Blazers vs. Colonels; a mixed result

DERWOOD, MD, Sept. 25 -

The boys cross country team lost to Magruder 25-32 and the girls won by a slim margin of 27-28, leaving both the girls' and boys' record at 1-3.

The win was a big achievement for the girls, who ran particularly well with senior co-captain Johanna Gretschel at the top finishing first with a time of 21:33. Running as a pack, the rest of the girls finished one right after the other, starting with freshman Theresa Ragan at 23:32, junior Elaine Chung at 23:56, senior Rachita Sood at 24:21 and junior Abigail Cember at 25:02.

The boys raced a comparable team in terms of record (both 1-2) and the tendency of both teams to have their top runners consistently change. Despite the similarities, Blair's two top runners, junior Rutvij Pandya and senior Nilan Schnure could not surpass Magruder's top runners, even with times of 18:09 and 18:53 respectively.

Although the boys lost, senior co-captain Vijay Baharani views the race as a good team learning experience. "It was hilly, it was hot, it was a real cross country race and our team ran strong," he said.

Today's race was the debut for Magruder's new course. It begins with a deceptively fast first mile, which can easily sap a runner's energy, then continues with a barrage of rolling hills which becomes "the roller coaster" a large, slightly slanted hill that rolls up and steeply down to a flat area. Runners are then expected to cross a pond before reaching yet another hill to finish the race downhill.

In spite of the grueling course, several Blazers set personal records for the season including Sood, junior co-captain Frank Wen with a time of 19:36, and juniors Logan Talbot and Greg Vogel who both finished the race in 19:13.

The Blazers race in their next dual meet versus Bethesda Chevy Chase High School on Oct. 2 at B-CC.