The boys' cross-country teams again came away with decisive victories last weekend at Fresh Pond, dispatching opponents from St. Mark's, Belmont Hill, and Rivers Schools.  Once again, a Middlesex runner set a new course record (which had been set the previous week by a Middlesex teammate):  Viraj Deokar blazed across the finish line at 15:39, more than a minute ahead of the mark he had set just a week earlier.  Although the race strategy called for a conservative approach in the early stages, Viraj found himself swept along by the ambitious start of an opposing runner (the front group reached mile #1 in 4:41), and he just kept going at that pace without looking back.

Viraj was not alone in raising the bar.  Teammates Lucas Estrada (16:12) and Gavin Fujimori (16:40) also sped in under the previous record, with Lucas gaining a hairsbreadth advantage over St. Mark's' star Sean McLaughlin, to take 2^nd place.
The rest of the team secured the 6^th (Gavin), 7^th (Peter Howe), and 8^th (Miles Petrie) spots to nail down the wins.  This brings the boys' record to 10-0.

Also notable were the stalwart performances of Will Fletcher, who ran impressively despite also running a low-grade fever, and Max Rifkin, worn out after a morning of SATs, yet still able to keep 11 opposing runners behind him. 
The JVs enjoyed similar success.  Eric Dolce again led the Zebra herd to decisive victories. Taking 2^nd place in the race himself, Eric got strong support from Christian Papadellis, finishing just 8 seconds behind Eric in 3^rd place, and Tristan Collins (6^th), Matt Kafker (7^th), and Jack Yoon (10^th).  The JV field was deep this time, with four schools bringing a total of 58 runners to the line.  All Middlesex scoring runners finished in the top 20 of the field.

After facing Groton (at Groton) this week, the varsity team will travel to New York to participate in the Reebok Manhattan Invitational meet at Van Cortland Park, an event that brings together many hundreds of high-school runners from schools all over the northeast.