Senior Nick Robie smashes school record at the district meet on Saturday, October 21. (Courtesy of Kristin Sabgir)

Continuing its post season with extraordinary momentum, the boys and girls cross country team trounced its opponents at the district meet on Saturday, October 21, and took first and fourth, respectively.

At this point in the post-season, every single spot is critical, but the girls accepted the challenge and thrived. Sophomore Annalise Grammel led the team and crossed the finish in third with freshman Regan Cornelius right behind her in fourth. Cornelius along with sophomore Rachel Raque and senior Briyana Dragin set personal records in a meet when the team needed it most. Following Cornelius into the finish, juniors Maddie Tuckerman and Ryan Milbourne earned twenty-second and thirty-fifth, respectively. Dragin in forty-seventh and Raque in forty-eighth closed off the team’s quick race with their immensely improved times.

The boys followed by the girls’ example and left everything on the course. Senior Nick Robie ran the most notable race of the day and earned third place in 16:06.34. Robie not only smashed his personal record, but also broke the school record, which Jon Michael Hilsheimer’12 previously held. Fellow senior Nick Watson also set a personal best and ran his way to sixth out of eighty-three runners. The Vikes kept flying in when freshman Luke Nester, junior Liam McCann, and senior Chris Heermann crossed the finish consecutively taking tenth, eleventh, and twelfth, respectively. Sophomore Charlie Sabgir in sixteenth and junior Abhi Ramesh in twentieth ended the race strong with a personal best for Ramesh.

In addition to setting a new school record, the boys accomplished the feat of putting all seven runners in the top twenty and annihilated Grandview Heights—the second place team—by a whopping forty-two points.

The boys and girls race again on Saturday, October 28, at the Regional Meet and must earn a top five spot to advance to States.