This year, the Kelley-Potter Cup competition was held at the Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey, allowing the girls' cross country team to run on a familiar course that was tweaked to finish on the school’s track in front of a huge crowd watching the football game. After a pre-race psych-up the night before at the annual pep rally, where the team displayed their acting chops in replicating a tribal council scene from the Survivor franchise, Blair was primed to run their best race of the season when it mattered most.
Maia Frank '26 led the Bucs as she had for most of the season, running 19:32 as she battled Peddie’s Courtney Cane for third place overall. That Courtney nipped Maia by two seconds to assure victory for the Falcons does not diminish the heart and drive Maia put into the race, nor the fact that she set a personal best 5k in doing so. After Maia, the floodgates were open; for the first time in program history, every single Blair runner - 13 in all - set a personal best in the same race.
No one backed down from their individual challenge, and each girl was rewarded with a perfect memory of the season past. Marie Sharp '28, down 8 seconds in 4th place; Natalie Kislin '25, down 1:43 to 21:45 for 7th place; Emily Tierney '25, down 1:50 to 21:59 for 10th place; Ashley Hur '26, down 1:34 to 22:54 in 12th place; Chandler Wildrick '25, down 1:36 to 23:17 in 13th position; and Paige Celley '25, down 54 seconds to 23:47 in 14th place to complete the varsity scoring.
Notable among the group for another reason is Ashley, who finished the season as one of only two girls to run all the races for which she was eligible this fall. In a sport where injuries are an unfortunate reality of most competitors from time to time, her ironman streak is to be greatly applauded. The streak of great running did not end with the varsity seven, however, but was modeled by the junior varsity squad as well.
Cheered on by their teammates as they charged down the line were Sophia Lee '28 (PR by 2:28 as she hung on to the varsity group until the very end); Ira Tyagi '28 (PR by almost 5 minutes as she put together by far her best effort of the year); Aurelia McDonald '28 (PR by over 2 minutes, as she rebounded from injury to finish with a bang); Brigette Starrs '25 (who completed her remarkable 4-year career by cutting her PR by over 2 minutes by charging right out of the gate and never backing down. She, too, joined Ashley in running every race on her schedule for a double bonus upon her finish); Lola Bambe '27 (Following training partner Brigette’s lead by also cutting over two minutes of time with the best race of her career); and Maddie Nicholson '28 (pushing her best time down to 27:11 as she continues to improve by leaps and bounds). T