Junior Sarah Day finished first overall and senior Kate Crowley took fifth to lead the the girls’ varsity cross country team to an overall first-place finish in the 13-school Rockledge Invitational on Sept. 17.

“I was kind of nervous about this meet considering that it’s a new course that no team has ever run before; so we were like the guinea pigs trying it out,” varsity captain Kate Crowley said. “But when we took off from the starting line, Sarah and I were leading the race with a solid gap from the rest of the runners. It felt really awesome to be in the lead, and we gained a lot of momentum from each other’s energy. It was definitely a good experience that is very rare to occur.”

The boys’s team, led by Luke Redito’s fourth-place finish and Jacob Smithe’s sixth-place mark took second place overall.

“The course was pretty great: straightforward, grassy without a lot of roots and rocks to be worried about,” Smite said. “However, there were some difficult areas, especially the gravel; it was a good open course, basically a flat grassy 1.5 mile track. With that being said, the times still were a little slow because of the gravel and occasional inclines. Overall, I enjoyed it very much and look forward to running it again.”

The girls’ junior varsity squad also took first overall and the boys finished second.

Roar staff report