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POMFRET — The Pomfret School cross country team inaugurated a new racecourse for its only dual meet of the season last week.
Despite Jeffrey Gibbs’ stellar effort and his second outright win, the Pomfret Griffins were unable to best Kingswood Oxford (KO).
The Griffins knew it was going to be a close race, and that it would likely be the middle of the lineup that would be the deciding factor. In the first mile, Gibbs sized up KO’s #1 runner, content to shadow and let the lead Wyvern expend the energy required to sit out front. Blake Zahansky, as was his plan, worked to keep Gibbs in his line of sight. KO ran aggressively, putting a good half dozen runners between Pomfret’s three-man, Cam Adams and the next several runners.
At the 1-mile mark the course disappears into the woods section for the next 1.8 miles. When the runners emerged Gibbs was cruising to an easy 40-foot victory in what is now, by definition of the first race on the course, a course record 18:21. The finishing hill is notorious and times often are 90 seconds longer than an average 5K XC course. KO’s #1 was second and Blake was third. 4th and 5th went to KO, and Adams was the 6th finisher. The next three runners to crest the hill would likely be the deciders. Unfortunately, a trio of Wyverns arrived ahead of our 4th and 5th runners, Cole Hecker and Kellen Horst. The result amounted to roughly 20 seconds difference between their 4/5 and ours. Cooper Ames and Ian Wolanin rounded out our top 7 varsity finishers.
For the JVs Jack Terwilliger placed first, followed by fellow senior Kevin Li, who seems to be rounding into shape. Alex Chen and Jacob Marasco (who is still hobbled) were next. After a couple of KO runners, the next 5 slots went to Pomfret: Danny Wang, Terry Kim, David Wu, Ben Gordon, and Bill Tian. Jay Kim showed much grit and was the final Pomfret runner on the day.
By David Ring
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