The Fords cross-country team has started the season with a bang. They have already competed in all regular season meets, finishing 3-1 in Inter-Ac competitions. The team now has several weeks to prepare for the championship season, which includes Inter-Ac Championships, State Championships (PAISSA), and, of course, EA Day.
Following a solid victory over Penn Charter and Malvern Prep in the first meet of the year, the Fords raced in the Briarwood Invitational Meet at the Belmont Plateau. They finished sixth overall in a crowded field that included multiple teams across the region. Notable performances by Sixth Former Vincent Scauzzo (25th place) and Fifth Former A.J. Sanford ’21 (8th place) in the small-schools varsity event propelled the team to its position.
After a planned easy day at the Episcopal Academy meet resulted in a loss, the Fords handily defeated Malvern Prep and Germantown Academy at Malvern. Just a few days later, the team attended the Westtown School Invitational meet. The Fords performed well in the intense heat, which was compounded by a general lack of shade along the course. Varsity finished second overall, with Fourth Former Ned Cutler finishing fourteenth, Fourth Former Jeffrey Yang coming in thirteenth, and Fifth Former A.J. Sanford snatching third place. The JV won first place in its event, cemented by Fifth Former Maxim Kreider taking third place, Fifth Former Ryan Ngo finishing in second, and Third Former Charlie O’Brien seizing first place in the event.
Part of the team’s success this year can be attributed to the change in workload. This includes doing longer warm-up and cool-down runs on race day, longer runs during practice, and going off campus more often to take workouts more seriously.
Sixth Form co-captain Vincent Scauzzo said, “A few guys on the team are doing morning runs, which we haven’t really done ever.” This all goes along with the philosophy that running more, even if for just fifteen minutes, ultimately helps improve the team.
“We still have a lot of grinding left in the season to get the results we want,”
Vince Scauzzo ’20
Scauzzo thinks the team has performed well up to this point, and it is possibly the best he has ever seen it. However, he adds that there are still areas for the team to improve. Specifically, the team’s number four through seven runners generally have similar times, which Scauzzo believes can be improved.
“We still have a lot of grinding left in the season to get the results we want,” Scauzzo said.
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