Cross Country Running!

This article is going to the Messenger.....Bellows Falls won first in division III boys.....read on...

The temps never rose from the mid-30’s. The saturated ground turned
into a heavy mud the consistency of clay in many places and the going
was slow. Times ranged approximately two minutes slower for 5k across
the board from last week at conference championships in Swanton

I am profoundly pleased with the performance of our teams through the
long season and today at State Meet. We have had more talented teams
in my years at Fairfax but no group of kids who more thoroughly
maximized their potential. They made all of us proud today.

In the girls race we quickly found ourselves outmatched by a superior
Randolph team that finished 7th in the state overall, just missing a
bid to the New Englands. Our girls went out fast, too fast, trying to
keep up with this high-powered squad and then had to fight a mid-race
sag. They did so in a gritty fashion and finished strong. Our stellar
freshwoman, Chace Carpenter, took 4th, and 31st overall in the state.
She also closed the distance on the states three fastest runners,
Purrier, Palermo, and Spillane. I feel certain that in coming years
Chace will move into Vermont’s elite. Senior Allie Minor came up big
as she has done in every important race throughout her career to take
second on our team. Emily Filiberti, handicapped with a nasty
respiratory infection, clung to our third scoring position. Senior
Mattie Hayes ran a personal best to finish our scoring. Close on her
heels were senior Molly Hogan, junior Marin Varney and junior Lyla
O’Brien. This was a great close to an excellent year for our girls
team. We will miss Allie, Mattie and Molly next year but we have a
strong group ready to move up.

The Boys D-III race was won handily by an upstart Bellows Falls team
we had never seen, and which northern teams knew nothing about. The
battle for second place however was the closest contest I have seen in
many years. We scored 58 points, while Thetford and Stowe scored 59
points each and Rice had 61 points. This means that after four runners
from each team ran a combined total of 12 miles, 2nd and 4th were
separated by a handful of seconds.

Our boys team struggled much of the year to find an identity. We were
hurt hard by last year’s graduation and remained very much a work in
progress all season. Senior Eli Philips was one constant. Despite
being burdened by a bronchial infection, he led the way for us again
today. He started slowly then worked his way up into the top ten and
stayed there. Senior Sam Lesnikoski ran the best race of his two year
career, picking off runners throughout the last mile to take 13th
overall. Freshman Michael Groening went out like a rocket, sagged in
the middle but refused to buckle. He learned a valuable lesson while
securing our third scoring slot. Senior John Wagenknecht, who has been
a man on a mission for us all season, hung tough and closed out our
scoring at 22nd. Here’s where it gets interesting. Our 5th and 6th
runner, senior Ethan Farmer and junior Ben Pomichter finished 33 and
34 respectively, pushing the 4th scoring runner from Thetford back two
places, we would have finished tied for 4th. Instead, we took 2nd
place.

This was a splendid closeout for our boys. Some would say they
over-achieved. I feel they reached that perfect place where one is
truly the best one can be. Fred Griffin