Cross Country

The Peddie cross country team competed against The Hill School and The Perkiomen School in a tri-meet on the road at The Hill School.

The matchup kicked off with the boys race, which saw Hunter Norman ’30 get his first overall win in a Peddie uniform as he broke the proverbial tape with a finish time of 18:18 on an appropriately hilly 5-kilometer layout. Norman paced for the first two miles with co-captain Theo Salapatas ’27 and two Hill runners but pulled away in the homestretch to secure the individual victory by 20 seconds. In his first race back following a long layoff due to injury, Salapatas showed all the grit that got him back to the starting line, fighting along the uphill finish to pass one of the two Hill runners who surged in the final half mile. That effort secured him third place in a time of 18:40.

The hosts took the next four places to secure a 24-32 team victory but Rohan Bhamidipati ’28 (8th, 20:55), Aaron Linke ’28 (9th, 21:08), and Aaryan Patel ’29 (11th, 21:23) helped to keep things close in rounding out the scoring five for the Falcons. Evan Ren ’27 (12th, 22:06), Alex Stover ’30 (13th, 22:11), and Arnav Shankar ’28 (14th, 22:31) took the next three places for Peddie before their teammates took the next nine slots: London vos Strache ’29 (16th, 22:45), Yi (Victor) Qian ’29 (17th, 22:54), Wei Jie Ng ’27 (18th, 23:10), Jiaxi (Carlos) Xie ’30 (19th, 23:13), Jaden Liu ’29 (20th, 23:14), Justin Tang ’27 (21st, 23:43), Landon Lill ’29 (22nd. 23:59), Finn Gorsline ’27 (23rd, 23:59), Sam Lallier ’28 (24:01). Austin Hua ’27 (26th, 24:58) and Hari Pandya ’28 (27th, 28:30) closed out the racing for the Falcons.

The girls race was even closer in terms of both the team score and the individual competition, as evidenced by key battles to the line and the final score of 27-28 that favored the hosts. Co-captain Charis Chien ’27 (21:25) was the top runner for the Falcons, running a strong solo race in second place. Taeeon (Alya) Kim ’29 (4th, 22:51) and Elise Lousteau ’30 (5th, 23:04) were impressive in pacing well together throughout the full 5K, demonstrating the potential of Peddie’s young runners and their pack mentality. The closest finish of the day came in the race for 7th place, as Moqiao (Angela) Tong ’30 (24:45) out-leaned Hill’s fourth runner to draw the two teams even at that stage of the team scoring. Four more Peddie runners crossed the line to complete the team’s entries in the race: co-captain Louisa Blix ’28 (25:58) finished 10th while Sophie Wang ’27 (27:06) overcame an ankle injury to take 13th, Lorena Camargo Carcano ’28 (28:24) nabbed 16th place, and Raven Sargeant ’29 (34:04) closed strong for 17th place.

The Falcons next travel to Rosedale Park to compete in the Pennington Cross Country Invitational on Thursday, Oct. 22 at 3 p.m.

The Peddie cross country team competed in the 13th Annual Jerry Hart Cross Country Invitational Memorial Invitational at Peddie Golf Course. 15 teams competed.

Charis Chien ’27 placed 10th in the varsity girls race with a time of 20:19.5.

Princeton High School won both the varsity boys and varsity girls team championships. Peddie varsity girls cross country placed fifth as a team.

The Falcons next travel to The Lawrenceville School for a dual meet on Saturday, Sept. 26 at 1:30 p.m.

The Peddie cross country team competed in the Thompson Two Miler at Thompson Park to open the season. Ten runners competed across six different class races at the 2026 Thompson 2-Miler.

The senior boys got the morning started and Anthony Kanis ’27 (24th, 12:14) set a strong tone for his teammates with the Falcons’ first medalist finish of the day, while Evan Ren ’27 (46th, 14:05) also met the challenge posed by the flat, fast first mile and the punishing hill on the back half of the course. Sophie Wang ’27 (25th, 16:40) picked up where her classmate Kanis left off, grabbing a medal of her own in the senior girls race with a ferocious kick in the final 400 meters.

In the junior boys race, Aaron Linke ’28 (61st, 13:56) and Arnav Shankar ’28 (64th, 14:07) finished in quick succession while Hari Pandya ’28 (88th, 18:05) put forth an admirable effort in coming back from a recent injury. In the largest race of the day, sophomores Aaryan Patel (82nd, 14:22) and Jaden Liu (87th, 14:39) both navigated their way through the masses to solid finishes.

The top performances of the day, though, belonged to the youngest Falcons as Hunter Norman ’30 and Elise Lousteau ’30 both made clear that they will have a large impact on the team this season. Norman established his place in second early in the boys freshman race and never relinquished that position, taking runner-up honors in a time of 11:26. Similarly, Lousteau (10th, 14:36) got off the line quickly and used that strong start to propel her to an impressive top-ten finish.

The rest of the Peddie squad eagerly awaits its chance to join their teammates, which will come next Saturday, Sept. 19, when the Falcons host and compete in the 13th Annual Jerry Hart Cross Country Memorial Invitational Memorial Invitational at Peddie Golf Course. Racing begins at 2 p.m. with the varsity boys, followed by the varsity girls at 2:30 p.m. and a mixed futures race at 3 p.m.