On a gorgeous autumn afternoon that featured sunny skies and temperatures in the high 60s, the boys’ and girls’ cross country teams turned in strong performances in the second PSAA meet of the season. The Bears ran away with last week’s league opener and looked just as powerful on the S.T. Hsaio home course on Wednesday.

The pre-construction work for our new dormitory, Daley Hall, necessitated an alteration to the usual course. Instead of coming through the Kinney Field House parking lot and up the hill behind Monro Hall, the course ran between Swanson Gymnasium and Barnhouse Hall, up the road in front of Swanson, and down Chapman Parkway before a right turn around Memorial Hall. But the Bears showed no ill effects from the reduced home course advantage and surged to strong victories over the 2.56 miles.

The girls took the top four spots and surely would have swept had Sophia Dabbraccio not been sidelined with a slight injury. Evelyn Apazidis ran a strong race despite being untested, taking the top spot in 17:15. Emma Cohen (2nd/19:02), Autumn Nichols (3rd/20:20), Ali Puopolo (4th/20:36), and Naomi Zhao (11th/23:23) also scored for the Bears who accumulated 19 points to outdistance Portledge (45) and Solomon Schechter (80).

On the boys’ side, Duncan Kipkoech ran to his second victory of the season in 13:40. Troy Meng (2nd/14:56) and John Duggal (3rd/14:57) propelled each other to strong times. David Guo (5th/16:15) and Roger Zhou (6th/16:16) allowed the Bears to place five scorers in the first six places. Will Zeron (7th/16:24) and Clinton Kilroy (8th/16:32) gave the Bears seven of the top eight spots. Their 17 points powered them past Solomon Schechter (60), Portledge (77), and Long Island Lutheran (98).

The Bears are back on the course on Wednesday in a PSAA meet at Knox.

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