TA News

Another big weekend for the Panthers! On Saturday, TA’s varsity boys soccer team (#6) ended their playoff run with a 4-0 loss v. Peoples Academy (#3), closing out a mixed season at 7-7-2. Back in Thetford, TA and an army of volunteers (thank you!) welcomed high school cross country teams from across the state to the VT High School Cross Country Championships. The event, hosted at Thetford Academy since 1991, brings close to 1000 runners each year competing for the state title on the Dan Grossman Woods Trail.

This year, TA’s boys competed in Division III against 13 Vermont schools. The Panthers finished third overall, scoring behind Craftsbury and Stowe. TA had two top-ten finishers Ben Mattern (fifth, 18:21) and Brady Sloop (sixth, 18:28). The girls faced eight schools in the Division III race: Stowe, Rice Memorial High School, White River Valley High School, BFA Fairfax, Lake Region, Bellows Falls, and Twinfield.

White River Valley High School’s Anita Miller earned the top slot with 20:42, followed by the Panthers’ Madelyn Durkee who finished strong in second with a time of 21:02. TA had four other runners in the top 15 along with Durkee: Ava Hayden (fifth, 22:00), Annie Hesser (11th, 23:54), Charlize Brown (12th, 24:07) and Charlotte Reimanis (15th, 24:33). The teams’ combined scoring put them in the top slot for the second year in a row.

“We’ve been working hard since June, so this is very satisfying,” Coach Emily Silver shared. Coach Joe Deffner pointed to the teams’ race strategy, “For the two meets leading up to the state meet, our race plan was for the athletes to run a conservative first mile and then increase the intensity for the second and third mile. It was a strategy Coach Silver suggested, and the runners executed it beautifully.”

For several of TA’s runners, this was their last high school race–Madelyn Durkee qualified for New Englands and will race again on Saturday, November 12, in Kingston, RI. “We’ll miss our graduating seniors Madelyn Durkee, Abby Egner, Charlotte Reimanis, Harley Ransom, and Max Leibon,” Coach Deffner shared, “What was really nice to see is that they all had great races that day. It was as if they wanted their last race on their home course to be a memorable one. And for every one of those five seniors, it was.”

Thanks again to Dan Grossman for volunteering his time and talent to capture the best moments of the race. Visit www.mapleleafphotos.smugmug.com to see all the championship photos.