Well, it looks like we won the most important meet of the year as we took home the SPAM trophy for a 5th straight year.  Much like we ended last season at SPAM, and began this year at Roslyn, we had a perfect score of 15 points, taking the first five finishing positions.  In addition, we had 11 of the top 19 spots.

 

Macon Moring and Ford Clark continued their back-and-forth as our number one runner.  Today it was Macon that was victorious.  He became the first runner ever in SPAM history to break 12:00, coming across the line in 11:58.  He broke the old record of Aubrey Bowles (2016) by 9 seconds.  Ford and Jack Parker were very close behind, coming across the line in 12:01, with both of them also breaking Aubrey's old record.  As a side note, Giles Ferrell of Collegiate also broke the course record (set in 2015) by 4 seconds.  Ethan Smith ran the 7th fastest STC time ever with his 12:17, and Richmond Southall helped keep the sweep as he held off the pack of 4 Collegiate runners that came in 6th-9th place behind him.  Grady White rounded out the top 10 with his 10th place finish, 2nd among 7th graders in the race.

 

In the time prediction contest, we also dominated.  Jeffery Mitchell became the first runner since 2014 to run his exact predicted time, taking the time prediction contest.  There was no room for error as Ford was only 1 second off of his time and Jack was 4 seconds off of his time.  Ethan was our next best at 10 seconds off.  Stephen Proctor earned the "opposite" award for our team, missing his predicted time by 96 seconds.  He must be saving up for tomorrow's 5k!  Following the predicted time awards, we also did a random stick draw and Carter Erwin was one of the two winners, earning a can of SPAM and grab-bag award.

 

It is clear that in year 14 of this race, the desire for fun and enjoyment is alive and well and everyone is taking notice.  Dr. Hunter, Mr. Lecky, Dr. Scheckelhoff, and 8th Grade Student Council President Max Buono were all in attendance today.  The parental crowd seemed a little bigger than normal too.  We appreciate your willingness to attend and support the team and enjoy every moment of oddity as part of today's meet!

 

It is hard to believe, but the close of the season is upon us.  I know we are asking a lot of the boys (and you all) to run back-to-back meets, but if anyone can do it, it is this group of boys.  In 13 years, I can honestly say that no middle school cross country team could hold a candle to these boys, and that was even with a variety of injuries and missing two more meets than we had last year (STAB and Varsity Dual Meet at St. Cat's).  I plan do continue to coach this team for several decades to come and I can honestly say that I may never see a middle school cross country team as talented and determined as this squad.  Tomorrow's JV Prep League race at Collegiate (3:30pm) will be the cherry on top to a fantastic season.  I know the boys will be ready to go out on top with one more dominating race.