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 Braving the "less than ideal" conditions at Georgetown Prep this past Saturday, the Bishop Ireton cross country team continued to improve as both the boys and girls squads fared well against the private school competition in attendance. After days of constant rain, the grass course at Georgetown Prep would remain green for only a short period of time as the first two races of the day quickly turned the lush grounds into a sea of mud and standing water. Finish times were slowed by the uneasy footing as the runners made their way through the 5000 meter race. Many runners called it "real cross country" while others went looking for their shoes that had been consumed by the mud. Conditions were so bad that the meet directors actually canceled the last two races of the day. All this aside, the Ireton harriers had a great time on a very challenging course.

The first races of the day went to the freshmen and they got to enjoy the course before any other runners set foot on it. In the boys race, freshman sensation Connor Pearson ran one of his best races of the season as he became the only medal winner of the day for Ireton with his 12th place finish. In the girls race, Katarina Frustaci ran an amazing race only to finish one place short of a medal with her 26th place finish. Both squads competed with only four athletes so they were unable to place in the team scores but their times indicate that they would have fared very well against some tough competition.

The varsity squads were up next for the Cardinals and as they surveyed the destruction in front of them both squads knew things weren't going to be easy. In the varsity boys race junior Mike Andersen took an early lead as the team's strategy was to get out in front early to avoid the traffic jams around the severely muddy areas on the course. Senior Billy Burns eventually came in first for Ireton and the rest of the Ireton boys stayed close behind as they finished in a tight group with a split of 40 seconds between their number 1 and number 5 runners. In the team scoring the Ireton boys finished in 9th place out of 31 teams as they defeated all but two of the private schools entered in their division. In the girls race sophomore Aubrey Gartlan had another great race as she led the Ireton girls to a 13th place finish out of 28 teams. Even though the course was completely destroyed by the start of the girls varsity race, the Ireton ladies managed to stay together and finish with a split of 1:30 between their first and fifth runners.

Full results from this meet can be found on Milestat.com: http://md.milesplit.us/meets/57200

The Cardinal harriers are idle this weekend as they prepare to head down to Newport News on October 27th for the Virginia State Catholic Championship