Boys and girls win against Paint Branch, but fall to Magruder

The girl's cross country team achieved two victories today against Damascus and Paint Branch, but suffered their first loss of the season to Magruder, who narrowly defeated Blair by one point. The boy's team won over Paint Branch, but fell to Magruder and Damascus.

This was the second victory for the boys' and girls' teams against Paint Branch this season. The girls defeated them with a score of 15-50; the boys with a score of 25-41. Against Damascus, the girls won with a score of 25-30, while the boys were defeated 19-36. Magruder won 28-29 over the girls and 19-40 over the boys, bringing Blair's record to 5-1-0 for the girls and 2-4-0 for the boys.

The girls' team's close loss to Magruder, despite first and second overall finishes by Halsey and Ashlyn Sinclair, was attributed to the William and Mary Invitational that the team attended this past weekend. According to coach Carl Lewin, the team did not have enough time to recover after running hard and competitively at the meet Saturday. "The race we ran at William and Mary took a lot out of our team," Lewin said. "It ultimately played a role in how we ran today. If the girls had run at their full strength, we would have beat Magruder."

William and Mary also took its toll on the boys' team in their two losses. "We were just worn out from having a lot of races so close together. We need to rest up and focus on the next invitational and next county meet," said Josh Uzzell, who finished 3rd overall in the boys' race, the top finisher for Blair boys.