Cross-Country Recap

This past weekend, five fearless KES harriers traveled to Belfast, Maine to take part in the 22nd staging of the Festival of Champions cross-country race. More than 1700 high school runners representing 101 schools took to the manicured five-kilometre course to do their best. Alex Graham ‘25 led the way with the fastest Highlander time as he finished 285th overall out of 882 competitors; and 61st of 232 in his race. Harvey Hadley ‘27 was next across the line, finishing 91st out of 220 Grade 9 boys in his race. Fellow junior student and PEI spud, Max Proctor ‘27, wasn’t sure what to think of the 10-pound bag of Maine potatoes given to us as a gift, but he did his best to represent the Island and KES, placing in the top 200. Ezra Choo ‘26 was on the cusp of either being in the front of slower 250 runners, or the back of a faster 240. Either way he was determined to live the race without regret and just get out there and get tired. Having just improved his five-kilometre time at our home course by 11 minutes and 15 seconds, Max Stulberger ‘24 saw fit to remove another three minutes from that personal record; a very successful run. However, what was more important to him than his own time? He immediately wanted to know how fast his sister, Nadia Stulberger ‘19 ran this course in 2017!

 

Even though local race officials do not keep track of race times, Coach Robinson and I always record the times for each race. Many of our runners also ran at Hantsport last year, so we were really looking forward to seeing the one-year improvement. Too bad they changed courses! Oh well, hopefully next year it stays the same. We can at least track the change in placings. Chelsea James ‘29 finished just off the podium last year, but she grabbed the gold today. Emery Endres ‘28 was our second KES jersey across the line in sixth place. A herd of Highlanders stormed the finish line with Zoe Wellard ‘30 in ninth, Bethany MacDougall '29 closing out the top 10, Harper MacInnis '30 in 11th, and Maggie Wellard ‘28 just behind in 12th (this was a four spot improvement from last year). Just 17 seconds back from Maggie was Farrah Webber '30 in 15th. Lidya Mercan ‘29 came to cheer, but then decided it would be fun to run, so run she did! There are few things I like more than just going for it, so way to go Lidya! Running this race for a second time and our sole junior boy representing our school proudly and doing his best was Altyn Hood ‘29.

 

Our Intermediate girls were well represented in Paty Arceo Marentes '26 as she raced to a silver medal. In the Intermediate boys division: with this his third race in seven days, Ezra Choo ‘26 did very well to finish third. Just behind him was teammate Ezra Sasaki '26 in fourth. Like Choo, Proctor is also racing his third in seven, finishing fifth.  

 

Our seniors couldn’t have done any better as Scarlett Matus Dominguez '25 secured gold, as did our most improved cross-country runner, Max Stulberger '24. 

 

Our next race is on Tuesday, October 10 at 4:00 pm at NKEC.