Fay XC Captures Larz Anderson Championship Title for Third Straight Year!

Fay cross country's top 7th and 8th graders traveled to Brookline for the first championship meet of the season on Thursday. With a solid season of hard training under their belts, the Fay harriers were well prepared to take on over 12 schools and 200 runners on the rolling hills of Larz Anderson Park. Having won this race in 2011 and 2012, our team was eager to see if they could defend the title for yet another year.

A few seconds after the starting gun went off, we could see a strong pack of Fay red jerseys in the front of the pack. It was clear that our team had gotten off to a quick start, positioning themselves for success in the race. A little over one mile into the race, co-captain Shivam Sharma '15 began to pull away from the pack. Up until this point, he had been racing with co-captain Andrew Daphnis '15 and a few boys from the Park School and Shady Hill. Andrew looked incredibly strong as the lead pack headed up a hill in the last half of the race. A few places back, co-captain Jack Thalmann '15 and Jonathan Walker '15 were racing side by side and helping each other push the pace. John Namgung '15 was not far behind those two, in his first ever championship race as a Fay cross country runner.

As the boys disappeared over the hill towards Boston, we waited anxiously to see who would emerge first in the sprint for the finish. After about 13 minutes, Shivam Sharma appeared, and he was all by himself. Shivam crossed the finish line in a time of 13 minutes and 37 seconds - 5:56 mile pace over the hilly 2.3 mile course! His individual victory was truly impressive, as he finished over 20 seconds ahead of the 2nd place finisher.

Not far behind Shivam, Andrew Daphnis appeared and looked stronger than ever. He blew past a competitor in the final straightaway to finish 4th place overall in a time of 14:03. The Fay team continued to look strong in the top pack. Jonathan Walker shaved two and a half minutes off of his race time from the same invitational last year. He finished in 9th place overall, in a time of 14:31. Jack Thalmann was hot on Jonathan's heels, finishing one second later in a time of 14:32. These four boys were awarded medals for finishing in the top 12 athletes in Thursday's race.

John Namgung rounded out our top 5, finishing in 17th place with a time of 14:59. When John crossed the finish line, we knew we had sealed the deal to win the race. Our top 5 runners had finished the race before any other team had even had four of their runners finish. Alfonso Pelaez '15 also had a phenomenal race. He finished in 25th place overall and displaced many runners from other teams, helping to better our team score.

On the girls side, Sally Lee '15 had a break-out race, and finished in 21st place overall in a very strong field of girls. Sally's time of 17:26 was almost one minute faster than her time in 2011. Congratulations, Sally!

The Fay cross country team was thrilled to be able to take home the trophy on Wednesday for the third year in a row! We finished with a total of 41 points, beating the 2nd place team by almost 60 points (Park School finished in 2nd place with 100 points). It was a true team effort and we are incredibly proud of how well all of our athletes raced on Thursday in a talented and large field of runners.

Congratulations Fay!

Full results:
Girls Race

Thank you to Rob Crawford and Karen Thalmann for the photos.
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