The boys and girls varsity cross country teams each booked a top-four finish at this year’s Shaler Cross Country Invitational, hosted by Williston Northampton on Oct. 26.

The boys finished second overall, with two top-ten individual finishes – Huck Whittemore ’22 (5th at 17:14.9) and captain Kostia Howard ’20 (7th at 17:20.9).

Whittemore and Howard combined with Owen Zinn-Keane ’22 (13th), Blaise Fleury ’21 (16th), and Desmond Teague ’20 (35th) for a total of 76 points, edging out third-place Avon. Both schools finished well behind champion Loomis, who put all five of their point scorers in the first 15 places overall.

Filling out the top seven for Hotchkiss were Phil Warren ’23 and Felix Bao ’21.

The girls varsity put on an impressive display of pack running, with all five point scorers finishing in the top 20. Kayla Uzwiak ’22 (12th at 22:18.5) led the way for Hotchkiss, followed by Caroline Bergin ’23 (16th at 22:42.7), Jillian Cudney ’20 (18th at 22:46.0), Jennifer Li ’20 (19th at 22:51.9), and Olivia Torchen ’22 (20th at 22:53.3).

Hailey Harman ’22 and Courtney Contiguglia ’21 also finished in the top 30 places overall for the team, which finished fourth with 85 points. Host Williston put on a running display equal to the Loomis boys team, with all five of their point scorers in the top 15 overall.

The two JV races also saw some excellent times for Hotchkiss runners, with four girls (Abby Powell ’21, Zoe London ’22, Lucy Haswell ’20, and Jaidyn Hurst ’23) and two boys (Campbell Herring ’21 and Brant Hadzima ’20) finishing in the top ten of their respective races.

Up next for both teams is the Founders League championship this weekend at Avon.