From contributing writer Barbara Read: (Photos courtesy of Jill Boydston)
Just when you think the men’s cross country team has reached the pinnacle, they pull off a meet like last Saturday’s Gabriel Richard Invitational. It was a nearly perfect day of new PRs across the entire team which is a bit of a miracle this far into the season. An unbelievable 29 out of 33 runners ran the fastest 5K they have ever run, an additional runner ran a season best time for a total of 30 new records.
Coach Drew Collette said of the meet, “I expected times to drop, but Saturday exceeded my own expectations even. While there were improvements top to bottom on the roster, what’s most exciting is these kids know there are still 2 or 3 chances to drop more time. This group is never satisfied and always hungry to be better.”
Nathan Larson at 15:47 and Owen Huard at 15:49 locked in spots in the top twenty of the Dexter High School record book. Lucas Betzoldt at 16:20 now sits comfortably as the 17th fastest senior ever to compete for DHS. Larson and Huard reached 6th and 7th place for juniors. Sam Melvin (16:41) and Conor Kolka (17:03) are now the 10th and 18th fastest sophomores on school record.
Fifteen Dexter athletes cut over a minute off their previous best times, and two runners dropped over two minutes to achieve their new PRs (Quentin Hurdle, -2:31 and Andy Jordan, -2:03). The average improvement across the entire team was an astonishing 48 seconds per athlete. Altogether the team ran twenty-six minutes and fifty-five seconds faster in one day of racing than previous PRs in the large school race. By contrast, Chelsea scored one PR across their fifteen entered athletes in the medium school race.
The final meet of the SEC championship is Thursday at Hudson Mills Metropark. The Dexter varsity team runs at 2:30 and the reserve team at 4:30. At this trajectory, the Dexter team has a real chance of winning the race (though not the entire SEC which spans three races) against Chelsea on Thursday. Man for man, with only one exception, the top ten Dexter runners beat the top ten Chelsea runners at Gabriel Richard by a significant margin. But such a late season victory will require focus and determination. Chelsea wants the win, too, and this week they will be running together in the same race which turns the heat on.
Results from the Gabriel Richard Invitational (athletic.net)
Varsity Large School 5000M
- Nathan Larson 15:47.37 PR
L to R: Jonathan Adamczyk, Wilson Kasischke, Cameron O’Day, Nathan Gariepy, Josh Lamb, Samuel Fitzpatrick - Owen Huard 15:49.67 PR
- Lucas Betzoldt 16:20.84 PR
- Nick McKenzie 16:32.16 PR
- Liam Buller 16:37.69 PR
- Sam Melvin 16:41.67 PR
- Ransom Duncan 16:57.94 PR
- Noah Hayter 17:01.58 PR
- Conor Kolka 17:03.19 PR
- Rishabh Kothari 17:14.62 SR
- Adam Hauser 18:29.73
- Nathan McConnell 18:41.22 PR
Reserve Large School 5000M
- Nathan Gariepy 18:02.69 PR
- Wilson Kasischke 18:06.90 PR
- John Harm 18:08.02 PR
- Josh Lamb 18:20.39 PR
- Zachary Sawin 19:01.02 PR
- Jonathan Adamczyk 19:05.89 PR
- Seth Ockerman 19:17.99
- Nathan Biggs 19:39.28 PR
- Trevor Aeschliman 20:18.89 PR
- Holden Hughes 20:32.66 PR
Nathan Larson celebrates with his grandparents Jack Arnold and Claudia Larson and his mother Seana Larson after his record breaking race. - Chase Lutz 20:41.56 PR
- Evan Bursch 20:54.00 PR
- Noah Schultz 21:03.33 PR
- Andy Jordan 21:04.27 PR
- Griffin Bentley 21:05.26 PR
- Cameron O’Day 21:09.53
- Luke Petrinko 21:25.86 PR
- Samuel Fitzpatrick 21:54.89 PR
- Andrew Petik 23:26.26 PR
- Thomas Bauer 23:27.44 PR
- Quentin Hurdle 26:29.31 PR
