News & Events 2007-2008

Blair Wins Big Three Trophy: Team Highlights Added

With a 42-17 win over Peddie in football, Blair claimed the Big Three Trophy which Lawrenceville, Blair and Peddie compete for annually. Peddie held on to the Kelley-Potter Cup for another year in the annual rivalry which marks the end of the fall sports season; scores and highlights of the winning teams appear below.

Peddie Day 2007: Winning Team Highlights

Varsity Football
The local New Jersey Herald ran the following article on November 11:
   Dion Lewis put all kinds of numbers on the scoreboard, but it was Blair Academy’s defense that put up the most surprising numbers of all.
Lewis ran for 245 yards and four touchdowns on just 14 carries Saturday in Blair Academy’s 42-17 win over Peddie. After falling in a 10-1 hole, the Bucs scored 42 unanswered points en route to the lopsided victory.
   “We went to our spread offense and started to open things up a little bit,” Bucs coach Jim Stone said. “We got some quick kids.”
   But it was the defense that was the star Saturday.
Entering the game, Peddie running back Matt Brown was averaging nearly 150 yards a game. Blair held him to just 32 on 14 carries.
   “Our defense was outstanding,” Stone said. “It was the whole defense, it was our best defensive performance of the year, it’s what you hope for as a coach.”
   The Bucs (8-1) return three of their four running backs, including Lewis.

Girls’ Cross Country
Coach Latta Browse reports the following on Peddie Day:
   A record number of runners for a Blair girls’ cross country team – 16 – lined up to face the Peddie School at the annual season-ending dual meet on the Peddie golf course in Hightstown, N.J. The rain had cleared by race time, leaving a damp course for the girls to navigate in the 40-degree weather. In the season’s three previous meetings between the two schools, Peddie had bested Blair twice (at the Canterbury Invitational and at the State Prep meet) and Blair had finished in front of Peddie once (at the MAPL championship meet), ensuring a very close race between the teams. Peddie’s Katherine Warren won the individual race, but Liz Connor’s second place finish and Quinn McKay’s fourth place gave Blair’s four-girl pack the chance to secure the victory. Heather Britt (sixth), Niki Weiner (seventh), Chrissy Devenny (eighth) and Christelle Akon-Akech (ninth) finished within 10 seconds of each other to bring Blair a 27-30 victory, the first over Peddie in four years. Arie Kim was Blair’s final varsity finisher, in 12th place. The junior varsity was led by senior Ashley Thompson in a display of grit and fortitude that surely inspired her teammates. Gamely determined to run on Peddie Day of her senior year, Ashley pushed through considerable pain to run her first race since her sophomore year. She was followed by Julie Clothier and seniors Michaela McCrink and Leila Howard. Morgan Jefferson and Margaret Tseng ran together, and look prepared to step up to leading roles with the varsity next year. Jenny Hsu ran her best race of the season to finish in 26:27, followed by Kiana Mendoza and Sarah Beth Clark. The victory brought Blair’s dual meet record to 4-1 and provided an appropriate coda for perhaps the strongest team in recent memory.

[Note: The team took second place in the 10th annual MAPL cross country championships on November 7, at Peddie. There Blair earned its best finish ever, second place behind the Lawrenceville School, with a school record five runner average time of 20:51.8.]

Varsity Girls’ Tennis
Jim Moore, director of capital giving, was one of the ardent tennis fans watching the girls’ match on Peddie Day, especially since his advisee, Rachel Collens ’09, was on the team. Here’s what he reported about this exciting competition:
   It was looking pretty rough mid-Saturday afternoon in Hightstown. Girls’ varsity soccer, at the end of a great season, was down 4-0 to the Peddie girls. Field hockey had already fallen by the same score, and the boys’ soccer team was on its way to being shut out. I was in the stands behind court number three, my fingers crossed while I watched my advisee, Rachel Collens, fall behind in the pivotal girls’ varsity tennis match; if she won, her girls would not only beat Peddie but collect their first win of a disappointing season. So there I was, in the tennis stands at kickoff, and there I still was five minutes later when I heard the Peddie crowd roar; suddenly, it was Peddie 7, Blair 0. Not three minutes later… I heard the Peddie roar again, and it was 10-0.
   With Rachel hanging tough, I decided to go see for myself what was going on. It was a good thing I did because I would have missed the Blair team, comprehending for the first time that the chilly wind meant we finally had some football weather and that it was time to play. Dion Lewis ’09 took a handoff from Danny Sagan ’08, faked to the right and went left, sending Peddie’s entire line toppling like dominos; by the time they hit the ground, Dion was in the end zone with the first of his five touchdowns. Meanwhile, one of the girls from the tennis team tugged on my sleeve and told me I’d better come quickly, because Rachel had tied her opponent and they were about to play what they call a “super tie breaker.” I hustled on down to watch Rachel and the Peddie opponent match each other point for point, listening twice to the Blair fans cheer touchdowns. Finally, Rachel had the girl on the ropes and closed out her win – and her team’s – with a passing forehand. Finally, Blair as a school was on the board, and it was time to watch the boys put on the show of the year.

Updated 11/12/07

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