COYNER SPRINGS– The sun poked out in the late afternoon on the 12th of October, just in time for the Caisson Classic Cross Country Meet. Five VIC teams vied for first place in the sudden afternoon heat. Defending State Champion Virginia Episcopal School had a strong first place finish with 18 points. Fishburne finished in second place with 58 points, ahead of Blue Ridge School, Hargrave Military Academy and Miller School of Albemarle.
Leading the Caisson effort was fourth place finisher junior Aiden Bowman with a season best time of 20:11. He was followed in sixth place by freshman Dietrich Larson with a time of 20:40. Sophomore Nathan Zapata (21:52), freshman Jayden Parker (23:33), freshman Ben Gilroy (24:34) rounded out the scoring five. Sophomore Eli Lianez, competing in the second race finished in 22:59.
The Caisson runners are young. A great deal of growth is happening this season. For all but one, this was their first time running our home course in competition. Only cadet Larson had run it before. His time this year was more than 2 minutes faster than last year (22:56).
The Caissons will run next on Saturday, the 30th, at the VIC/BRC Conference championship hosted by Covenant School at Panorama Farms, which is UVA’s home course. It’s a great course and a great place to chip away at some more conference competition and gain some more PR’s in the process.
