The Deerfield harriers traveled to Hotchkiss School for the final races of the fall season. Thirteen teams contested the varsity and junior varsity races and the Deerfield squads took podium spots in both for the best cumulative finish in program history.
In the varsity race, senior co-captain Max Wang led the roster and finished 8th overall in New England. Arafat Jama took the second scoring position with his sophomore classmate Liam Walker just a few strides behind. In a pair of heroic efforts, seniors Aiden Van Epps and Jackson Violich took the fourth and fifth scoring positions respectively. The scores of these runners put the team in a tie with their rivals from St. Paul’s School, but an enormous effort from junior JT Gally put the Green and White ahead and onto the podium. Leo Friedman rounded out the varsity seven with a terrific effort that landed him right at the halfway point of the entire field.
In the junior varsity race, Deerfield senior Nico Pfeifler led the way for the Green and White and finished his cross country career with a terrific fourth place. Juniors Oliver Peruzzi and Gus Mallory stormed to tenth and eleventh place in the race, and sophomore Thijs Wittink kicked the door down to snag thirteenth. Senior co-captain Chas Arnold capped off his cross country career in style by closing out the scoring positions for the junior varsity. Of note: the twelfth and final Deerfield runner in the race placed 57th of 132 runners, and all 12 of the Deerfield JV runners went under 20 minutes on this challenging course. This collective performance was remarkable because it was Deerfield’s first time taking second in the JV in at least the past decade and possibly ever.
Results here: http://www.iresultslive.com/?op=summary&eid=6215 (http://www.iresultslive.com/?op=summary&eid=6215)