BXC Finishes Strong at NMH Invitational

The Phillips Academy boys' cross country team traveled to NMH on a beautiful fall day to compete in the annual NMH Invitational on the difficult Northfield course.

Pacing Varsity BXC was Tam Gavenas ('25), who took the individual win ahead of a competitive field of four NEPSTA teams. Gavenas, who was two seconds behind the all-time fastest ninth-grade time on NMH's course, was followed by his classmates Luke Williamson ('25) and Luke Francis ('25), both of whom had exceptional finishing moves. Coming in fourth on the team, Captain Matthew Ottenbreit ('22) fought all the way to the finish in his return to the Varsity squad. Next was Constantine Krenteras ('24), who ran several seconds faster than last weekend. Aidan Lin ('23) came in sixth for the Varsity (immediately after finishing the SAT!), and Max Gomez ('23) caught several runners in the last 200 meters on his way to an excellent finish. The Varsity boys took third as a team.

In the final race of the day, the JV team picked up where the Varsity left off by establishing competitive positions early. Ethan Qi ('23) took third overall with an excellent, tough race, and he was followed by a wave of PA runners working together in two packs: the first was Nolan Goldthwaite ('22) and Max Boesch-Powers ('24); the second was Jason Zhang ('23), Charles Goodyear ('24), Luke Piasecki ('24), and John Wang ('22). It was fabulous team running out there in the NMH woods! Rounding out the JV squad were Bryan Chyu ('23), Magnus Julin ('25), and Nathan Godsey ('24)--with both Julin and Godsey making their PAXC debuts. JV took first as a team.

PAXC is looking forward to their first home meet next weekend when they'll host Choate.