On a beautiful fall afternoon, the Zebras of Middlesex faced St. Mark's and St. George's on our home course for the last regular season meet of the season before a crowd of supportive spectators on Parents' Weekend, while also celebrating the seniors. Winning decisively against both teams in the combined race, the runners posted many home course PRs and made family and friends proud of their determined racing and positive energy.

In the varsity race, the powerful trio of sophomore Gabby Walsh and juniors Charlotte O'Toole and Maud McCole worked well together to strong finishes right behind the St. Mark's frontrunner. The varsity pack did not let up here, however, as junior Katie Fujimori, senior captain Emily Li, and sophomore Maya Sidhu had great races to take the next three places. Freshman Jillian Robertson finished on the heels of the third St. George's runner for varsity as well.

In the JV race-within-a-race, a strong pack of junior Soleil Kerfoot, senior captain Alice Crow, and freshman Meena Menon worked together to sprint across the line within 10 seconds of one another for the first three places. Senior Imani Marcelo (in yet another PR) and freshman Calie Brady ran smart races to finish not far behind. Sophomore Nina Douge and freshman Megan Ding rounded out the top seven for JV.  With 29 Middlesex runners finishing and others extending themselves to help out with the logistics and safety of the race, there was plenty of toughness and selflessness on display from the entire Middlesex team. Particularly impressive was the 2 minute PR of freshman Marie Krou, as well as the Hirsch sisters (Lucy, senior and Eliza, freshman) finishing within seconds of each other in Lucy's final home race.  Mary Odusami and Kricket Drewes had triumphant returns to racing.  And, as always, manager Coach Val(erie) Chen seemed to be in multiple places at once, tending to photos, timing, scores, her teammates, and the boys' races without missing a beat.  

We look forward to a brief week of training after the long weekend before heading to Lawrence Academy again for the ISL meet on Friday.  That will be the last race for our whole roster to run together before we send a very fast top 19 to our NEPSTA championships at Weston High School the following week.