The Blair boys' cross country team rose to the challenge on Peddie Day and went out strong against the Peddie runners. Tri-captain Weston Trish '25 and sophomore phenom Eric Bocanegra '27 went out challenging the top runners and held their pace, capturing 3rd and 4th place overall for the Bucs, with times of 17:27 and 17:41, personal records (PR) for both boys. Peddie was then able to place in their #3 thru #7 runners within a nine second span before Blair’s #3 runner, Breck Eagle '28 crossed the line at 18:00 followed quickly by Eddie George '28 at 18:30 - both boys have been phenoms for the Bucs all year.
Luke Antoneck '26, a stalwart for the team throughout the season, was on Eddie’s heels finishing at 18:31. Rounding out the top seven for the Bucs were tri-captain Tony Ni '25 at 18:46 and Matthew Jacob '28 at 19:05. Matthew came to the team in a mid-season trade from the football team and has been making great strides since his arrival. All of those runners also ran their personal bests.
Next for Blair were Luke Hosonitz '28 at 20:01 (PR), tri-captain Andrew Hong '25 at 19:21, Philipp Kuelps '28 at 19:28 (PR), Jay Seo '27 at 19:48 (PR), Edwin Asencio '26 at 19:51 (PR), Alex Ren '28 at 20:44 (PR), Brayden Yau '27 at 21:03 (PR), Nathan Kim '26 at 22:17 (PR) , and Sean Lee '26 at 24:13 (PR).
With nearly every member of the team running their personal best on this day, and leaving everything they had out on the course, it was a victory of a different kind for the Blair harriers and a victory where they can hold their heads high.