Northfield Mount Hermon

NMH 30 - LC 27 (loss)
NMH 19 - TS 36 (win)
NMH 22 - HS 33 (win)

The Loomis Quad match-up against the hosts, Hotchkiss, and Taft consistently serves as a good bellwether meet as boys' varsity cross country begins to get into the heart of their season. This year was no different, as the Hogger Harriers traveled down the road to Windsor, CT. With perfect racing weather (mid 50s), the race began in the late afternoon. Loomis’s course is famously fast, but the early pacing suggested we were in for an extraordinary day.

The gun went off at 4:30pm, and the runners were off on the slightly adjusted course that now made it truly a 5K. A week after battling on the NMH hills, Loomis Chaffee’s top runner and NMH’s Alex Ehrenthal ’20 were back at it again. Both runners have competed on the national level in both XC and track, and their experience showed on Saturday in a strong field. In the first 600 meters as they looped around the flat baseball field, they were joined by NMH’s Louis Salz ’20 and five other runners. However, as they made their way over the first bump of a hill, Alex and his LC counterpart had already separated from the field.

The first mile came at a blazing pace with the top two runners coming through between 4:46-4:48. Louis was less than 20 seconds behind the lead, running at PR pace himself. Meanwhile Jacob Nevins ’23 and Joe Bullock ’21 were working together in the main chase pack, around 14th-15th place.

As the runners wound their way through the open fields and over the most significant hill of the course at the halfway mark, the pack was still very fast all around. They disappeared into the back stretch of the course, but by the time they re-emerged there was shifting in the order. Our fifth runner Garrett Weil ’20 had moved up five places and Jacob and Joe had also gained ground on their competitors. As they came back up on the road with about 650m to go, Alex was gaining ground on his fierce competitor from Loomis up front. Down the grassy hill and with two turns left though, the LC front runner found another gear and crossed the line in 15:00. Alex came charging in for 2nd place at 15:07 (4:52 mile pace.) Alex’s incredible run was the fastest 5K by an NMH runner in at least 15 years.

Meanwhile, Louis was holding firm to his 3rd place and would come home in more than a 30 second PR. In doing so, Louis turned the tables on LC’s 2nd runner who beat him last week at NMH. Jacob and Joe had made their moves earlier, and were holding strong as they looked to the line. They too came across the finish in stunning PR fashion, lowering their PRs by 45 and 56 seconds respectively. More significantly for the outcome of the race, they had moved up about five positions, and crossed the line in 9th and 10th place overall. Closing out the scoring for NMH was Garrett Weil ’20, who also had made his move earlier in the race. Continuing the trend, Garrett also had a significant PR by 50 seconds, finishing in 17th place overall. Rounding out the varsity seven for NMH was Brandon Yep ’21 and Aaron Burstein ’23. For Aaron, it was more than a minute PR on the day.

When the scores were tallied, NMH went 2-1 on the day beating Hotchkiss and Taft, but falling to LC in very close fashion. Thanks to all those who came out to support the Hogger Harriers. NMH is back on the road next week against the perennially strong NEPSTA opponent, Exeter.