Thetford Academy’s boys cross country team dominated the Division 3 field at the VT State Cross Country Championship this weekend. Their strong performance earned them not only the state title – their first since 2018 – but also qualified the team for the New England Championship.
This dual achievement is notable, said Coach Deffner. “The boys’ team had a historic day. Yes, they won the state championship in Division III, but they did something even more impressive in qualifying for the New England Championships.”
Although TA has sent many individual athletes to New Englands, the school hasn’t sent a team to the event since the scoring format changed over 20 years ago. Before then, the top two teams in each division were invited to compete. Now, the State Championship meet is rescored as one meet across all divisions and only the top six teams are eligible to race.
“Since the new format was introduced, we have not had a team (boys or girls) qualify as a team. It’s especially hard to qualify from Division III because it’s a smaller and less stacked race,” said Deffner.
Coach Emily Silver says the boys set their sights on New England qualification early, as they saw how well their training was going over the summer. “And after they looked at the results of their first couple of races, qualifying – even though a longshot – became a goal.”
New Englands this year will be hosted in Belfast, ME, on November 14. Congratulations to Peter Horan, Zac Amber, Ollie Emery, Kai Slayton, Micah Mahood, Zac Adams, and Jesse Martin, who will represent Thetford Academy at the event.
Coaches Deffner and Silver were also incredibly pleased with the girls’ performance on Saturday. Lola Squire led the team, setting a huge PR. As a team, they earned a fifth-place finish out of 11 complete teams and seven additional partial teams, which, they shared, “was the result of steady improvement all season long.”
