2017 Middletown Invitational

The Middletown Invitational, held at St. Andrew's School on September 22, was our second race of the season. The course, beautiful on the warm but overcast day, winds through the fields that surround the school and ends with a twisting, hilly path through the woods. Four separate races were held, with the top seven runners of each gender competing in the respective varsity races while the remaining runners competed in the JV races.

The girls team and manager Sarah Zhu (Photo: Mrs. Jen Mengel)

The girls' JV race was the first of the meet. Abby Philips ('21) led the Red Lion girls, finishing 48th overall with a time of 27:34. Sophia Spotts ('21) placed 50th overall, followed closely by Captain Anna Teather ('18).

The boys' JV race, which was by far the largest of the meet in terms of numbers, began fairly uneventfully. At around the two-mile mark, however, the runners encountered a swarm of ground hornets, and many were stung, including several runners from Red Lion. Nevertheless, the boys persisted and were able to finish the race. Marc Sherman ('21) led the team with a time of 23:03, placing 118th overall. Coach declared him the day's winner of the 2x4 in honor of his crossing the finish line while puking. Ryan Silver ('21) finished next in 139th place with Ryan Cooper ('21), Jesse Ma ('21), Adam Rao ('20), and Captain Brandan Leauby ('18) following.

The girls' varsity race, slightly rerouted due to the hornet problem, took off just afterwards. Fiona Fawcett ('22) ran an outstanding time of 22:05, placing 32nd overall. Faith Hollister ('22), sporting a cast on her broken wrist, followed with another amazing time of 22:10 and placed 33rd. Hannah Ye ('21) finished in 52nd place, followed by Cathy Nicholson ('21) in 62nd, Katelyn Walker ('19) in 68th, Katie Rippon ('20) in 71st, and Captain Naomi Mengel ('18) in 72nd place. The team placed 9th overall.

Josh Deitrich ('19) led the boys' varsity race for Red Lion with an impressive time of 17:37 and placed 28th overall. Matteo D'Andrea ('20) also broke the 20-minute mark, crossing the line at 19:09 in 65th place. Spencer Armstrong ('19) finished at 20:03 in 75th, followed by Dennis Nicholson ('19) in 92nd, Captain Luke Sherman ('18) in 97th, and Nick Yu ('18) in 102nd place. Micah Pope ('19) was unable to complete the race due to severe pain from shin splints. The team placed 15th overall.

Naomi