Submitted by Paul Raider
The Berlin Cross Country team competed last weekend at their last Invitational of the season in the Burnt Hills Invitational at Saratoga. The teams had their best finishes of the year . They ran extremely well as a team with many runners achieving new personal records.
The boys finished 11th overall and 6th amongst class D schools. The team saw strong performances from Josh Hendericks who set a personal record with a time of 17:47, Collin Douglas who set a personal record with a time of 17:49, Jack Flowers who set a personal record with his first sub 19 finish, Max Lockett who set a personal record at 20:11, and Jeremy Yerdon who finished 2:30 faster than his previous best.
The girls put themselves amongst the best in class D finishing 5th overall and 2nd amongst class D schools. The girls saw their best team effort with the top 5 runners finishing within 20 places of each other. The girls were led by Haley Chaykowski-Jewett who finished 35th, and Elsie Corbett who set a personal record at 22:05. Sam Rokjer broke through her first runners wall and Cayla Hungerford is beginning to look like her old self. The best run of the day came from Brady Hills who set a personal record 2 minutes under her previous time.
The team competes Tuesday, Oct. 24 at the Wasaren League Championships.
Earlier in the week, the Berlin boys were able to defeat both Stillwater and Waldorf led by 1st place finisher Collin Douglas who came in at 19:55. The boys also saw strong performances from Jack Flowers, Max Lockett, and Nikifor Popov who finished 3, 4, 5 to help secure the victories for Berlin. The Mountaineer boys also saw great improvements from Josh Kluck and Phil Oakes who finished 8 minutes faster than last time at home.
The Berlin girls came out victorious as well defeating both schools. The girls were led by Cayla Hungerford who finished 3rd overall and Elise Corbett who finished right behind her in 4th. The two raced to the finish within seconds of each other. The girls also had strong runs from Hailey Beckwith and Sam Rokjer who finished 5th and 6th.