Paideia’s Varsity Girls and Boys Cross Country Teams Advance to State Championship

Over the weekend, Paideia’s varsity girls and varsity boys cross country teams competed at sectionals, advancing the the state championship this weekend. The Python varsity girls were led by co-captains Caroline Struby ’26 and Kat Hales ’26, who placed 1^st and 8^th respectively out of 87 competitors overall. Freshmen Nadia Coffey ’29 was 13^th, Alex Huynh ’27 was 24^th, and Madeleine Moon-Chun ’26 was our fifth scorer at 31^st.  Izzy Wood ’27 and Luna Jerpe ’27 were 39^th and 69^th.  Overall, the girls team scored 77 points for 2^nd place out of 14 teams with a team average of 22:14.08 and a 1-5 split of 3:16.

Two of our varsity boys also finished in the top ten. Nate DePlonty ’27 led the Pythons, finishing 6^th out of 92 competitors, followed closely by Bob Fooshee ’27 in 9^th.  Our next three runners were all in the top 25 – Horace Tate ’27 - 15^th, Duncan Walker ’26 – 21^st, and Viraj Chaudhry ’26 (our final scorer) – 23^rd.  Liam Lenhart ’28 (26^th) and Nate Moore ’28 (33^rd) completed the varsity boys Team. Overall, the Paideia boys ended with 70 points, placing 3^rd overall out of thirteen teams with a team average of 17:52.42 and a 1-5 split of 1:32.

Of our twenty-four sectional team runners, everyone who raced at Wesleyan earlier in the season ran faster at sectionals, two achieved new PRs and all the Paideia teams that raced improved their team averages on this course. We are very proud of all of our athletes, and we are looking forward to the GHSA 1A-3A Private XC State Championships to be held at 10:30 a.m. (boys) and 11:15 a.m. (girls) on Friday, 11/7, in Carrollton, GA. Come out to cheer on the Paideia Cross Country team!