills, McNamara emerged from the woods in 9th and Gonzalez in 11th, and both athletes began a steady acceleration toward the finish line, picking off competitors one by one as they went. Ultimately, both of Deerfield’s top two finishers broke into the top ten, with McNamara capturing 7th and Gonzalez holding on for 9th. Thayumanavan and Siritantikorn both blew past their Canterbury times from last year on the strength of strong stretch runs, breaking the tape in 16th and 27th place, respectively, followed by Weinman who rounded out the Deerfield top five with a strong debut at 40th place overall.
When all the scores had been tallied, Deerfield finished in third overall behind a very strong Loomis Chaffee team and the Hotchkiss School. Another week of hard work lies in store for the Big Green harriers before one last invitational next Saturday, this time hosted by the Westminster School.
Complete results can be found here: http://www.coolrunning.com/results/16/ct/Sep24_Canter_set1.shtml