By Anne Renninger

The Sidwell Friends boys’ and girls’ cross-country teams made the most of a glorious day for running on October 31 at the Agricultural Farm Park in Derwood, Maryland, with team and individual championships. The boys’ team claimed the MAC Championship from league power GDS for the first time in five years, averaging 17:05 minutes per runner on the 3.1-mile course and scoring 27 points on the strength of third, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth place finishes. Sidwell Friends' top five runners were separated only by 36 seconds—truly a team effort! SFS defeated second-place finisher GDS by 18 points (and, based on times, would have won the IAC Championship run on the same course). SFS's top five finishers (Christian Roberts, Sam Blazes, Amal Mattoo, Philip Wright, and Julian Dixon) were all awarded All-League status.

In the 16-team ISL race, the girls’ team produced the overall ISL champion, as Taylor Knibb out-dueled last year's ISL individual champion to win the individual title by 36 seconds with a time of 18:11. On the strength of Knibb's performance, SFS finished fourth overall. Congratulations to all the Sidwell Friends runners for their steadfast dedication, effort, and success this year, and congratulations to head coaches Bill Wooden and Gaby Grebski and their coaching staffs.

You can read coverage of the races in The Washington Post and view pictures here.