EAST MONTPELIER — The Vergennes Union High School boys were second out of 16 teams at Saturday’s U-32 Invitational cross-country meet, while the Middlebury girls were fourth out of eight scoring squads.
Ben Huston led the Commodore boys with a fifth-place finish, while Tiger runner Jack Christner led his sixth-place team by taking seventh.
U-32 easily won the boys’ race with 52 points, but the next five teams were closely bunched. The Commodores tied St. Johnsbury for second with 128 points but won on a tiebreaker, while the Tigers were only 11 points behind at 139. Mount Abraham, led by Noah Engvall in 49th, finished 13th (343 points).
St. Johnsbury’s Evan Thornton-Sherman won the boys’ 5-kilometer race.
Host U-32 also prevailed in the girls’ competition with 31 points, followed by Harwood (50), St. Albans (88) and MUHS (89). No female Eagle runners competed.
Tiger Mary Ann Eastman finished ninth in a race won by Raider runner Ava Thurston.
The winner of the boys’ race and the Tiger and Eagle scorers were:
1. Thornton-Sherman, St. J, 16:35.96; 5. Huston, VUHS, 17.42.9; 7. Christner, MUHS, 17:50.49; 16. Thomas Nevins, MUHS, 18:38.7; 17. Gabe Praamsma, VUHS, 18:44:24; 22. Erich Reitz, VUHS, 18:48.49; 29. Will Carpenter, MUHS, 19:21.33; and 33. Lucas Palcsik, MUHS, 19:37.77.
Also, 38. Julio Quiles, VUHS, 19:33.88; 46. Luke Bergmans, VUHS, 20:18.93; 49. Engvall, Mt. Abe, 20:21.59; 54. Elvis McIntosh, MUHS, 20:37.68; 62. Liam Davison, Mt. Abe, 21:10.89; 73. George Collette, Mt. Abe, 21:47.16; 77. Hugh Ball, Mt. Abe, 22:05.51; and 86. Sean Davison, Mt. Abe, 22:51.28.
The winner of the girls’ race and the Tiger scorers were:
1. Thurston, U-32, 19.45; 2. Eastman, MUHS, 21:44.81; 12. Isabel Olson, 21:52.34; 26. Malia Hodges, MUHS, 22:41.92; 30. Ella Landis, MUHS, 22:57.72; 31. Sofia Stefani, MUHS, 22:59.54.