By Abby Smith ’20, Contributor

Cross country—the longest-lasting of Country Day fall sports this year—has come to the end. Our small but talented, hardworking team began in the first days of August and finished with Alec Hamall running in the state meet on November 4^th, a week after both boys’ and girls’ teams ran at regionals.

The girls’ team took quite a hit this year losing Grace Pettengill, but quickly rebounded picking up freshman Eliza Osborn and sophomore Sylvia Nica for part of the season. Training five days a week, racing nearly every Saturday morning, and team bonding dinners and activities built a strong, athletic, supportive team led by senior captains Kaitlyn Hardesty and Lorae Stojanovic. These young women are also involved in several clubs, have exceptional GPAs, and are national merit scholars; they are fabulous role models for our team. This great season led Natalie to make first team all-league and Abby Smith second team all-league as well as the whole team’s advancement to regionals.

The boys’ team was led by captains senior Bobby Flynn and junior Alec Hamall. The team showed great commitment and work ethic during both our long, hot workouts and exciting meets alike. They started out strong at the Country Day Invitational, which Alec won, and the team was only a few points behind Seven Hills. Several successful meets later at the district meet, they finished fourth which secured their place at regionals. There were several new runners this year and everyone put in the hard work to improve. John Pettengill came out for cross country, as well as having a great golf season, and ran in the mid- to low-eighteens with little experience. For the first time this year, Will Sommer broke twenty minutes, a legendary milestone many runners strive to achieve. David Morales dropped his best time by forty seconds in a week, finishing in just seconds over eighteen minutes. Alec made first team all-league and David made second team all-league. Last week Alec proudly ran in state, representing Country Day’s Cross Country team well and making coaches Merle Black and Catherine Phillips proud of the long, but fun season. Now it’s time to start training for another great season next year!