The Cross Country team opened its regular season with a Saturday meet against BB&N, Brooks, and St. Sebastian’s at Fresh Pond in Cambridge. On a muggy afternoon, Belmont Hill runners attacked the flat, five-kilometer course and cruised to victory in the Varsity and Junior Varsity races with a majority of the team recording personal best times. In the JV race, BH runners Thomas McEvoy ‘19 and Aidan McGaugh ‘20 finished 1st and 2nd, respectively. McEvoy bested his personal record by over two minutes, finishing in 19:25. The Varsity race brought even more excitement; Belmont Hill placed four of the top five overall finishers, while ninth-grader James Donahue ‘22 broke the course record in a blistering 16:30 to win the race! Two more runners, team captains Matt Smith ‘19 and Matt Goguen ‘19, broke the 18-minute milestone, with Smith breaking his personal record by thirty seconds with a time of 17:30.
Belmont Hill comes into this season hoping to continue their recent trend of success. The team won the ISL Championship in 2016 and were favorites to repeat before a number of key injuries derailed their hopes. The road back to the title will be harder this year without the team’s two top runners from 2017, Quin McGaugh and John Pappo, now running for Middlebury College and Tufts University. But with one of the League’s best runners in Donahue and great depth from Smith, Goguen, and many others, Belmont Hill aims to contend once again in 2018.
