The Deerfield girls’ cross country team returned to the top spot on the podium this year at the 45th running of the Canterbury Invitational, finishing first among eleven teams. It was a slice-of-summer day as temperatures reached into the mid to upper eighties, and with that factor compounding the difficulty of an already substantially hilly and challenging course, the girls paid their dues today. The team was led by sophomore Victoria Patterson who won the girls division I race, finishing with a time of 19:31. Right on Victoria’s heels were 9th grader Noelle Abeyta (19:52) in 3rd, senior Erin Hudson (21:01) following in 6th, senior Helen Downes (21:19) in 8th, junior newcomer Bailyn Prichett (21:52) 12th, and rounding out the squad was senior Sarah Jane O’Connor (22:25) finishing in 16th. The girls were dominant right from the gun, with a wave of big white D’s leading the vanguard by the 200m mark. There were certainly bumps in the road with the steep downhills and uphills taking their tolls, and added to that the heat and the early in the season timing of the meet, but the girls escaped unscathed and ready to take on all comers at the Westminster Invitational next week.