Once again this week, the boys' cross-country teams dominated the competition, in a "twilight" race at Caryl Park in Dover, MA, the home course for St. Sebastian's School.  St. Paul's and Brooks School also joined the list of contenders.
 
Expecting a strong challenge from the St. Paul's team, fortified with returning All-ISL runners Jack Evenson and Marc Roy, the MX varsity brought their A-game, and the results speak for themselves. 
 
League leader Viraj Deokar '15 was first to cross the finish line, cruising in at 16:30 and establishing a new course record.  However, just a stone's throw behind Viraj were Lucas Estrada '14 and Gavin Fujimori '15 (at 16:43 and 16:48, respectively), securing the top three spots in the race and thereby guaranteeing wins against the other three schools in dual-meet scoring.
 
Will Fletcher took 5^th place, just behind St. Paul's' first finisher Marc Roy, thereby establishing a new personal record of 17:35.  But Miles Petrie '14 and newcomer Gabe Smith '14 also scored well, capturing places 6 and 9.   Indeed, Gabe's run was all the more impressive as his finishing time (17:46) matched that of St. Paul's star Jack Evenson, who finished just a step ahead of Gabe.
 
Although the JV team did not run a separate race, due to the lateness of the start time, stand-out performances from Matt Kafker '14, Matt McKenna '14, and Rock Hoffman '15 matched the dominating performance of the top three varsity runners, as they claimed the first three places in scoring against the three opposing schools.  What's more, newcomer Ryan A. Ewing '16 continued his movement upward through the ranks, as he closed the gap between him and the Rock to just three seconds.
 
The boys travel to St. Mark's next Friday to face the home team that edged them out of first-place in last year's ISL Championship on that very same course.  This year's Middlesex team is determined to claw their way back to the top.