Coed Varsity Cross Country vs The Hill School on 9/27/2024

Thirty-four Falcons traveled to Pottstown, PA for Peddie cross country’s first Mid-Atlantic Prep League (MAPL) dual race of the 2024 season against The Hill School. Traversing an appropriately hilly 5K course at Brookside Country Club in drizzling conditions, the girls translated a sweep of the top-three places into a 24-31 victory over the Blues while the boys narrowly lost to the hosts, 26-29.

Captain Matilda Kardhashi ’25 was the top female finisher in a time of 19:46, while her teammates Eliza Lamar ’25 (second, 20:57) and Courtney Cane ’25 (third, 22:15) contributed impressive performances as well. Four straight Hill runners made it a tight race, but Carolina Lopez-Watt ’25 (eighth, 24:06) and captain Sophie Winn ’26 (10th, 24:34) secured the win for the Peddie girls. Ananya Hari ’25 (13th, 25:17) continued her string of impressive performances, as she nearly set a personal record on a relatively slow course. Newcomers Louisa Blix ’28 (15th, 26:12) and Kira Pramanik ’26 (17th, 27:39) built off of their solid debut races in last Saturday’s Jerry Hart Invitational to round out the lineup for Peddie.

On the boys’ side, James Hamnett ’25 captured the first individual win of his career, completing the 3.1 miles in a time of 17:36. Captain Baker Pott ’25 (17:54) ran with Hamnett the whole way and took second, but Hill snagged the next four places and got their fifth runner across the line before Peddie’s fourth to defend their home turf and pick up the victory. Jack Stewart ’25 (seventh, 18:47) was the third Falcon finisher and then Peddie saw its own four-pack of runners cross the line in succession, as Rishi Swaminathan ’25 (ninth 19:10), Landen Jefferson ’25 (10th, 19:23), Theo Salapatas ’27 (11th, 19:29) and Ethan Sbarro ’26 (12th, 19:43) completed the varsity seven for the blue and gold.

James Radigan ’25 (14th, 19:59) finished strong to sneak under the 20-minute barrier, while Dasyer Bullock ’26 (16th, 20:32) used an impressive kick to pass a number of Hill runners in the final mile as he completed his first cross country 5K. Arnav Shankar ’28 (20th, 21:02), Josh Li ’26 (22nd, 21:13) and captain Matt Luo ’25 (24th, 21:24) all finished in short succession while Justin Zhang ’28 (26th, 22:55), Leo Pan-Wang ’26 (28th, 22:59), Finn Gorsline ’27 (29th, 23:04) and Jacob Kidd ’26 (30th, 23:12) did a similarly impressive job of packing up to attack the challenging, yet beautiful course. Peddie runners took seven of the next 10 places with Aaron Linke ’28 (33rd, 24:25), Brennan Caldwell ’28 (34th, 24:46), Ben McMahon ’28 (35th, 25:05), Neil Bhuteja ’26 (36th, 25:06), Rohan Bhamidipati ’28 (37th, 25:21), Milan Shah ’27 (39th, 25:39) and Evan Ren ’27 (40th, 25:57) closing out the team’s time on the course.

A number of Peddie runners will be back in action on Saturday, Oct. 5 at the Shore Coaches Invitational at Holmdel Park at 9 a.m., but the next race for the whole squad will be the Falcons’ second MAPL dual of the season at home against Lawrenceville on Friday, October 18 at 5 p.m.