The team most likely to go the distance this fall is without a question the girls cross country. In their most recent win against Berkshire School, Kent had 4 out of the 5 top spots.

The overall winner of the meet, Lara D’Alessandro ‘19, was described as, “probably our best returning runner,” by Mr. Baird, head coach, who says, “she has already improved on her race times from last year. She won this recent meet [and] has been placing high on invitationals where there are a lot of teams. Lara has done a great job doing well in both settings.”

With a large senior class, several of whom are 4-year runners, the team’s leadership is well-founded. Mr. Baird lauds these runners’ commitment to the team and says they provide the team with a “sense of continuity.” He continues to praise his captains Lucy Freidenrich ‘18  and Dhwani Bharvad ‘18 b saying they are “really helpful in terms of helping [him] and the other coaches run practice and set a high standard for runners.”

Freidenrich describes this year’s team as “a lot faster and a lot closer than it was in previous seasons.” The spirit of camaraderie shared between the girls is infectious, and the high-spirited environment of home meets reflects that.

This new season also brought about an influx of new runners. Mr. Baird explains that “it’s a good mix of veterans and newcomers. We’ve got the largest freshman class that we’ve had since I’ve been here, and the new runners as a whole have been doing a nice job pushing the returning runners so that everyone has to run faster.”

Mr. Baird’s devotion to his athletes and the athlete’s devotion to the team has brought them great success and created a great foundation for the rest of the season.