On Saturday, the Blair boys' cross country team raced against a tough field, comprising over ten area teams in the 44th Bill Blaskopf Invivtational at Newark Academy. Isaac Greene '24 finished first for Blair and second overall with a fast time of 17:48. He was followed by Timmy Xi '22, who finished 12th with a time of 18:59. Then came Haruki Ono '23 at 21:00 (33rd place), freshman Dmitry Grachev '25 at 21:01 (35th place), and freshman Weston Trish '25 at 21:02 (37th place). Owen Granahan '24 and Ben Liu '22 rounded out the top seven with times of 22:08 and 22:19 respectively.
With two freshmen and two sophomores in our top seven runners, the potential for growth and improvement is self-evident. In the junior varsity race, Brendan Morris '22 led for Blair at 23:26, followed by sophomore Daniel Zhang '24 at 27:00.
Congratulations to Dmitry, Weston, and Daniel who all completed their first races for Blair, acquitting themselves well, and to all the Blair boys who raced hard on a deceivingly hot morning. The next race for the Bucs will be on Saturday, September 18th, as they host Gill St. Bernard at 1:30 p.m.