BFA Fairfax Runners Win Men's and Women's NVAC Championships!!!

BFA Fairfax cross-country teams won both the men's and women's Northern Vermont Athletic Conference (NVAC) championships on Saturday at MVU.

Coach Fred Griffin spoke of the team's victories.

It is safe to say that we didn't see this coming. It is also clear that despite the challenging weather we put it all together today from our first year JV runners to our veteran seniors. Almost everyone had a personal or season best. Sure, the course is flat, but close to a thousand runners had passed on a sloppy track by the time our guys went off. These kids were focused on personal excellence and were determined to deliver. There bus home was full of proud kids!

On the girl's side. Megan Kane continues her late-season surge. She has run negative splits-- meaning that she has run the second 1.5 miles faster than her first 1.5 miles, in every start in October. This requires enormous mental strength. Freshman Emily Filiberti continues to grow with every race. She is a dogged runner-- Emily moves somewhere near the front early on and just won't let go. Hillary Denoyers, who took the the third spot for us, is providing senior leadership just when it is needed. She closed fast and went by several runners in the last quarter mile. Senior Shannon Kane, like her sister, moved up consistently on the field in the second half of the race and finished fourth for us. Freshman Meghan Bochanski was our last scoring runner. She has been on a bike for the last ten days healing an injury and forced herself to run fast. We need her if we are going to make a run at the D-3 title.

On the guys side it was sophomore Eric Newbury who led us, leading our men's team scoring for the first time. Eric puts it on the line every time out and his effort is paying off. Senior Zach Bochanski took off in the last mile of the race and made up 20 seconds on the field. His performance was pivotal for us. As he went by our other runners they latched on as best as they could and he pulled the rest of our scoring five in behind him. Fellow senior James Minor took our third slot. He has been our leader on the race course for much of the year, but struggled today. Still, he gave us valuable points. A bad race for James is a good race for most of our runners. Kyle Bochanski senior brother of Zach, had yet another strong showing for us. In the middle of the race when our pack needed to make a move, he provided it. Sophomore Eli Philips capped off our scoring. He knew he needed to go by three runners in the last lap around the field and he found a way to do it.

Both teams are where they and their coaches want them to be one week away from State Meet. Both have learned to work with and off their teammates during that intense, compressed envelope of time we call a race. Both are poised to make a run at a D-III title. That's all a coach or a team can ask for in the last week of October.