The Caisson Cross Country runners showed impressive growth from their meet at Fork Union on the 2nd of October to yesterday’s home meet at Coyner Springs Park.
At Fork Union, each team had an individual start time, so we had only teammates to pace ourselves against. Joshua Elms led the team’s effort with a solid 21:39. Individual times are posted below. Also notable for his effort at FUMA was Pierce Mahailoff, 8th grader. He skipped the Middle School 2 miler and plunged right into his first 5K (3.1 mile). He benefited from teammate and senior Francis Ko; they ran together and finished in the low 27’s.
At Coyner Springs, 7th grader Dietrich Larson made a breakout performance while leading the Caisson effort. The meet was divided into 2 heats. Cadet Larson traded the lead back and forth in his heat with a runner from Hargrave. Cadet Larson’s determination prevailed with a win in his heat with a 3 second gap and a time of 22:26. Scoring next for the Caissons was Nathan Alexander with a time of 22:32.
Cadet Ethan Gaudin shaved more than a minute from his FUMA performance and posted a 22:34 to place third for the team. BC William Terry and cadet Aiden Smith rounded out the scoring five with times of 22:51 and 23:07.
The biggest improvement was shown by cadets Mahailoff and Ko. Cadet Mahailoff shaved off 2:21 from his FUMA performance with his 24:54 and cadet Ko shaved off 1:40 from his FUMA time with a time of 25:32.
In the overall team standings, Hargrave swept the top five spots to take first place. Fishburne finished in second ahead of Blue Ridge School.
