All In The Campaign for Blair Academy 2018-2025

Blair Cross Country competes in Paul Short Invitational

Blair Cross Country competes in Paul Short Invitational
Rhett Moroses
Blair Buccaneer

Blair's boys' and girls' cross country teams returned to Lehigh University’s Paul Short Invitational for the first time since 2018. It was a perfect afternoon for racing with beautiful weather. 296 girls and 339 boys crowded the start line, but with competitors in sight throughout the race and the encouragement of hundreds of spectators, Blair enjoyed its best race of the season to date.

For the girls' squad, Petra Taylor '24 took 41 seconds off her time from last week, a significant accomplishment on a much tougher course, to lead the team for the second straight week. Betsy Kim '23, back from injury, was second for the Bucs in 22:21, her personal best as a Blair runner by 28 seconds. Marty Dericks '22 came down 34 seconds from her race at Peddie and is now knocking on the door of sub-23:00. Renee Tracy '23 was Blair’s fourth finisher with Meredith Abbott '24 again earning a place as one of the team’s five official scoring runners. Unlike during the early season when the Bucs struggled to field a full team, at Lehigh eight girls ran and completed the course. Ali McEachern '23 and Hannah Reed '23 in 6th and 7th ran competitively to take the final two varsity places, and Brigette Starrs '25 completed the day by nearly cracking the 30 minute barrier. The team continues to improve, thanks to its dedication and solid training, and looks toward three straight dual meets before we enter our championship season.

The Blair boys raced well with sophomore Isaac Greene '24 finishing first for Blair in 13th place with a time of 16:24. This was another personal record (PR) for Isaac, having just earned one the previous week. Next for Blair was senior Timmy Xi '22 in 88th place with a time of 17:47 - a PR for him as well. Freshman Andrew Hong '25 led the main Blair pack with a PR of time of 20:33 and was soon followed by Weston Trish '25, Haruki Ono '23, Michael Zhang '24 and Owen Granahan '24 with times of 20:38, 20:42, 20:52, 20:54 respectively. Weston, Michael and Owen all PRed in this race. Isaac Greene, along the rest of the top 25 finishers, was honored in a ceremony in Goodman Stadium after the race. 

The team continues to improve, thanks to its dedication and solid training, and looks toward three straight dual meets before we enter our championship season.